Tension is a form of stress that everyone experiences each day through hundreds of different outlets. There is a conscious or unconscious concern about our ability to perform that lies at the basis of this very common stress: Feelings of tension.
We sometimes speak of nervous tension, tense situations, or of tensions between people, but tension only exists in the muscles. It is a physical reaction, a contracting of the muscles, which occurs in all of us when we are threatened. In one respect this tension is good. It prepares us for emergencies and keeps us alert.
When the tension persists, however, we become restless, fidgety, and unable to concentrate. We might bite our nails or show other nervous mannerisms, and very often there are such physical reactions such as backaches, chest pains, stiff necks, or headaches. One recent report has suggested that roughly half of all headaches come from a muscle tension which results from the pressures of daily living.
