Stress Part II: Imbalance and The Arch

June 23rd, 2009

by John R. Sedivy

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Yesterday in my article “Stress Part I: Not All Stress Is Bad,” I had discussed why one should not pursue the elimination of all stress in their life. Today I will touch upon why perfect balance is not necessarily worth pursuing and how the arch is a good model for stress and the individual.

An Imperfect Balance
As with the basic misconception concerning stress, many would agree that striving towards perfect balance, or harmony is a sound objective. However, this may not be true. According to Viktor Frankl – the author of “Man’s Search For Meaning,” this is not how life is meant to be, and in reality, he concludes complete balance to be a bad thing. Consider the following:

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,” i.e., 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. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him. What man needs is not homeostasis but what I call “noo-dynamics,” i.e., the existential dynamics in a polar field of tension where one pole is represented by a meaning that is to be fulfilled and the other pole by the man who has to fulfill it.”

So, the good stress is caused by the tension created by what a person is now, and what they are meant to become. Therefore eliminating this stress, and achieving true balance is not a positive goal in and of itself. Perhaps a more worthwhile goal is to evaluate your stress and determine if it is worth the cost, is it meaningless or helping you become something more? So, in essence, one should strive for a consistent state of imbalance, rather than balance. Another important aspect is that the task be “freely chosen.” A person will likely willingly undergo more stress for an objective set themselves, than one dictated by another. This is the fundamental reason why entrepreneurs undergo large amounts of stress to start their own business, when they could likely undergo less by working for another.

Strengthening The Arch
It appears that this theory holds true not only for “normal” individuals (if “normal” truly exists), but exists for those outside of normalcy and in need of healing:

“And one should not think that his holds true only for normal condition; in neurotic individuals, it is even more valid. If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists want to foster their patients’ mental health, they should not be afraid to create sound amount of tension through a reorientation toward the meaning of one’s life.”

I personally like the analogy of the arch. One becomes stronger by the the load placed upon them. Therefore each challenge that one is capable of surviving makes them that much stronger than before. As Frankl states, the load placed upon the arch, or yourself, should be aligned to your overall life purpose. Keeping this in mind, you should embrace each challenge that comes your way – knowing that once you have mastered it, you will be that much stronger and better of a person.

Seek out imbalance and methods of strengthening your “arch!”

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding