The stress of being single-mindedly focused

The next time someone snaps at you saying, "Hey, stay focused!"

Reply back, "That's stressful!"

Whatever form play comes in, the basic concept is that of dispersal of concentrated energy. Performing one concentrated action repeatedly over and over is stressful. Letting go from that is relaxing. Relaxing is about dispersing energy that is concentrated to fulfill a practical purpose.

The idea behind unwinding or muscle confusion is about deliberately relaxing your muscles through the medium of play. Through play, you are actively dispersing energy that is concentrated in one place.

We are given a certain body from genetics and nature. And then depending on how the environment around us interacts with us and nurtures us, our body and mind is shaped accordingly. The more deliberately the environment around us reciprocates with us, the more specific of a shape we take. The tighter of a mold we fit in.

During the first few days, weeks and months of joining the military, they make a very deliberate effort to interact with the new recruits in such a way, that they fit a mold. The military wants to mold you into a machine: a fighting machine. Turning a new recruit into a machine is in the best interest of the military because then you become a tool. A tool that is designed to work precisely with other tools in the hands of a general.

I have many friends who joined the army who feel that they needed the kind of camaraderie, a sense of belonging and the discipline that came with joining the military. Many of them felt that as teenagers they had been undisciplined and unruly. They were happy to let go into the system of the military and allow themselves to be molded and disciplined into a machine. They felt that they got more control over themselves as a result of surrendering their will to the demands of military training.

Military training is designed in such a way to shape your body and mind in a very specific way for a very specific function. Soldiers go to war. War is brutal. War is about holding your ground when your enemy is trying to wreak havoc on you. Fear is a natural response in war. But a well-trained soldier over-comes the natural response of fear of seeing his brothers at arm killed around him. The soldier grits his teeth and doesn’t succumb to the terrible sound of grenades exploding. The soldier is trained not to twitch when he hears the sound of a missile whizzing past his earlobe. This is what turns him into a fighting machine. He goes beyond what comes to him instinctively and naturally as a human being programmed to survive, to fight for those he is loyal to. This is when he transcends being a civilian, to being a soldier trained to protect his brothers next to him.

War is very stressful because of the single-minded constant focus that it requires.