Struggling To Relax

We carry the weight
of a dark world
in tensed muscles, 
and tight jaws.

A student in a hypnotherapy class said he was “struggling to relax” and this provided the title and theme for this poem. At times, many people, myself included, face this irony of working hard to relax. Our bodies become accustomed to tension and we hold tightened muscles unconsciously. The unnatural tension becomes natural. Consequently, we must work at relaxing and struggle against what has become normal in our bodies.

Previously published in my first book of poetry, Heaven In Our Hearts, available through Amazon or in audio format click here.

Struggling to relax
against what we bear
in our bodies. 

Without knowing
our eyes were made
to look out on a world
we must learn to live in
and not back at ourselves
where we fear there is no light.

We are too close to see
it is our own sun blinding us. 

We are too foolish to know
we are clinging to nothing.

Always in the emptying
we will find what we did not know
we were looking for. 
We cannot carry the world
we live in.  But we can learn
to let the world carry us.

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Where do you carry your tension?
What do you do to manage it?

© Nick LeForce
All Rights Reserved

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