It’s the 2nd day of January 2021 as I write this.\u00a0 Here in the midwestern United States it’s winter.\u00a0 It’s gloomy outside, cloudy and with drizzle and 34 deg F.\u00a0 We’re still in the Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0 Tension seems to be a theme.<\/p>\n
I just looked up the word, tension, in the 3rd Edition of The American Heritage College Dictionary after looking it up on the innerwebs.\u00a0 \u00a0The\u00a0 innerwebs had 3 clear, easy definitions that made perfect sense to me:\u00a0\u00a0noun<\/em>\u00a01.\u00a0 the state of being stretched tight.\u00a0 2.\u00a0 mental or emotional strain.\u00a0\u00a0verb<\/em>\u00a0 apply a force to (something) which tends to stretch it.\u00a0 But, somehow I felt that there would be something in the old book version that would say something different.\u00a0 Not surprising, I read something I didn’t expect in that old dictionary.\u00a0 It was,\u00a0noun<\/em>\u00a05.\u00a0\u00a0A balanced relation between strongly opposing elements.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s interesting to me because since we have been in this declared pandemic beginning in mid March 2020 the situation as I am experiencing it is not one of tension.\u00a0 However, thankfully I am in a house with the heat on.\u00a0 I just ate some good healthy food.\u00a0 I am not in the threat of being evicted from my home.\u00a0 I am healthy and with white skin.\u00a0 My family is healthy and I feel well.<\/p>\n But for some this is not the case.\u00a0 For many there is significant tension.\u00a0 “Hanging on by a thread,” some might say.\u00a0 Some are not hanging on by a thread.\u00a0 The tension has been broken because there is no longer balance of any kind.\u00a0 \u00a0But the mental and emotional strain doesn’t go away when the tension in the physical is lost.\u00a0 It might even get worse.<\/p>\n As single individuals we are in and out of balance and tension all the time.\u00a0 As a society I am not sure what “balance” is.\u00a0 Probably something like various individuals and organizations moving in and out of tension and balance and as a group it all averages out.\u00a0 But, I am pretty sure that tension will always exist in some form or another to keep us all a float, like surface tension on water that allows objects to float partially above water and partially below.<\/p>\n When an average person interacts with a body of water at a comfortable temperature, because we can never completely empty our lungs of air, we all have some potential to float in calm water.\u00a0 Although, there are people very skilled at almost completely emptying the lungs of air with great effort and practice in order to dive below the surface of the water to explore it’s depths.\u00a0 This is not the usual.\u00a0 There is this phenomenon of people in panic sinking below the surface of even the calmest, most comfortable temperature water and drowning.\u00a0 It’s so hard to remain calm and peaceful when your feeling the tension of not being able to survive.\u00a0 \u00a0Of course, if you don’t know how to swim and you’ve heard that you must know how to swim before you get into a deep lake you might avoid it until you take some type of lesson or are wearing a flotation device.\u00a0 That’s likely because there will be a sign posted near the edge of the lake which indicates you might drown if you enter the water.<\/p>\n But, say you enter some comfortable temperature water which is nice and clear and free of debris and hazards.\u00a0 You walk into the water on a gradually deepening shore.\u00a0 As you walk in your feet loose contact with the bottom now and then.\u00a0 If you remain calm you may begin to notice that the water is actually supporting you in flotation.\u00a0 Then you walk back to a shallower area.\u00a0 Next you begin to move around lifting your feet from the bottom feeling the flotation as you curl your legs up.\u00a0 Later you start moving your arms and legs in different configurations and occasionally hold your breath to dip your head below the surface.\u00a0 Each time you feel the water through your hair and over your skin as you glide in different directions through the water.\u00a0 Soon you start to realize that certain configurations of your body and movement of your arms, legs, torso and head take you to different parts of the lake at different speeds in different manners.\u00a0 All the while you never move too fast in one direction without being aware of where you came from and how you got there.\u00a0 You can always go back and check.<\/p>\n Funny enough throughout this entire scenario it is probably obvious that this person is learning how to swim.\u00a0 Finding swimming.\u00a0 This person was the teacher and the learner or the explorer and the adventurer.\u00a0 When learning occurs as an exploration there is some ownership of the activity.\u00a0 Learning actually occurs faster and more completely.\u00a0 Oddly, tension is part of the whole process, in a way.\u00a0 Each time something new happens; feet leave the bottom, head goes below the surface, arms move forward, legs curl up, speed changes, there is a bit of tension.\u00a0 But when it is slow and occurs while supported there is learning.<\/p>\n Although this pandemic is creating a lot of tension for a lot of people, if those of us whom are not feeling so much distress can be the comfortable, calm water supporting others while they find new ways to swim maybe we can all create an environment that doesn’t need caution signs to prevent drowning.\u00a0 \u00a0 Because if some can remain peaceful and calm and support those that are learning and exploring we all just might be able to find some balance.\u00a0 And when there are strongly opposing elements creating the tension we can all learn because we all feel supported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the 2nd day of January 2021 as I write this.\u00a0 Here in the midwestern United States it’s winter.\u00a0 It’s gloomy outside, cloudy and with drizzle and 34 deg F.\u00a0 We’re still in the Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0 Tension seems to be a theme. I just looked up the word, tension, in the 3rd Edition of The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/learning-to-swim.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5fmb4-tension","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627,"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions\/627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindbodyscienceworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}