In today’s culture wellbeing is commonly associated with self-care which itself, though not exclusively, often refers to a series of rituals, practices, exercises to self-soothe, reduce tension, alleviate pain and discomfort.
A lot of popular recommendations and widespread self-help ideas are based on the “homeostasis principle” which directs people to seek inner equilibrium and a tensionless state. Simply put, tension and friction become the enemy.
However, as Viktor Frankl[1] states in his book “The Will To Meaning”: “Contrary to the homeostasis theory, tension is not something to avoid unconditionally, and peace of mind, or peace of soul, is not anything to avow unconditionally”. He sustains that in actual fact, human beings aren’t a closed system in the way these principles depict, and that “a sound amount of tension is inherent in being human and is indispensable for mental well-being” and for mental hygiene.
So let me ask you: Do you appreciate and value tension and friction in your body, in your life, in your relationships when it arises? Or do you prefer to pay someone to get rid of it? Do you gravitate towards a book or an online program that promises to reveal the secrets for a seamless and obstruction free life?
When it comes to tension and friction, most people are avoidant. They don’t want to have anything to do with it, they don’t even want to feel it and acknowledge it’s there. This can go as far as becoming disengaged, from life and even from themselves – and that’s a dangerous place to be.
We often don’t consider this but avoidance creates stagnation, the energy becomes stale and gummed up, there is no movement, no moving towards, no expansion. The issue being that anywhere there is an absence of movement, a warning lights up. Think: breathing, heart beating, nature going totally quiet before a tsunami or an earthquake hits, etc. One of the reasons the most commonly prescribed health advice is to move your body, even if it’s just by doing some light stretching, is because lack of movement in all its forms (physical, mental, energetic) is detrimental to our wellbeing.
Circling back to tension. Tension, if you accept it, if you don’t run away from it, fosters movement and also as mentioned earlier: mental health. Viktor Frankl goes further in his explanations regarding this latter point by detailing in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning[2]” that “what man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him”.
In simpler words, what’s presented here is the fundamental idea that, as a human being, you need the kind of tension that is aroused and elicited by a meaning to fulfill in the world, that you’ve discovered and that you’re going to fulfill. This not only gives you direction, it gives you purpose and this is how it contributes positively to your wellbeing. As Nietzsche so wisely put it: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
Let’s look at how this applies to Education. Currently, the educational system remains based on the homeostasis theory and is guided by the principle that as few demands as possible be imposed upon students. The consequences are the reinforcement of what Viktor Frankl refers to as “existential vacuum” (the inner emptiness experienced by so many in our time) and contributes to the lack of tension (which as we’ve seen isn’t commendable). On a broader level, it’s important to be aware that we live in an affluent society which is under-demanding at large and through which people are spared tension. Something to meditate on.
I am going to illustrate all this by relating to you a true story about education and tension that I was told by my husband – Anthony Aarons – who is a classical solo trumpet player who used to teach music in the UK. Picture a primary school orchestra in the nineties of which Mr. Aarons was the teacher. One year, he chose the piece: The Planets – Orchestral suite by Gustav Holst. He picked an adapted version for school kids but in essence, he had chosen a difficult and challenging piece for them to learn and play. As he puts it: “the piece was beyond them” and they really struggled throughout the term. However, when the end of term concert came, the entire orchestra managed to play The Planets completely, all the way through in front of the audience. The moment they finished the piece, they collectively let out a spontaneous cheer of joy and victory for that they accomplished what they had been working so hard for and truly struggled to achieve.
The following term, a new head of music took over the department in the school and when Mr. Aarons presented her the music he intended to teach the orchestra that year, she said: “no, it’s too hard, it’s supposed to be fun, not hard”. The piece that ended up being picked for the term was half the level of what the kids had already achieved the previous year, and they lost interest. One of them even said to Mr. Aarons: “it’s not fun”. The irony. Despite Mr. Aarons’s efforts, nothing could persuade the new head of music that kids needed a challenge and to be pushed beyond what they thought their limits were. Do you know what happened? Most kids left the orchestra…
There is no need to give you the moral of the story, nor the moral of this article. I simply hope that you’re going to re-think “tension” and direct your intention towards what’s meaningful and purposeful to you.
In a much less academic reference than Viktor Frankl, I’ll leave you with this phrase that is mentioned many times in the book Untamed by Glennon Doyle: “We can do hard things”.
References
[1] Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, psychotherapist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, who founded logotherapy and existential analysis
[2] As of 2022 “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl has sold 16 million copies and been printed in 52 languages.
Main – Photo by Roxanne Minnish
