When Mountains Become Mentors 

Ever have something looming in your life and you can’t sleep?

Or, you stress eat/drink or avoid eating all together because you are too wound up?
Or you divert yourself in a myriad of ways, trying to escape what needs your attention the most? 

These are examples of resistance. 

“Resistance is not meant to stop you—it’s meant to make you stronger. The presence of resistance in your life is not the sign that you’re doing something wrong, it’s the sign that you’re doing something right.” – Brianna Wiest

“The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.” – Paul Tillich

Wiest teaches us that resistance manifests in three primary ways:
Emotional resistance (anxiety, fear, numbness)
Mental resistance (overthinking, rationalizing, planning without action)
Physical resistance (procrastination, avoidance behaviors, physical symptoms)

Wiest makes it clear: resistance isn’t here to ruin your day; it’s here to refine you.

It serves as a feedback mechanism—your psyche’s way of highlighting where growth is most needed.

When we procrastinate on significant things, like avoiding having that difficult conversation, or keep pushing off our healing work, we’re not just being lazy. We’re encountering what Wiest calls our “resistance threshold.”

Richard Rohr’s concept of necessary suffering aligns perfectly with Wiest’s understanding: growth requires us to move through discomfort, not around it.

Ultimately our mountains (our challenges) are not obstacles to be removed but teachers to be understood. 

This is where change starts to become very real.

We can recognize resistance in ourselves in one of three ways.

Three Key Patterns of Resistance:

  1. The Comfort Zone Paradox We resist what we most need, like craving connection while avoiding vulnerability. The stronger the resistance, the more important the change.
  2. The Familiarity Principle We repeat painful patterns because they’re predictable. The brain prefers familiar suffering to unknown potential joy.
  3. The Growth Threshold Resistance intensifies before breakthroughs, manifesting as anxiety or avoidance when we’re closest to transformation.

Practice: Meeting Your Mountain

Let’s try Wiest’s resistance mapping technique:

  1. Name your mountain. What challenge are you facing that keeps showing up?
  2. Identify your feelings. What emotions are swirling around it?
  3. Spot your avoidance patterns. How do you typically dodge this?
  4. Look deeper. What growth might this resistance actually be trying to protect?

Take a step. One small action that moves you through it.

When we resist, Wiest explains, we’re often protecting an old story or belief.

Theologian Paul Tillich would call this our “ultimate concern”—what we think we can’t live without.

What if we create what Wiest calls a “resistance dialogue.”

Ask:
What am I really afraid of losing?
What old story is this resistance protecting?
What new story am I ready to write? 

If we will take the time and do the work, we will be shocked at how far we cam go in conquering our mountain. 

Closing Prayer: Divine Presence, help us understand our resistance as Wiest teaches—not as an enemy but as information. Give us Tillich’s courage to be, and the wisdom to see our mountains as messengers. Amen.

Reflection Questions
1. What pattern of resistance appears most in your life?
2. How does this resistance serve as protection?
3. What growth might be waiting on the other side?

Overcome your resistance.