Live in the Tension; Lean into the Ambiguity

Last Sunday, my church had a guest speaker.  The main point she kept referring back to was this phrase, "Live in the tension; lean into the ambiguity".  Her application of it is talking more about the "unknowns" in our every day life and how they can bring us so much stress.  For example, there are many tense-filled moments with my son as he is growing to into his own individual self.  His defiance and power struggle with me brings a lot of tension and stress.  The speaker's point is that I can live/rest/chill-out in those moments of tension because those are the times that I will meet God.  Those moments are inevitable, so why fight & struggle... wasting all of that energy.

The same concept applies to "lean into the ambiguity" - only the context changes.  For example, if a student is beginning to fret and worry over what they are going to do with the rest of their life after they graduate... the answer is quite unclear.  For any of our questions dealing with our future selves or worries over things we have no control... that is when we should invite ourselves to lean into that ambiguity.  Which, for me, that means to breathe, look from a larger perspective, and seek direction.

You are probably already connecting the dots that I did... When I get pulled down into an activity I lose myself.  I lose the larger perspective.  I lose my breath.  I lose my direction.  I remember so clearly the first year or so of AT lessons where I kept trying to "get it right".  I also remember having no clue whatsoever if what I was sensing was accurate or if the directions I was giving myself were helpful.  The whole concept and practical application of AT was ambiguous!  But I kept "living in the tension" of not "getting it right" and I kept "leaning into the ambiguity" and trusting the AT process.  Of course over time I have learned to take a breath, become aware of my self and my surroundings, to give myself direction... all of which doesn't seem ambiguous anymore!

Please know that I am not making any connection to God and the Alexander Technique.  I'm not saying that one will find God through AT... but I was immediately attracted to the language this guest pastor used and thought it could also be applied to my work in AT.  I don't know... when I think of these phrases, they kind of bring the breath to me.

An interesting experiment with language.