I've just awoken from nearly twelve hours of sleep ... My first thought was, "To sleep, perchance to soften."
Soften what? -- Tension. The tension. The tension that rides, riddles, and cages my form. Sometimes sleep is the only relief.
I remember when I had a full-time job whose expectation of constant speed, hour-by-hour quotas, and results, results, results! jangled my brain and body for eight hours every day, five days a week. I felt like I was trapped inside an alarm clock that wouldn't -- couldn't -- stop clanging. Worse, I had to sit for those eight hours, even as my nervous system buzzed with a frenzied need to run, run, run away and keep on running. No wonder 'working stiffs' often fall into inertia when there's finally a break from the imperative of speed that somebody else imposes. Excessive tension hijacks our ability to soften ... so we obliviate ourselves somehow, in order to release and relieve the jangling within ... to shut off that damn clock.
Reader, does this ring true with your own experience? Do you sometimes find that sleep is the only good medicine for excessive tension?
2 comments:
Sleep heals so much. But I know lots of people who swear by exercise too for tension relief. So maybe a good workout and then a nice sleep?
Agreed, Debra :-) My body seemed to hit a tension-wall a few days ago ... and since the weekend is so cool, I thought I'd catch up on sleep ... and just let my body and brain 'go under' until they'd had enough deep rest. Walks, yoga, and dancing are my movement practices ... and sometimes I do find that the only way to release visceral tension is to sleep. Sweet relief! :-)
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