Restoring the Artist, Part 4: The Art of Meeting Inner Resistance

Why your procrastination, apathy, or tension might be a gift in disguise

By now, maybe you’ve started allowing yourself to feel more.

Maybe you’ve named the parts that are pushing and collapsing inside you.

Maybe you’ve even begun to listen to your body’s signals instead of overriding them.

And yet… something pushes back.

You miss a practice.

You avoid your instrument.

You start feeling better — then self-sabotage.

You hear that old whisper:

“This won’t work for me.”

That’s not failure.

That’s resistance — and it’s an essential part of healing.

Resistance Is Protection in Disguise

Most of us were taught that resistance is bad — something to overcome or push through.

But in somatic and parts-based work, resistance is intelligent.

It’s often the expression of a protective state that believes slowing down, feeling deeply, or changing course might be dangerous.

It might say:

• “If you stop striving, you’ll fall apart.”

  
  

• “If you feel that grief, you’ll never come back.”

  
  

• “If you rest, you’ll lose everything you’ve worked for.”

  
  

In Attuned Emergence, we don’t fight these voices.

We meet them with presence.

We ask:

What are you afraid would happen if you didn’t do your job?

That’s when something shifts.

Resistance as an Edge

In my coaching framework, this is what I call Edge Tending —

The place where a part of you is curious about change… and another part isn’t ready.

This is not a problem to fix — it’s a moment to honor.

Edges are where your system negotiates safety, trust, and readiness.

When met with curiosity instead of pressure, resistance often softens.

It reveals fear, longing, or grief that hasn’t yet had room to breathe.

And what seemed like a block becomes a threshold.

Try This: Befriend the Resistance

1. Notice what you’re avoiding — a feeling, a task, a practice.

   
   

2. Ask: “What part of me is saying no right now?”

   
   

3. Get curious:

   
   

   • What is it protecting me from?

     
     

   • What would it need to feel safer

     
     

   • What does it want me to understand?

     
     

Even asking the question begins to melt the wall.

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You Can’t Force Readiness — But You Can Create the Conditions for It

Your burnout didn’t happen overnight.

It came from years — maybe decades — of pushing past yourself.

So if a part of you hesitates to heal, to open, to feel again… that makes sense.

The work now is to stay present at the edge.

To meet yourself — not rush yourself.

That’s what makes this different from everything you’ve tried before.

Next Up: Reclaiming Your Rhythm

In Part 5, we’ll explore how to step back into creative flow without replicating the patterns that led to burnout in the first place.

Until then, notice what your resistance is trying to protect.

It may be the most loyal part of you yet.