The Law of Non-Resistance: Why Fighting Back Actually Makes It Worse

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What Is the Law of Non-Resistance?

The Law of Non-Resistance is one of the core principles in Florence Scovel Shinn’s teaching, built around a simple but counterintuitive claim: whatever you resist tends to persist, and sometimes even grow stronger because of the resistance itself.

This runs directly against the instinct most people have when facing a difficult situation. The natural response to a problem is to push back, fight harder, or mentally brace against it. The Law of Non-Resistance suggests this instinct, however understandable, often works against the outcome being sought.

Florence Scovel Shinn illustrated this idea using a striking natural image — water. She pointed to water as something that appears soft and yielding, yet over time it can wear away solid rock simply by never resisting, only flowing around whatever stands in its way. The Law of Non-Resistance works on a similar principle: a steady, non-resistant approach tends to outlast and outwork direct confrontation.

Why Fighting Back Often Backfires

According to the Law of Non-Resistance, the energy spent resisting a problem doesn’t disappear — it tends to feed the very thing being resisted. Mentally and emotionally bracing against a difficult person, a frustrating situation, or an unwanted outcome keeps attention locked onto exactly what you don’t want, which according to this principle, only reinforces it further.

Florence Scovel Shinn described resistance itself as a kind of inner torment, separate from whatever the actual external problem might be. In her framing, the suffering caused by fighting against a situation is often worse than the situation itself — meaning the Law of Non-Resistance isn’t just about getting better outcomes, but about reducing unnecessary inner strain in the process.

This doesn’t mean simply giving up or accepting harmful circumstances passively. The Law of Non-Resistance, as she taught it, isn’t about defeat — it’s about removing the emotional charge and fixation that keeps a person locked in a struggle, which paradoxically tends to open the door for the situation to resolve more easily.

There’s also a physical dimension to this that Florence Scovel Shinn touched on, even if she didn’t use that exact language. Sustained resistance — the ongoing mental bracing against an unwanted situation — tends to carry a felt tension along with it, a kind of background clenching that rarely fully releases as long as the resistance continues. The Law of Non-Resistance points toward releasing that tension first, before expecting the external situation to shift, since the inner state of struggle is often what’s actually being prolonged, regardless of what’s happening outside of it.

A Real Example From Florence Scovel Shinn’s Teaching

One of Florence Scovel Shinn’s own stories illustrates the Law of Non-Resistance clearly. She described a woman who needed money and kept encountering a particular man in her business dealings who constantly spoke about lack and limitation. The woman began resenting him and blaming him for her financial struggles — a textbook case of meeting a difficult situation with resistance.

Once she recognized what she was doing, she shifted her approach entirely. Rather than continuing to resist the man and the situation, she deliberately blessed both, choosing to see the circumstance as ultimately working in her favor rather than against her. According to the Law of Non-Resistance, that single shift — releasing resistance rather than fighting harder — was what allowed the situation to resolve. Shortly afterward, she met someone else through that same connection who provided the financial help she’d been seeking, and the original source of frustration faded from her life on its own.

This kind of story is typical of how Florence Scovel Shinn taught the Law of Non-Resistance — not through abstract philosophy, but through a specific, relatable situation where resistance was clearly making things worse, and releasing it was what actually changed the outcome.

How to Practice the Law of Non-Resistance

Working with the Law of Non-Resistance starts with noticing where you’re currently resisting something — a person, a financial situation, an unresolved conflict — and recognizing the mental and emotional energy being spent on that resistance.

From there, the practice isn’t about forcing positive feelings about a situation you genuinely don’t like. Florence Scovel Shinn’s approach was closer to consciously choosing to stop fighting, even before feeling fully at peace with it. Sometimes this looked like a deliberate blessing or reframing, similar to her own story above — actively choosing to see a difficult person or circumstance as ultimately serving your good, rather than working against you.

The Law of Non-Resistance also asks for patience with the process itself. Releasing resistance doesn’t always produce an immediate, visible shift. Florence Scovel Shinn’s own stories often describe results unfolding gradually, sometimes through an unexpected, indirect route rather than a direct resolution of the original problem.

It also helps to distinguish between resisting a situation and simply disliking it. The Law of Non-Resistance doesn’t require pretending to feel positive about something genuinely unwelcome. It’s possible to acknowledge that a circumstance is unpleasant while still releasing the active mental fight against it — the difference is subtle but significant. Disliking something passively tends to dissolve on its own over time. Actively resisting it, replaying it, arguing against it internally again and again, is what tends to keep it locked in place according to this principle.

A useful starting practice is simply naming what you’re resisting out loud or in writing, then deliberately choosing a single sentence that releases the fight — something like “I no longer need to struggle against this” — and returning to that sentence whenever the old resistance starts to rise again.

The Law of Non-Resistance and Everyday Conflict

This principle shows up most clearly in small, ordinary moments of friction — a tense exchange with a coworker, a recurring argument with a family member, a frustrating delay that seems to repeat itself. The instinct in these moments is almost always to push harder against whatever feels wrong.

Florence Scovel Shinn taught that these everyday frictions are actually some of the most useful places to practice the Law of Non-Resistance, precisely because the stakes are usually low enough to experiment safely. Choosing not to resist a minor annoyance, and noticing what happens as a result, builds confidence in the principle before applying it to bigger, more emotionally charged situations.

Traffic delays, slow service, minor technical glitches — these small daily frustrations are where most people unconsciously rehearse resistance dozens of times a day without noticing. Practicing the Law of Non-Resistance in these low-stakes moments, simply by mentally releasing the urge to fight a small inconvenience, tends to build a kind of working familiarity with the principle that makes it far easier to access later, when a genuinely difficult situation comes along.

How This Connects to the Rest of Florence Scovel Shinn’s Teaching

The Law of Non-Resistance works closely alongside the Law of Expectancy and the Power of the Spoken Word — resistance is often expressed through both expectation (continuing to expect the problem to persist) and speech (complaining about or arguing against the situation repeatedly). For the full picture of how these principles connect, Who Was Florence Scovel Shinn? The Powerful Story Behind The Game of Life covers her background and the rest of her core teaching.

This idea also has real common ground with Neville Goddard’s teaching, particularly his emphasis on releasing attachment to how a desire gets fulfilled rather than gripping tightly to a specific outcome. Both teachers, in their own language, point toward the same underlying idea: a relaxed, non-resistant inner state tends to allow more movement than a tense, fighting one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Law of Non-Resistance?

The Law of Non-Resistance is Florence Scovel Shinn’s teaching that whatever you resist tends to persist, while a situation met without resistance often loses its grip and resolves on its own.

Does the Law of Non-Resistance mean giving up?

No. Florence Scovel Shinn was clear that this principle isn’t about passive defeat — it’s about releasing the emotional charge and fixation that keeps a person locked in struggle, which tends to open space for resolution rather than encouraging surrender to harm.

How do you practice the Law of Non-Resistance?

Start by noticing where you’re currently resisting something, then deliberately choose to release the fight — sometimes through a conscious reframing or blessing of the situation — rather than forcing yourself to feel instantly at peace with it.

Why does resistance make problems worse, according to Florence Scovel Shinn?

She taught that resistance keeps attention and energy fixed on exactly what you don’t want, which reinforces it further, and also creates additional inner suffering on top of whatever the original problem already was.

What is a good example of the Law of Non-Resistance in practice?

Florence Scovel Shinn told a story of a woman who resented a man who constantly spoke about financial lack. Once she stopped resisting him and deliberately blessed the situation instead, she was led to an unexpected source of the financial help she needed.

How does the Law of Non-Resistance relate to her other teachings?

It works closely with the Law of Expectancy and the Power of the Spoken Word, since resistance is often expressed through continued negative expectation and repeated complaint, both of which reinforce the very problem being resisted.