Revelations by Pressure
What are the strategies we might use to survive the mounting pressure in the world?
Perhaps you’ve seen those videos of a hydraulic press crushing various objects.
Within a few seconds, the question we’re all thinking is answered: how much pressure can this object withstand before bursting?
I have seen a bunch of these videos and I’m often surprised to see which items or substances last the longest under intense pressure. Some of the longest-lasting are incredibly dense, some are structurally designed for resilience, and some benefit — not from rigidity and density — but from flexibility and softness.
This led me to wonder what makes something, or someone, strong, resilient, and able to withstand great pressure.
Be Like Water
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
- Bruce Lee
On the one hand, like in this Bruce Lee quote, our flexibility and ability to adapt can make us powerful.
But this doesn’t tell the whole story.
Density and Structural Integrity
Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash
Pressure isn’t exclusively handled most effectively by flexibility but occasionally by its opposite: becoming an immovable object.
While amorphous materials can often survive the intense pressure of the hydraulic press, it is the densely packed and structurally solid metal spheres that not only do not bend or break but cause the press itself to crack and malfunction.
How we handle pressure
The hydraulic press can be a metaphor and one with lessons that we might do well to apply to ourselves.
The ability to thrive under pressure is a blend of rigidity and flexibility.
- On the one hand, we need to be able to go with the flow and let go of whatever doesn’t serve us.
- On the other hand, we must have the ability to stand firm in our convictions and enforce our boundaries.
To do either of these things, we must first examine and then attend to our structural integrity.
Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash
The quality of our mental, emotional, and physical health precedes our ability to endure the pressure.
- Only when we love ourselves enough can we stand firm.
- Only when we know what’s important to us, can we make the conscious choice about where to be more flexible.
The more intense the pressure becomes, the more structurally sound we are to withstand it.
Much like the items placed under the hydraulic press, by the time the pressure starts pressing down on you, it is probably a little too late to last very long. Plan for regular intervals to check in with yourself. Don’t skip past the opportunity to think about, document, and live your values. Make sure you’re challenging yourself to remain open and flexible.,
Do these things, and as the pressure of life presses down on you, you may have what it takes to remain intact for another day.
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