Tense? Let’s find out why

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Amrit Sadhana [1]

You’ve had a hard day at work and you’re getting ready for bed. The brain is still clinging to your work in office or maybe in the household job, and it’s creating mental tension. Constant chatter in the head is the mind’s way of manifesting that tension.

The word tension has suddenly gathered a negative connotation because modern human beings continuously live under a tense state of mind. They do not let the physical or emotional energy flow, so it is locked in tight muscles.
Ask a physicist and you’ll find that this universe cannot exist without tension which is basically a stretching or pulling force; a balance between and interplay of opposing elements or tendencies. But tension which is on the blacklist of the modern man is in essence a mental or psychological stress or pressure. Since the issue is created by the mind, the remedy can also be found only by the mind.
Tension has nothing to do with anything outside you, it is to do with what is happening within you. You will always find an external excuse to rationalise your tension simply because it looks so weird to be tense without any reason. But tension is essentially incorrect lifestyle.
Osho says, each situation is an opportunity to be meditative. Instead of condemning it, use some creative ways of dealing with it. Osho has introduced catharsis as the step towards meditation. It really helps a person to get rid of the stress and become more watchful and calm.
Here are some Osho tips that can help everybody get over these mental tension.

Each situation can become an opportunity to be aware: What is happening to you when you feel insulted? Meditate over it; this is changing the whole gestalt. When somebody insults you, you concentrate on the person — “Why is s/he insulting me? Who does s/he think s/he is? How can I take revenge?” If s/he is very powerful, you surrender. If s/he is not very powerful and you see that s/he is weak, you pounce on him/her. But you forget yourself completely in all this; the other becomes the focus. This is missing an opportunity for meditation. When somebody insults you, look at what is happening inside.

Talk to the wall: If you are bursting with stress, just sit in your room and talk alone. There is no need for somebody else to listen to you. You can talk to the wall and it will be more human, because you will not be creating suffering for anybody.
But don’t repress it. Repressed, it will become a burden on you. In the beginning you will feel a little crazy, but the more you do it, the more you will see the beauty of it. It is less violent. It does not waste somebody else’s time, and you are relieved. After a good talk with the wall you will feel very, very relaxed. The world would be better and more silent if people started talking to walls.

Absorb the attack: The Judo teacher teaches pupils not to attack but to await an attack. And when the attack comes, remember only one thing — to absorb the attack! If someone abuses you and you take in his/her abuse, the aggressor becomes weak. Try this out! He who drinks in the abuse — not suppresses it — as if it is a loving gift; s/he who absorbs it within his whole being, becomes a pool. And this pool is filled with the energy that flows out of the one who abuses, and s/he who absorbs it becomes that much stronger.
Also, when the aggressor finds that no abuse is coming forth from the other, he becomes very uneasy.
You can try this technique in board meetings, too.

— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.