Structural Tension

You know how it feels when you have decided you want a certain outcome but you are still living with things as they are before the desired change? You’ve decide you are going to work in your studio x number of days, but you just can’t seem to get in there. Or you’ve been given this big break (to write a book, or exhibit your work at a major gallery, or teach your creative technique on television), but you are struggling through the daily tasks of making it happen. Instead of feeling enthusiastic and happy, you’re anxious and worried and probably beating yourself up on top of it. This is especially prevalent in creative work, because making something new that is important to us is always work of the heart and spirit. Our emotions are involved. A lot is at stake for us.

This new opportunity we are moving toward sets up an inner conflict between where we are and where we want to be. If that conflict becomes intolerable, we relieve the pressure either by lowering our standards or by abandoning the goal altogether.

This isn’t because we are weak, or unfocused, or lacking in some way. It’s because we don’t understand a key component in the process of achieving goals: structural tension. Feeling the pain of the difference between where we are right now and where we want to be is called structural tension. Being able to tolerate structural tension is a major key to accomplishing what we want.

The following exercises will help you work with structural tension in two ways. The first is creating a map of what structural tension looks like for you. Essentially, you are mapping the potholes in your road so you don’t hit them, or if you do hit them, you aren’t thrown entirely off course. The second exercise is for wrestling with structural tension creatively when it arises. Sometimes, just having a name for what you are experiencing can give relief. “Oh, here I am wanting my creative dream to be here now, and it’s not. What I’m feeling is structural tension.” Cool, huh? If that doesn’t do it, fine. That’s what your visual journal is for.