March 29 What You Resist Persists

What you resist persists.
Carl Jung

The concept that “what you resist persists” is a hard one for many of us in Western society to grasp. We have so bought into the storyline that fighters are heroes that we find anything else confusing.
But in fact, fighting against something makes it stronger. When we make something into an enemy, we magnify its importance. As we give our attention to it, we make it bigger and more powerful.
When we focus on fighting the enemy, we only see part of the picture: a one-sided reality. But if we look at the bigger picture we see that everything has consequences. For example, if we kill someone we disagree with, we create a martyr. We then guarantee that the fight continues for the next generation.
This is the difference between a society that values brute strength and a society that values wisdom. Instead of focusing on fighting against enemies, wisdom suggests that we concentrate on the solution we want and put our effort into creating it.