Sometimes I am amazed at how long it takes for me to absorb or learn a lesson! I think of myself as a intelligent guy. So, what’s the deal with being so slow to comprehend a concept?

Here’s what I am talking about: What we resists, persists.

I have heard this for years and felt like “I got it”. Don’t hold onto negative thoughts, replace them with positive. Look for the good in a situation.., find the lesson. If something feels difficult, let it go, find the flow. Lots of versions of the whole resist/persist thing!

However, lately I have been seeing how this permeates our culture and how I buy in to it… Almost every time! We have created a culture that pits us against one another. We cherish taking sides or holding onto a position. We have crafted an environment where fear drives our behavior. Where we respond by protecting our position, our side.

The best examples can be found in news and politics. Take anyone of the major issues – war/peace, abortion/choice, marriage equality/traditional marriage, immigration reform/border protection, GMO/natural seeds or food, finance reform/deregulation, republican/democrat, gun control/freedom to bear arms and the list goes on. These have been turned into all or nothing positions or sides, that we have to choose and then defend. And in each of these situations… There are groups making a ton of money, by using fear to keep us stirred up. To keep us invested and on a given side.

AND, I buy into it every time! OR… I did.

Not long ago… I stopped reading the news. I stopped watching it a long time ago because of the horrific images that were always so disturbing. However, I have been a news junkie. I liked being informed, I liked knowing what was going on.

At the same time, I could feel how emotionally charged I would get by what I was reading. How I would get locked into one side or perspective. I signed petitions, wrote letters to representatives from congress and senators, donated money to campaigns or organization that were battling on the frontline. All the things that I thought would help my side win! Win. As if life is a race or a competition.

The reality is… I was feeding the beast. I was perpetuating the problem. I was supporting the dysfunction that we have created. Not because I was passionate about something that I wanted to create, but because I was afraid of the alternative! As long as I engage in these battles, I am at war. As long as I am invested in a position, then I don’t see any potential compromise.

I may always be a progressive, liberal, live and let live, pacifist, organic loving, tree-hugging, spiritual, type of guy. However, I can be all of those things without resisting the other side. Without buying into the fear that says that, because I am these things, Someone else is out to get me or the things I cherish! And maybe, just maybe, as I set down my resistance… Somewhere on the planet, someone who sees themselves as the opposite of all those things, drops their energetic resistance too. Instead of winning, we both begin thinking in terms of compromise, meeting in the middle and win-win. And we realize, that all of this “us against them” is just getting in the way of us finding our way to unity.., to Oneness.

What are you resisting? Is there anything you want to release or let go of, so that it no longer persists?