Stopping Military Suicides by Kate Hendricks Thomas

Author:Kate Hendricks Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

11

Spirituality in Action

Tension is necessary.

If we believe there is value in the conflict we all face throughout life, they are not just bearable, the struggles will have meaning.

We are meaning-making beings after all; meaning gives us a sense of purpose, and purpose enables us to weather just about any storm that life sends our way.

This concept shows up in so many aspects of our lives. For instance, the person who happily works the menial job because they know it financially provides for their family in a time of need is able to work that job day in and day out more sustainably than the person who angrily sees no purpose in the job deemed below them. If our hip flexors weren’t at least somewhat tight, we’d be limp noodles. If our muscles and bones didn’t get pressure from movement and exercise, we’d actually be weaker. If our intellect is never challenged, we’d simply not be as sharp. If our leadership is never tested, our skills would fade.

Thus, it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and one still ought to accomplish or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging a man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill. It is only thus that we evoke his will to meaning from its state of latency.

I consider it a dangerous misconception of mental hygiene to assume that what man needs in the first place is equilibrium, or, as it is called in biology, “homeostasis,” that is, a tensionless state.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.

If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load that is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists wish to foster their patients’ mental health, they should not be afraid to create a sound amount of tension through a reorientation toward the meaning of one’s life.1

Why do sunsets have such universal appeal?

One reason is because they embody both light and dark. It is a place of transition, one could even argue tension (the light and the dark fighting against one another). A journey from one place to another. We watch in awe and wonder.

And the tension is required to create the beauty.

Et Lux in tenebris lucet—and the light shineth in the darkness.

As humans, we are hardwired for purpose and connection to something bigger than ourselves and to a carving out of and living up to our deepest purpose. Faith is about relationship, and faith is a practice—something to be experienced and lived out. We don’t just feel faith; we can live it!

Research on spirituality and health, and the personal stories from many of us, points toward the truism that purpose and connection matter to us.

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