# Resistance > Resistance holds what you do not prefer in place through sustained focus; examining and upgrading definitions rather than pushing against circumstances allows them to shift. - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/resistance # Resistance Resistance, in Bashar's teaching, is the mechanism that holds what you do not prefer in place. The teaching is paradoxical on its surface: the way through a stuck circumstance is to stop pushing against it, examine the definition that is producing the resistance, and let the focus withdraw. Pushing against what you do not prefer is still attention upon it, and attention is what sustains it. ## "Blockage" is resistance plus an outdated definition When someone experiences what they call a blockage — energetic, physical, or otherwise — Bashar's first move is to reframe it. The idea of what you call a blockage can be many things, but more often than not it is connected to belief systems or definitions that are outdated, outmoded, and no longer serving you, which create resistance within you to the new energies you are willing to flow through you, but may still be resisting because of old definitions that are not allowing you to be as free-flowing as you could be. The instruction is to examine whatever definitions you have about the experience and see where you can upgrade them, modernize them, streamline them, bring new definitions to bear — so that you won't necessarily need to experience what's going on as a blockage if you don't define the sensation as such. Even calling something "a blockage" points to old definitions within you; the language you use about your experience is part of what organizes it. ## Why resistance sustains what you resist The deeper mechanic is that attention is generative. Pushing against a thing is still focus on that thing, and that focus supplies the energy that holds the circumstance in place. Dropping the resistance is therefore not the same as tolerating or approving of what is happening; it is withdrawing the focus that was sustaining it. Bashar's framing is that the sensation you label a blockage is the experience of energy you are willing to flow being held back by an out-of-alignment definition; the work is at the level of the definition, not at the level of pushing the circumstance away. ## Tools are permission slips, not obstructions This reframing extends to the spiritual vocabulary people use to describe their experience — chakras, J-seals, energy circuits. Bashar does not deny that these frames exist; he says they exist experientially, which is to say their effect follows the belief invested in them. Any tool, any technique, any ritual, any object, any definition of that type — chakras, J-seals — they only exist experientially. As you define yourself, that's what gives you the experience you have. A "permission slip" is Bashar's term for any idea, tool, technique, ritual, or definition that allows you to give yourself permission to be more of yourself. If a particular nomenclature works for you, it works because you relate to it; you could call the same process "butter and eggs" and, if the definition held, it would function the same way. For people who don't relate to a given frame, there is no effect; something else will be what they call it, based on other definitions, and they will have a different experience of the same idea. The deeper point is that there is no physical reality apart from your definition of it; it is all going on in your consciousness. The labels matter only insofar as you relate to the definition behind them. ## Practical implications Notice resistance as a cue, not a verdict. The feeling of resistance is a cue that an outdated definition is operating. The work is to identify the definition and update it, not to push harder against the circumstance. Withdraw the focus that sustains the circumstance. Bashar's framing is that attention is generative: pushing against what you do not prefer is still focus on it. The path through begins with dropping the judgment that locks the circumstance in place. Watch the language you use about your experience. Calling something a blockage, a J-seal, a stuck chakra, or any other fixed obstruction points to a definition you may want to upgrade. The label is a permission slip; if it does not serve you, choose another. Treat acceptance as a change in attention, not as toleration. Accepting a situation does not mean approving of harm or refusing support. It means dropping the judgment that holds the circumstance in place so that it is free to shift. Preserve the medical, legal, and financial boundaries: nothing in this framing tells you to remain in an unsafe situation, to refuse professional care, or to endure harm. Distinguish Bashar's stated guidance from editorial connective explanation. The transcripts teach the mechanism of resistance in the language of definition and permission slip; how you apply that mechanism to a specific circumstance is yours to discern. ## Representative passages The idea of what you call a blockage can be many things, but more often than not, it is simply commensurate or connected to the idea of belief systems or definition that may be outdated, outmoded, and no longer serving you, which create resistance within you to the new energies that you are willing to flow through you, but may still be resisting because of old definitions that are not allowing you to be as free-flowing as you could be.— Bashar, Blockages Occur From Resistance And Old Definitions (blockages-occur-from-resistance-and-old-definitions#qa-1) The idea is to examine whatever definitions you have about this particular process or particular experience and see where you can upgrade them, modernize them, streamline them, bring new definitions to bear on the experience that you're having so that you won't necessarily need to experience what's going on as a blockage if you don't define the sensation as such.— Bashar, Blockages Occur From Resistance And Old Definitions (blockages-occur-from-resistance-and-old-definitions#qa-2) Any tool, any technique, any ritual, any object, any definition of that type, chakras, J-seals, we're not saying these things don't exist, but they only exist experientially. The idea is that as you define yourself, that's what gives you the experience you have.— Bashar, Blockages Occur From Resistance And Old Definitions (blockages-occur-from-resistance-and-old-definitions#qa-3) This is just a euphemism. It's just a projection. It's just an idea. It's just a description of your experience. There is no physical reality apart from your definition of it. It's all going on in your consciousness.— Bashar, Blockages Occur From Resistance And Old Definitions (blockages-occur-from-resistance-and-old-definitions#qa-4) ## Related - [Surrender & Letting Go](https://sassani.app/topic/surrender) - [Pain](https://sassani.app/topic/pain) - [Neutral Prop](https://sassani.app/topic/neutral-prop) - [Definitions & Beliefs](https://sassani.app/topic/definitions-and-beliefs) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/resistance. The HTML page is the source of truth.