Today on the Mindfulist:
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
- Chinese proverb
When I read that, my soul shouted "Yes." Then I thought, "Wait. What does that mean? Am I reading it correctly? What does it mean to me?" Then I stopped ranting and rambling and focused. Ah, focus - a close second for my word of the year and much needed it is too.
Just reading the words "relaxation is who you are" felt like a deep breath to me, and that was what I responded to first. Looking at it again, what triggered my little stream of questions was the fact that relaxation is another area in which I judge myself. "Am I relaxed enough? What can't I relax? Man, I suck at relaxation."
That, right there, is the key. "Tension is who you think you should be." I'm fairly easy going, and I like that about myself. When I'm fretting about something though, I feel I should be more mellow about it. As I reflect upon it, every example I find is something where I feel I should be this, that or the other.
When we are fully present and dealing with what is here and now, we are relaxed, even in crisis. It is only when we start to stress out over imagined disastrous scenarios that the tension creeps in. What a gift to know that relaxation is what we are.
Breath, let go, be who you are.