Stretch

Admittedly I'm a new convert to the concept of the physical stretch.

You'll catch me at 6am most mornings running myself through a few mantras and following some yogi or other.

No, naughty! Not Yogi Bear on CBeebies. You!! Why I ought to....

No, stretching is a wider concept that.

Stress is a bad concept or a bad word. It has negative connotations. But everybody knows that you don't achieve anything unless you put yourself through some stress, some goal, some sort of test.

The road is a road because it has to be navigated. It takes effort.

But stress also means heart attacks, fractures, breakdown. Stress can fell bridges and kingdoms.

So why not refer to most of this concept in a positive way as Stretch.

When you are expanding your horizons it is Stretch that will let you reach out to them.

Stretch predates Reach.

So when you go for a run as I've just done (only for 12 minutes), you might be a lucky enough for that to 'clear your mind'. But for some of us, we have 12 minutes of "I wish this was over" to contend with. Apart from anything else this makes people like me better people than you for exercising and you need to be aware of that(!).

Far from the mind being cleared like a wave rushing over a beach, all that really shifts is what has most recently occupied the thoughts. That allows a bit of space for a new thought. (So it's not really cleared but a change is as good as a rest. Better probably).

My new thought during my run was Stretch.

So now after a 12 min run I have a 10 min blog to write. (That's if I get away with it being a blog. It could turn into another unwritten book). 

You must stress yourself in life. If a change is as good as a rest, that could even de-stress you. Or distress you. (See was an awful word it is).

So call it Stretch.

The nocebo effect (the negative placebo effect when negative expectations deliver themselves just because they're expected) is facilitated by Stress.

And alleviated by Stretch.

It's a good concept. 

It deserves propagation.

But then I think TJ Hooker should have had a sixth season.

So what do I know?