Creativity and improv diva, Michelle James, talks about
resistance to change:
"Natural resistance an organic force found throughout nature's own creative process. It serves as the organism's protection until the critical moment it outgrows its purpose. The bud's resistance to the bloom is felt most profoundly at the critical point just before the flower is about to blossom - that's when the bloom feels the most resistance of the bud up against it. The resistance of the shell to the chick is felt more profoundly as the chick is about to hatch - the chick has to break through the resistance of the shell to be born into the world.
In nature, there is an embedded dynamic trajectory, or life energy, that helps the process. At the moment of birth, the chick's momentum to be born is stronger than the shell's programming to protect. Resistance becomes no match for the life that is bursting forth.
A similar resistance shows up in individuals, groups and organizational systems as they seek to birth a new vision, product, strategy, service or working paradigm. How does it show up? Distraction, stuckness, negativity, judgement of self or others, sarcasm, old patterns of thinking and behaviors, and lack of focus are just some of the many ways. Once creative energy begins to flow, a person or system will often do what it takes, out of habit, to resist the change and maintain the status quo - even if change is what they were seeking."
Talking with her yesterday about this, it occurred to me that our stories are the shells of our growth. They provide the protective structure and boundaries of our growth until we take on new stories, larger stories, that allow for new kinds of growth.
