Resistance as McFarland (2004) put it, is a change-oriented process. Resistance is natural in the face of change. How we deal with that change, especially disruptive change, reflects back on us. Did we stay within echo chambers, surrounding ourselves only with like-minded individuals, negatively reacting to those “different”? Or did we value diversity in humanity, acting with compassion towards our fellow humans, using empathetic listening? The presence of compassion and resistance in the past year can be a powerful reflection, as well as an important meditation for the future.
Using compassion when developing responses is key in addressing resistance. For instance, if you’re reintegrating your body back into a full workout routine, have compassion for your body’s limits, especially if you’ve had to significantly decrease your physical activity the past year. How far you could push your body prior to lockdown might be different than now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get back to that level. Listen to what your body is telling you, be compassionate to it, and you can do it! Likewise, use compassion when it comes to your emotional and mental limitations, because those too could have changed. The body and mind will push back, giving resistance when we might be reaching our limitation. On the other hand, the body and mind like to use paths of least effort, so being able to identify the inherent laziness in our body and mind (using the least amount of calories/energy) versus limitations (which pushing past could cause injury to the body or fatigue to the nervous system) can be extremely useful. And using compassion can help differentiate between the two, and allow us to begin compassionately pushing ourselves forward. Plus, if we can overcome this resistance, then the information that our body and brain receive can help signal readiness for reintegration.
Compassion also helps promote optimism. And we could all use a little of that! When we view through the lens of compassion, we can help spread positivity, empathy, uplift others and ourselves, and strengthen community. Zaki (2020) suggests that how we extend compassion reveals a lot about our human social behavior. If we want a better, more compassionate life, we must first begin by overcoming resistance, and giving/receiving compassion ourselves. We can do this. But it’s on the individuals to begin taking the first steps.
- Coombs, W. T. (1999). Information and compassion in crisis responses: A test of their effects. Journal of public relations research, 11(2), 125-142.
- Das, N., Narnoli, S., Kaur, A., & Sarkar, S. (2020). Pandemic, panic, and psychiatrists-What should be done before, during, and after COVID-19?. Asian journal of psychiatry.
- McFarland, D. A. (2004). Resistance as a social drama: A study of change-oriented encounters. American Journal of Sociology, 109(6), 1249-1318.
- Nileswar Das, Shubham Narnoli, Apinderjit Kaur, Siddharth Sarkar, Pandemic, panic, and psychiatrists – What should be done before, during, and after COVID-19?, Asian Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 53, 2020, 102206, ISSN 1876-2018, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102206. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187620182030318X)
- Williams, S. N., Armitage, C. J., Tampe, T., & Dienes, K. (2020). Public perceptions and experiences of social distancing and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A UK-based focus group study. BMJ open, 10(7), e039334.
- Zaki, J. (2020). Catastrophe Compassion: Understanding and Extending Prosociality Under Crisis. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(8), 587–589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.05.006