‘What you resist, persists’

Are we infusing more energy on what we hate or don’t want to happen by thinking about it all the time? Unwittingly, by doing so, we’re allowing it and actually making it persist in our reality. As Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung has said, “What you (constantly) resist, persists.”

Because of our constant thinking, worrying, discussing and all the fuss we’re making about what we hate in our lives, it gathers so much energy ensuring its continued presence in our reality, like a perceived fear becoming real.

Whatever it is we hate or don’t want to happen—be it disease, failure, financial problems, relationship woes or a hated politician or any person—if we keep thinking and feeling bad about it, and keep talking about it, it will most likely become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

One gets the feared disease, fails in life, messes up with one’s relationships; and gets dismayed that the hated politician continues to dominate the surveys, and might still win in the elections despite his/her obvious shenanigans.

Worried about cancer

Several years ago, a middle-age patient of ours has been seeing practically all the specialists for every organ of her body because she was worried she had cancer. She was constantly worried about it and had to be given tranquilizers just so she could sleep at night.

She underwent all possible tests that could be done and all of them turned out negative for cancer. The following year she underwent the same tests and all tests were still negative for cancer.

She didn’t have a checkup on the third year and came back the following year. An ovarian tumor was detected on ultrasound and CT scan, which on surgery turned out to be cancerous.

We advised her attending physician that aside from the conventional medical treatments she needed, she should have some psychological therapy to change her negative and utterly pessimistic mindset. Or else, the risk of recurrence of her cancer is quite high because she seemed to be mentally convinced it is going to recur.

Doctor-specialists’ afflictions

This is not an isolated case. This used to baffle us a lot before. It was also perplexing why some doctor-specialists would be afflicted of the disease(s) they’re supposed to be specialists on. Cardiologists would succumb to a heart attack; neurologists would suffer from a stroke; gastroenterologists would have a serious liver or intestinal problem; and many other similar medical ironies.

We postulate that it might be because a specialist regularly sees such cases, constantly thinks about them; and subconsciously fears that he/she might also get the disease.

So whatever we fear or worry about in our lives, let’s address them; and believe they have already been resolved. After we’ve done what we’re supposed to do, let’s stop thinking about it, and talking about it every chance we have. On the contrary, let’s think positively that the opposite is happening to us, and visualize this clearly in our minds. If the negative thought comes back from time to time, let’s not give it renewed energy by replaying it in our minds over and over again. Just replace it with positive thoughts and feelings.

If we’re advocating against a certain issue or a person, and we want to change them, let’s not constantly think about them, rant expletives or write about them. The more we fume and seethe in anger, the more energy we’re giving these issues or persons; and chances are, they will persist or prevail.

Support what will change them

So instead of losing sleep on these worries, let’s passionately support what will change them. If we’re disappointed with the inadequacies of quality healthcare in our respective areas, let’s stop constantly complaining about it and support campaigns that will effectively address it. If we’re against a certain candidate—rather than participating in lengthy online discourses cursing the candidate—let’s focus more and actively support the alternative candidates.

The mind—especially our subconscious mind—is really so powerful that the thoughts we feed it can eventually have a dominant presence in our reality. So thoughts, especially if energized with strong feelings like fear, jealousy or hatred—are highly likely to become a reality.

Unfortunately for many of us doctors looking for hard evidence to show that the subconscious mind actually works this way, there is still paucity of scientific data. It remains one of the not-too-well-explored frontiers of medicine.

The subconscious mind is figuratively like an iceberg wherein we only see a small part of it on the surface. The much bigger portion is submerged underneath the waters, unseen. And no Titanic is strong enough to ram into it. No one should mess with one’s subconscious mind.