The Power of Provocation

Energy from where you least expect it

I hate being provoked!

It’s like I'm kind of getting along with my day and somehow someone pops up to tell me I should be doing something else instead. Just straight up telling me what to do, what to believe or how to behave. It's like someone is prodding me with a stick. I feel my mind clamping down on the word “No!” I determine simply not to do what I feel I'm being told to do. I'm straight away in resistance. Maybe you can relate.

But provocation is interesting, psychologically.

Because we all have an Endurer side. The side of us that didn't feel our parents' love and just saw them as trying to control us. The side that resolved not to “give it,” not to go for something fully, just to spite them. And it is this side that comes up when we're provoked.

Underneath that refusal to acquiesce is a ton of energy. Our energy. That we sit on and keep down, as a form of childhood payback. Energy that, potentially, we could use for our own benefit. 

Did you ever have the experience of believing you were tired and needing a rest? Of starting to rest? Then, suddenly something happened and you had to get up and act. You felt annoyed, maybe even enraged. But suddenly you noticed… I'm actually filled with energy now! That's what I'm talking about.

In my opinion, the average human is suppressing around 90% of their energy in this manner. We expend more effort, on an internal level, keeping ourselves held down than allowing ourselves to just do stuff. And we’ve been doing it so long, it's happening on autopilot now. We don't know where the off-switch is any longer, to stop all this suppression.

One switch is in allowing ourselves to be provoked, and making use of the energy that's fired up into resistance.

Imagine, what if some sergeant-major type suddenly popped up into your room and demanded that you immediately did Bioenergetics? How would you deal with the situation? What coping strategies have you learned? That's an interesting thought experiment and it can be great to imagine the situation, allow your natural reactions and feel your body. Is there energy there? And could you access that energy of resistance and put it towards making your life better?

There’s a great Bioenergetic exercise, called Tantrum Movements, or simply “Tantrum,” that can help us to access the energy of resistance and free it up. Here’s a video I made about it some years ago. Give it a try.