Self Realized, Shatter Your Limits

Resistance: Turning Pushback Into Pure Power

• Linton Bergsen • Episode 120

Share episode

Resistance: Turn Pushback Into Pure Power

Reframe conflict, self-doubt, and criticism into clarity, courage, and next-level momentum.

The world trains us to avoid friction and keep life easy, but real growth almost never happens in comfort. This episode of the Self Realized, Shatter Your Limits podcast with me, Linton Bergsen, shows you how to treat resistance like a wise mentor—one that tests your resolve, sharpens your purpose, and points straight at the work, relationships, and habits that truly matter.

If you’ve been feeling stuck, overthinking feedback, or drowning in competing priorities, this conversation gives you a clear map to turn pushback into power without burning out or betraying your values.

You’ll learn:

  • A two-minute “allowance” practice to release tension and regulate your nervous system in real time.
  • A 90-second alignment prompt that reveals the message hidden inside any hard moment.
  • A simple two-column discernment list to process criticism, keep what’s true, drop what’s projected, and protect your focus.

You’ll hear real-world stories that bring each tool to life:

  • Carla walks away from soul-draining bureaucracy, finds resonance, and attracts the right allies and momentum.
  • Jordan turns painful reviews into a new show structure that grows both his audience and his inner freedom.
  • Alex thanks his inner critic, then steps into new roles with grounded courage and compassion.
  • Maria alchemizes a career loss into a calling that guides others through upheaval and reinvention.

Along the way, you’ll be able to connect spiritual clarity to everyday craft: breath, posture, speech, reflection, gratitude, and one small, brave step that stretches you instead of snaps you.

You’ll explore:

  • Inner vs. outer resistance and how to tell the difference.
  • Ego integration instead of ego war, so you’re not fighting yourself while you grow.
  • How friction can act as your soul’s GPS, pointing to what deserves your full presence now.

By the end, you’ll have:

  • Daily rituals to transmute resistance into momentum.
  • Language to stop personalizing pushback and start decoding it as sacred feedback.
  • A simple way to track progress so meaningful change actually sticks.

If this resonates:

  • Follow/subscribe on your favorite app so you never miss an episode.
  • Share this with a friend at an inflection point in life, career, or creativity.
  • Leave a rating and review—it helps more people worldwide discover the show, and it truly makes a difference.

Then ask yourself: What is the one step you will commit to this week to move with resistance instead of against it?

Visit selfrealized.com for more resources including my five-star Amazon reviewed book Purposeful Vision.

Let me know your thoughts on this episode. Text me your feedback! 🙂

https://www.selfrealized.com

Linton Bergsen:

Welcome to the Self-Realized Podcast with Linton Bergsen, where you will shatter your limits. I'm not much into the self-help industry, as much as I'm into the self-realized individual, which is you, what matters most to you, how you get there, and the obstacles that may be in your way. If you would like to be part of this podcast and part of that discussion, I welcome you here with an open heart, open mind, and open arms. So without further ado, let's get on with the podcast. We live in a world that teaches us to avoid friction, to run from challenge, to deny the very door that blocks our path. But what if that very resistance, whether it's the opinion of others, negative subconscious self-talk, or even the ancient whispers of our own self-doubt, is in fact the raw energy of transformation? What if resistance is not failure, but the deeper voice of spirit calling you into the fire of your own awakening? Today I invite you into a journey that is both grounded and transcendent, where you will meet resistance not with fear, but with a fierce love and laser clear action. This is the Self-Realized Shatter Limits Podcast. I am Linton Bergsen, and this is episode number 120, resistance. Turn pushback into pure power. This right now is where your breakthrough begins. First of all, let us slow down enough to feel resistance, what it truly feels like. Not as an enemy, but as a living teacher. In physics, resistance is the force that tempers a current, clarifying where true flow can happen. In spiritual traditions, resistance is a crucible where the soul's destiny is transformed into light. It is both the test and the invitation. Who will you become in the presence of an obstacle? Pause a moment and contemplate this. Since childhood, we are conditioned to associate struggle with defeat. But ancient wisdom across all cultures holds that true power only emerges when we make direct, conscious contact with what feels most immovable inside or outside of us. Let me share a story with you regarding my own meditation. During a retreat I was challenged by the very simplest task, sitting in silence for hours, not moving in complete stillness. Every muscle, every thought screamed at me to leave, to change, to do anything but stay. But as I sat, something cracked open, a self-realization. I was not there to conquer the entire mountain. The mountain was simply there to show me that the strength I had was already within me and immovable and as solid and as silent and as strong as all mountains are. The mountain was there to show me the strength already within me, hidden by habit and distraction. That's when I chose to make my resistance become devotion. And in that moment, peace arrived, and you too can make that transcendent decision that when you face obstacles and resistance, you are going to devote your time and energy to learn the lesson from them and overcome them with a positive mindset and positive self-awareness of how they can serve you. I am going to give you a practical application that you can use when you are not listening to the podcast. Take two minutes, just two minutes, and close your eyes. Bring to mind a current resistance. It could be work-related, a relationship, inner self-doubt. Then just name it. Describe its flavor, its tightness, its fear. Maybe even you're tired of it. This ongoing, repeating resistance, and it is now making you angry. Give it some space. Just inhale and then slowly exhale. Notice does its intensity shift when you allow it rather than push it away. Energy is interesting. Resistance energy is interesting. The more you resist, the more it persists. The more you relax and let go, the more it expands and begins to dissipate. This is how energy works. Allowance is the key to your own transformation and growth. Here's a question for you to contemplate on for a moment. Are you here to avoid discomfort or to be reshaped by it into the clearest and most effective version of yourself and your purpose? Sometimes we don't always look at resistance as friction. So let's talk about friction as spiritual clarity and practical focus. Friction, whether environmental, emotional, or relational, is the soul's way of pointing out where we are divided between our deeper truth, our deeper selves, our soul essence, and our habitual mind, between desire and discipline, between old wounds and brand new horizons. Let me share a story with you now that will give you an example of real world friction. It is a story of Carla, a leader in social impact, full of vision, yet met daily with bureaucracy and inertia. She began to dread meetings she went to, seeing each delay as a personal betrayal. So I asked her to reframe the way that she was approaching everything. What if the friction that she was having in her everyday life was in fact her soul's GPS system, steering her toward only what truly lit her up? On a very practical level, if you look at friction and resistance as maybe a guiding light that the situations, circumstances, and people that you are involved with right now need to be let go, so you can begin to drop them and move in a different direction, you will find things begin to unfold in a more authentic way for you in your life. Practically, Carla dropped two projects that had little resonance with her, focusing her spirit and effort on one initiative where her own authentic energy was magnetized, she had allies, and she gained tremendous momentum. What Carla did was apply the title of today's episode to her life: Resistance. Turn Pushback Into Pure Power. Using that power for her own personal gain and momentum. Here is a simple spiritual exercise that I will give you that you can use when you have time. Set a timer for ninety seconds. Think about a current friction, a resistance in your life. Contemplate on it for a moment. Then ask yourself this question. Where is this resistance revealing a deeper alignment or redirection for me in my life? Without overthinking, write your answer. Then list one concrete step, a tiny actionable step that you can take to honor that realignment this week. I would like for you to contemplate on a thought for a moment. Do you see pushback, resistance as sacred feedback in your life? A universal sacred feedback that is trying to help you move in a different direction rather than stay stuck where you are. We often take pushback as a sign that we're on the wrong path. But that is not always necessarily true. What if it is a universe reflecting back to us? It's time to move on to our next lesson. Or another human being mirroring back to us some things that we are resistant to that we don't want to look at in our own behavior. And it's time to get into a deeper understanding of owning ourselves and moving forward on our own personal journey of self-realization and delving more deeply into our own personal development so we are not resisting, maybe a valid criticism from a dear, valued friend who is not just trying to hurt us with their words, but sincerely trying to help us develop ourselves to the next level that is critical for our own success personally and professionally. And the reason I suggest that to you is because I have friends like that in my life who I trust to give me valued criticism and correction so I can develop myself and contemplate on their words. Let me give you an example of that with a client I had named Jordan, who launched a podcast on mental resilience. The feedback stung and he didn't always like the criticism in some of the segments that he had put out there. His initial reaction was defensive, but with reflection, he asked instead, what is true in their feedback? On the opposite side of that, what wasn't true? He changed the structure of his podcast, developed different segments that had been suggested to him, and most importantly, learned not to make other people's resistance personal. The show grew, as did Jordan's sense of inner freedom. And that is one thing that we grossly underestimate is that when you begin to receive pushback or resistance in a way that you can develop yourself and not always take it personally, you will have a greater sense of inner freedom and sense of ownership of yourself. Because what people think of you or what they say about what you're doing is only as valid as the power that you choose to give it. If you take some of the criticism as valid and positive, you can once again take resistance and turn pushback into pure power. I'm going to give you now a practical tool that you can use to do that. After receiving feedback, write two lists. One on the left, what is valid and useful, and on the right, what is simply someone else's projection. Use discernment. Not every pushback requires change, but everyone offers you some kind of wisdom. Contemplate on this for a moment. If pushback comes from a challenging person, ask yourself, what are they teaching me about my boundaries, values, or need for self-validation? It is very important to acknowledge the different types of resistance that exist. There's inner and outer resistance. There's the ego that sometimes resists change for many different reasons. There's the environment that we place ourselves in, that people may resist us when we try to grow and develop. Then there is your own spiritual growth and development. The soul wants to expand. Sometimes we can resist that expansion and hold on to old ideas. When the spirit wants to expand, old ideas and ways of being contract. Most profound resistance is not from the world, but the minds that we have inherited or built. Sometimes our ego whispers to us, stay safe, don't try and be too much, don't risk the unknown. What will people think of me? How will it look? The spiritual path invites us to befriend our ego, not to kill it, but to simply integrate it. Here is a deeper story I will share with you to give an example of that. Alex, a high performer, was haunted by the fear of being exposed as not good enough. No amount of success silenced the voice. Through inquiry and breath work, he learned to invite that voice gently to the table. Thank you for trying to keep me safe, but now let's walk together into the unknown. Each time he stepped into a new role or a conversation, he brought both courage and compassion to each situation instead of fear and anxiety. His outer world started to change as his inner world softened. Here's a practice I would like to give you when you have time and you are not listening to the podcast. Journal when you hit resistance. Ask. Who in me is the sacred part of my soul. What do I choose to honor? What would I say to comfort and reasure that part of me? What action, however small, will show my inner self, I am safe, to expand. You can use this in a real world application by simply committing publicly to one step that makes you a little nervous, a deadline, a conversation, an audacious pitch. Let the outside world stretch you as your soul and your spirit upholds you in loving support and acceptance of your new growth and your own unique self-realization of all that you truly are. There is an art of transmuting resistance. There are certain rituals and actions that you can take to help you do that. Alchemy isn't just something that is poetic, it's very practical. Transforming resistance into a resource, turning pushback into pure power is as much a daily craft as it is mystical insight. I'm going to give you three practical rituals that you can use that will help you transmute resistance. Number one is what I call the presence pause. Take one minute at any stress point in your day. Notice your posture, notice your breath, notice your speech. Place both feet on the ground, and say softly to yourself. I am here, I am willing to turn any pushback into power, so be it, Number two, create an integration checklist. At the day's end, ask yourself this. What resistance did I meet? What message was in that resistance for me? What did I actually do? Did I choose to accept it positively or did I choose to reject it and hide away from its lesson? Number three may sound a little strange. A lot of people don't always see things this way, but think about how you can be grateful and have gratitude for pushback you received. Twice a week, make a note. Today, my greatest teacher was fill in the blank and then end it by saying thank you for shaping me. Be grateful for the pushback you received because if you turn pushback into power, you will become an unstoppable dynamo, transforming resistance into success. There are stories of transformation from resistance to self-realization. Every major transformation has a dark night of the soul, a moment that looks like failure, but is secretly the seed of your next evolution. I would like to share with you a practical story about an individual I knew called Maria, who was forced out of her career by circumstances she could not control. She met a lot of resistance to her ideas and what she thought was ethically right for her to stay within the company that she was working for. The resistance nearly broker. Spiritually, she started each day with the simple mantra. I am not forsaken, I am being redirected. Practically, she sought help, therapy, some skill training, daily steps, working out, no matter how small, she was trying to be positive. Within a year, her calling emerged, counseling others in navigating life's shocks. She took her pain and everything that she had been through and overcome, and it became medicine for others. Here is something I would like you to contemplate on for a moment. Where has your greatest resistance today or in the past helped you to become a better person and watered the roots for you to become your best self? Change is not a one-time insight, but a weaving moment by moment of new patterns into your consciousness and your calendar. My suggestion is you schedule time to monitor your progress so you can keep yourself accountable day by day, week by week, of how you are progressing from turning resistance and pushback into pure power in your daily, weekly, and yearly life. Resistance is not the warning of failure, it is the signal of your true awakening, your calling, your growth, your fulfillment are all shaped in the forge of pushback, spiritual and practical, inner and outer. Today, don't numb out when it hurts. Don't shrink away when the world says no. Instead, meet resistance like a wise old friend, with curiosity, courage, and a willingness to evolve. Right now, pick one insight, one reflection, one powerful and perhaps difficult step. Make a commitment, journal, call, or voice record your action and your learning. Your journey, your resistance, your breakthrough, that is the ripple that inspires others. I am Linton Bergsen. May you move from pushback to pure power, from uncertainty to clarity, one brave breath, and one clear step at a time. Until next time, trust the process, embody your light, and shatter your limits. I sincerely appreciate you listening to the podcast. Please subscribe so you do not miss any upcoming episodes. Whatever platform you're on, please leave a rating and review. I would greatly appreciate it. Any additional information on me, Linton Bergsen, and my five star review book, Purposeful Vision, is available at Selfrealized.com which is all one word. You can also leave any comments or suggestions on the website. I look forward to connecting with you very soon. Take good care of yourself.