Resistance: The cause of suffering AND disease..?
The art of subtraction applies as much to the body as it does to the mind.
I've always been curious about the human condition.
Not in an abstract way, but a deeply personal one.
Questions I've spent many hours pondering, and still do: What is suffering? What are its causes? And what are the ways out of it?
I’m grateful that my own life hasn't been marked by any tremendous amount of 'Big T’ trauma. I grew up fairly comfortably, in a loving family, without the kinds of stresses that shape so many people's early years.
Despite this upbringing, I became very familiar with a feeling of "not-enoughness."
I tied my sense of worth to results, performance and achievement. First in my school grades, then through my university studies and into my professional life.
I followed the rule book of achievement - desire something, achieve it, feel okay for a while… then look for the next thing to achieve.
So in my early 20s, I went seeking answers. I read everything I could find on suffering and its causes - from every religion, philosophy, and spiritual tradition I could get my hands on.
All the while, in my chiropractic practice, I began to notice the exact same patterns in the people I was caring for. Different histories, and different ages - but the same underlying mechanism.
Here's an underlying thread that I found to run through most of the traditions I came across - Buddhist, Stoic, Taoist, and many others.
Hundreds of traditions, spanning thousands of years, mostly come to the same conclusion:
Suffering is caused by resistance to the present moment.
The two flavours of resistance
Psychological suffering shows up in two forms, as Buddhist thought often describes:
1. Aversion - "I don't want what is present." Pain, boredom, an uncomfortable conversation, an unpleasant experience. We push against it. We want it gone.
2. Craving - "I want what is not present." The next achievement, the next relationship, the next bank balance, the next version of ourselves that we imagine will finally be enough.
“I don’t want this”. “I want that”.
Both create the same thing: separation. A gap between you and your actual life - right now, as it is. And in that gap - is where suffering lives. Separation = suffering.
And the other part that all the wisdom traditions universally claim?
Almost all of them say that the thing we're actually chasing: peace, joy, contentment, connection, happiness - isn't something we have to create or earn from the outside. It's already here, eternally present, inside, underneath all the resistance we layer on top of it. Not at the end of some achievement, at some point in a future which never really arrives.
Like the blue sky on an overcast day - it always exists, even when temporarily obscured by cloud cover. Ultimately, the existence of the clouds doesn't bother the sky. The sky entertains all weather patterns - whether many, few, or no clouds at all.
Similarly, peace and contentment are always available, despite how busy, stressful or chaotic our circumstances can be.
A necessary disclaimer before moving on - because this idea does get misunderstood: this isn't an argument for passivity. Practising non-resistance doesn't mean "not caring," nor "tolerating injustice," nor "justifying poor treatment from or for others." Ceasing resistance to your internal experience as it lands in your thoughts and emotions - is a completely different act from disengaging from the world, or excusing what's wrong with it. We can still make decisions, advocate for others, and change our circumstances for the better, from a place that doesn't come from aversion or craving.
The body works a similar way
Once I recognised this pattern clearly in my own psychological domain - I couldn't stop seeing it everywhere else - especially in the body, which is where this overlaps into the physical health domain.
Health, like peace, might not be something you have to build from scratch either. Homeostasis - your body's natural, inbuilt, self-healing, self-adapting state - is running constantly in the background, underneath everything.
Your nervous system is wired for regulation. Your tissues are programmed to heal. Your entire physiology is, by design, self-organising.
So what to make of disease? Where does it come from?
Just consider the word itself: dis-ease. A lack of ease.
Which begs the obvious question - if ease is the body's natural state, what's causing the "dis-" part of the equation? What's interrupting the ease?
It may be resistance.
Same mechanism, different domain.
We resist quality sleep - bathed in artificial light, working or scrolling deep into the hours the body wants for repair.
We resist proper nutrition - eating food so far removed from its natural form the body barely recognises it as fuel.
We resist natural movement - sitting for most of our waking hours, in chairs, in front of screens.
We resist real social connection - trading in-person relationships for the digital versions available through a screen.
These aren't moral failures or judgements, but resistance - showing up physically instead of psychologically. And the body, like the mind, doesn't need to be forced toward health. It might just need some resistance removed, so what's already present can shine through.
Now I know this isn’t absolutely true in all cases - some conditions might not respond dramatically to lifestyle changes, despite how much resistance we address. But we might have more influence over our resistances than we’ve been led to believe.
Same problem, two domains
So psychological suffering and physical disease might not be two separate problems requiring two separate solutions. They might instead be the same problem, expressed in two different domains.
In both cases, the desired state - peace, or health - isn't waiting to be earned at some point in the future. It's the default. Running right now, under whatever resistance is currently in the way.
The work then, in both cases, isn't addition - but subtraction.
Not "how do I generate happiness" or "how do I generate health" - but "what am I doing actively, right now, that might resist the peace and health that are already trying to happen?"
That question has done more for me - both personally and professionally - than probably anything else I've come across in all my years of seeking.
Where are you resisting your natural capacity for health?
Until next time,
Mick
Resistance causing you health concerns? Schedule a visit - I’d love to help you with it.
