I love this chapter of Michael's! Well, I love all of them, but this one really seems to bring it home for me. What I get from this chapter is resistance of what I don't like in my life (i.e. psychological pain) by withdrawing, pulling back, protecting myself, or defending my point of view, imprisons me. Letting it go is my path to freedom.
For me there is a physical analogy that depicts this psychological concept really well. My husband is an ART practitioner, meaning he does deep tissue work that has a reputation of being a bit uncomfortable (some may call it painful). When he works on me I notice that as his fingers 'dig' into a muscle my natural reaction is to resist/protect/defend by tensing up. As I tense up the initial problem becomes worse, and then I resist even more.
The answer to my freedom from the physical discomfort is to relax, breathe, and allow his fingers to assist the muscle to stretch and relax. As I open and allow his fingers to go deeper, amazingly it does not hurt, but instead actually feels good and I can sense a flow of relief. He has assisted me to get to the other side of the tight/knotted/resistant muscle. He has assisted me to relax into my bodies natural well-being.
I see that it is no different with psychological discomfort. When I resist something that happens, or something someone does, I become even more uncomfortable. If I allow the situation into my experience, remember to breathe, relax, stretch to embrace my truth of the situation, and trust the well-being, this situation assists me in getting to the other side of the resistance, to where my freedom awaits.
LOP is opening to that which I may want to resist and allowing it to assist me in remembering Who I Really Am.