Tension: A Cornucopia

hyperTENSION: thanks to genetics, i’m one of millions of americans who suffer from hypertension, or as it’s commonly referred to, high blood pressure. that was quite a sobering truth i realized a couple years ago as a 27 year old, rather healthy and active individual. moderately speaking, it doesn’t seem to matter what i do or try to change (diet, exercise, etc.), i will most likely be on medication for the rest of my life. funny how even though we choose most our own paths, some are already chosen for us.

TENSION headache: according to research, over 10 million people a year visit a doctor or emergency room because if headaches. tension headaches are the most common form. several factors causing these annoying little pains are: stress, sleep deprivation, bad posture, irregular meal time, eyestrain, and caffeine withdrawal. it’s funny how we all get these headaches, but it seems that we bring them upon ourselves (see common symptoms above). so, why do we treat our bodies the way we do? do we sometimes feel indestructible? are we lazy? are we up too late at night reading this blog or watching home improvement reruns? are we hunched over our desks all day at work, causing our spine to resemble a question mark? have we allowed our lives to become too busy, consumed, that we have lost the ability to unwind and de-stress?

TENSION (physics): please bear with me…i know i just wrote the word physics, but i promise no quadratic formulas or having to solve for X involved here. tension as it applies to physics is simple: it’s the pulling of an object. in the world of architecture and engineering, tension is a fairly common term. (so are the phrases reTENSION pond and deTENSION pond, but we won’t get into those two, because i still don’t know the difference.) basically, tension is necessary to hold structures together. Without tension, there is no bond.

so, i’ve established several different uses, emotions and forces invoked from the single word, tension, but what does all this mean? i’m sure you’re asking yourself why did i just ramble on for the past 3 paragraphs…i promise i have a point… at least i think i do. allow tension to be the input and resolution to be the outcome. tension can cause pain and turmoil when not addressed correctly…but it can also be the glue that holds us all together. tension in our lives is inevitable…it’s present amongst friendships, work associates, social issues, monetary concerns, it's everywhere. tension keeps us stressed, but it also keeps us going. tension takes us to a jumping point..