Resistance audit

When This Fires

• Monthly, as a periodic reflection-practice health check
• When reflection feels routine and comfortable for several consecutive sessions
• When you suspect you're avoiding important topics but can't identify which ones
• Complements The topic you skip or write safe answers about is the most… (in-session avoidance detection) with the periodic systematic audit

Common Failure Mode

Comprehensive avoidance: the resistance audit itself gets avoided because it's designed to surface uncomfortable topics. If you keep deferring the audit, the audit's absence is itself the signal — you're avoiding the process that detects avoidance.

The Protocol

(1) List all topics you reflected on in the last 5 sessions (List A). (2) Separately, list all significant topics that were active in your life during the same period — work challenges, relationship dynamics, health changes, financial decisions, emotional patterns (List B). (3) Compare: which List B topics are absent from List A? These are your avoidance gaps. (4) Rank the gaps by discomfort: which absent topic produces the most resistance when you imagine writing about it? (5) Write for 10 minutes on the highest-discomfort gap topic. Don't aim for insight or resolution — aim for honest engagement with the material you've been avoiding. The 10-minute constraint prevents both avoidance (it's short enough to be manageable) and rumination (it's bounded).