A note before you read: This article is for clients who already have their own P.A.T.H. (Personalised Affirmations Theta Hypnosis) recording—especially those who have taken a break from listening. It explores the resistance that can arise when changing familiar patterns, and why that resistance can be a normal part of making meaningful, lasting change.
Have you taken a break from listening to your P.A.T.H.? Has it been a week, a month, a year or more since you last lay down with your headphones on, closed your eyes and pressed play?
Recently, a P.A.T.H. client who also sees me for regular coaching mentioned that she was listening again. I was so happy for her—especially because hers was one of the first P.A.T.H.s I created, over three years ago.
After time away, she found that the words were connecting with her in a fresh way.
“Doing my P.A.T.H. again has actually really helped,” she told me. “I felt really empowered.”
What stood out was how relevant it felt to her life today.
“I’ve listened to this before,” she explained, but it hadn’t resonated the way it was resonating now. “I feel how it’s all relevant to now.”
You are an exception. Not many people on the path of self-improvement—even the most dedicated—will commit to working with their own subconscious mind in the way you have. But that’s exactly what you did when you reached out to me for your P.A.T.H.
And it was my honour to create a unique recording for you, one I put my heart and soul into.
My commitment was to give you something that supports you in taking another step on your most empowered path each time you listen. An opportunity to let go of an old identity, an old thought process or a now-outdated need for more struggle.
I say “now outdated” because, by the time you came to get your P.A.T.H., you already had the objectivity to see that much of your struggle was coming from patterns you could change.
So often, those patterns begin with childhood and early adult programming from our family, friends, lovers and environment. We learn to mirror the values and choices of those around us so we fit in.
But you chose to make a run for it. To jump off the merry-go-round of familiar struggle and see what you are really made of.
If you haven’t listened for a while, it could be because:
Perhaps life got busy in the best way possible. Or perhaps there is still something you deeply want, and you’ve stepped away from the very practice you chose to help yourself move towards it.
Only you know the true answer.
If you hear yourself saying, “I’m too busy,” “I’ve heard all this before” or “I’m not sure it’s even doing anything,” you may have come up against a wall—the very obstacle your P.A.T.H. is designed to help you face and climb or jump over.
But why would you hold yourself back?
Because the subconscious can cling to what is familiar, especially when you’re getting close to a really big change—a point where you feel ready to leave behind the self-sabotaging behaviours you already recognised were holding you back.
Yes, you want the change. But part of you wants to hang onto the comfort of what it knows.
Wherever you are in your P.A.T.H. practice, you are not alone. Resistance to real change can be normal.
Letting go of an old identity can feel like part of you needs to die. A mini-death. So, of course, part of you may resist it.
“Who will I be if I don’t have my old struggles anymore?”
“What will my family and friends think if I don’t join in with all the socially acceptable self-sabotage?”
“How can I step into a life I have never experienced before when my old life, struggles and all, is so familiar—so comfortable?”
For me, the answer has largely been one of having faith. Faith in letting go of my ego concept of who I am, and in the self-love growing stronger every day.
I have made multiple P.A.T.H.s for myself. Each has presented me with another opportunity to be born again—but only if I was willing to go through that mini-death. To release another part of the identity I had grown so used to living from.
That’s why I know the courage it can take to trust and surrender to whatever is on the other side.
It can feel like part of you is dying as you make room for another part to come to life.
Resistance to daily listening can appear in different ways, sometimes connected to the safety of a familiar, though limiting, identity. You may want change while feeling uneasy about what it will look like in your life—your new life.
Sometimes, consciously or semi-consciously, remaining stuck can become part of a dynamic where proving the therapist or therapy “wrong” or ineffective takes priority over healing. Complex relational and defensive patterns may be at work.
The mind is very clever, and subconscious defences can help maintain the status quo. Even a simple suggestion to listen each day can feel like pressure, especially if you sense you are on the brink of a major breakthrough.
This is not to say that your P.A.T.H. is 100% perfect or will do everything you dream it can. But you can give it a chance. And another chance.
Repetition can help new ideas become familiar. Each time you listen to the idea that everything in your life is working out perfectly, and that you are perfect as you are right now, even as you are changing, you give those ideas another opportunity to sink in. Deeper each time. Until they may become so familiar that you find yourself thinking differently.
One way to help yourself through resistance is to offer yourself more compassion. More self-acceptance.
And dig a little deeper too.
What comes up when you think about listening again? What do you still want to experience? What part of your original vision still calls to you?
That’s why I wrote this article. To help you get back on your P.A.T.H. and explore what might be on the other side of any resistance to continuing.
My intuition told me that, when you read this, three things might happen:
For my client, returning to her P.A.T.H. was a big part of helping her feel clearer, calmer and more confident, and renew her commitment to her best self.
“I’m back on track,” she said. “Now I feel I’ve got a clear path ahead of me once more.”
If you are still listening daily, great. If your P.A.T.H. has been sitting dormant on your phone, consider this your higher self’s gentle invitation to reconnect.
Put on your headphones. Make some time for yourself. Press play and notice how the words feel today.
You might find a line that speaks directly to what you’re experiencing, an affirmation you’re ready to embrace more fully or a familiar reminder of the person you are consciously choosing to be.
Your P.A.T.H. is still there for you. Returning can begin with one simple act of self-love: making time to listen.
And, as my client expressed to me last week, you might discover a new part of you is ready to come to life.
“My P.A.T.H. has been making me feel so good. The realization that it all comes back to me first and foremost. Nothing externally, no event, no person, no experience. I have the power to destroy the old thoughts, and thought patterns, and old beliefs. This is where the change happens. Simply listening.”
What might you hear in your P.A.T.H. today that you weren’t ready to fully receive before?
If you press play again, I would dearly love to know what comes up for you.
Because we truly are on this path together.
Yours in conscious co-creation,
Ben
Ben Grant Mitchell
Author of Your Word Is Law and the brand new workbook companion, My Word Is Law
Founder, Grant Empowerment
Creator of the Leadership Language Audit™, P.A.T.H. Coaching™ and B.A.M. Coaching™