up the original unease the activity might have had soon disap-
pears. Now, instead of relieving the static, it only addsto it.
The only effective way to address this low-level unease is
to bring it into the light of our conscious minds. But when first
attempting to do so, we might encounter a strong inner resist-
ance and negativity. These reactions manifest in various ways:
impatience, fierce anger, depression, resentment, despair.
At first glance, these forms of negativity make no sense;
they seem an irrational response to the possibility of letting go
of the unease in one’s life. After all, what possible good could
be coming from that low-level discontent or nervousness? But
psychologists and mystics who have probed the origins of such
resistance have found that there is a certain “logic” to it: an
unwise part of us believes that such negativity can manipulate
reality into delivering whatever it is that it identifies as bring-
ing happiness.
For example, a man might equate financial wealth with
happiness. He also believes that the only way to get wealth is
to strive for it constantly. In order to maintain his motivation,
he must vigilantly remind himself that his current status is
extremely unsatisfying. Momentary feelings of happiness are
therefore viewed as a threat to his larger goal of attaining
money. The flip side of that logic is that a little unhappiness
now will bring him a larger happiness later. And anything that
challenges his belief in the value of his current unhappiness
must be resisted.
We often find ourselves in similar situations, regardless of
our particular object of desire. The end result is the same: when
we first try to bring our low-level unease (or static) into the
light of consciousness, the resistance we often encounter can
usually be traced to our perceived need to hang on to our exist-
ing beliefs about what will bring us happiness.
Your resistance to increasing your awareness might also
take the form of doubts like this: by onlyfocusing on the qual-
ities of my awareness instead of taking some kind of action,
I’m really just avoidingresolving my problems.
“Unhealthy motives and
emotions erupt most
during moments of
mindlessness.”
Eckhart TolleWatching Movies With Conscious Awareness 35