Today I bring an old episode out of the archives for you from my previous podcast, because a) I'm ill and keep coughing which makes for difficult recording! and b) I'm currently experiencing my own resistance around painting, and so I think this is timely medicine for myself! and as we are all connected, I'm sure others will resonate. Plus resistance is a doozy that lives amongst all of our creative projects, so best to get familiar with it so you can spot when its lurking.
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Hello. Today's episode isn't one I've recorded recently. Actually, this episode comes from my previous podcast, This Artful Life that I had about three, four years ago. And the reason I'm bringing this back is for two reasons. Firstly, I am ill. I have been very ill and I keep coughing, and I don't wanna record an episode when I am in this state and I might cough all over the microphone.
And the other reason is because I'm actually stuck in resistance right now. And I think that this is a really great episode to revisit, to bring back and to look at because I think that it happens to all of us. And I wanna share that experience with you.
And I think I also need the medicine of this. You know, we have to take our own medicine sometimes. So thanks for bearing with me. Um, apologies for the late release of this podcast as well, also because I'm ill and I wanted to really, truly honor that. And rest, enjoy this older version of me, I shall be listening to, and have a great week.
Hi. I'd like to talk today about resistance. The minute we have an idea or we want to do something creative or we want to do anything for ourselves, this little thing pops up called resistance and it pops up in so many different ways. And he's so naughty because he's a shapeshifter, the resistance and he can shape shift into all kinds of manner of things.
And for me, right now, I have, so I've just bought some small new canvases and I haven't really painted small acrylic canvases before. I've done small watercolors, I've done large acrylics. And so it's a whole different ball game for me, and there is this fear. And I can see the canvases. I can't even get them into my house.
I just dump them on the floor by the front door. And now I just keep looking at them suspiciously as I walk past them because it's like, ugh, Like, and every time I look at them, I'm filled with this sense of dread, fear. All kinds of emotions that make me not want to touch these canvases. And I know that the minute I actually pick them up and the minute I get my paint out and the minute I start, that resistance will be gone and I will feel better.
But I just want you to know that whenever you have an idea and whenever you have a belief or a dream that you want to bring to fruition, There will be resistance and it can show up in all manner of things. It can show up as not enough time. It can show up as too much housework. It can show up as a desire to masturbate.
It can show up as, um, the cat sitting on my desk or your, you know, having to take the dog for a walk or your children being off sick or all kinds of drama. It could be an argument with your partner. It can be like crashing your car. there is just all this resistance. It can be illness, it can be feeling like you just wanna lie down and sleep like utter tiredness.
Resistance is a shape shifter and it is crafty and it is cheeky and it is naughty and it will get in where, wherever it can, because I dunno why. I think it's part of the creative journey that getting over the resistance is where the magic happens. It's just there and you can't fight it, but you can acknowledge it and you can move through it with patience with yourself, with patience with the resistance, and also with a just stubborn attitude at some point, a point where you just say, Enough, I'm gonna have to do this.
And one thing I've realized is that the bigger the idea and the more important the idea is to you or to the world that needs to be created, the bigger the resistance. . And then also the bigger the reward when you get past it, the more feeling of elation that shows up. And so I just want you to be aware, like look for the resistance in your life when you want to do something, when you have an idea, if you want to sit and write that book.
Look what happens every time you try and write that book. Look what happens every time you try and sit down and do the work, and you will find it popping up all the time. I, I even get it when I'm in the middle of a painting. Okay. So my watercolor paintings, they're quite quick for me to produce. Every time I stand up and go to the bathroom, or every time I go make a cup of tea, the resistance kicks back in and then it's like this whole battle again to sit back down and do the work.
And this never goes away. It doesn't get any easier. What gets easier is recognizing it and knowing that when you do do the work and you do take the steps, that's when you feel better. It's not that it gets easier, it's just that you learn the process and then you can say, Oh, this is that again.
And don't get me wrong, I have had times when I have felt ill, and I have felt awful even this week. I felt awful at the beginning of the week, and I just wanted to sleep, and I was sleeping so much, and I knew that I was in resistance. But what was interesting was that I was in resistance to the resistance. So I was in resistance to being ill.
I was in resistance to feeling so awful. And then that was creating more resistance within me, and then the minute I gave myself permission to just feel awful and to lie down and to sleep and to do what I needed to do to feel better, the resistance kind of went and it, and then I got back into flow, and then the idea started to flow.
And then it was easier to do the work because I'd acknowledged that there was also resistance to what was showing up in my life. So have a look in your life. Look for where the resistance is, be mindful of it, and be aware that it is a shapeshifter and it will trick you and do whatever it can to disguise itself.
Have fun. Have a great week. I love you. Bye.