Author: BOBBY SHANN

There is a quiet tension that appears when things do not unfold the way we expected.

I often notice it not as a thought, but as a sensation — a subtle tightening in the chest, a restless movement of the mind, a quiet insistence that something should be different. We rarely call this resistance. We call it stress, impatience, or frustration. Yet beneath these names lies the same simple struggle: an unwillingness to meet what is.

Much of our inner suffering grows here. We imagine how life should look, how moments should behave, how people should respond. When reality drifts away from those expectations, something inside us hardens. We begin to push against what is happening, even when no amount of force can change it.

Sometimes I notice this most clearly in small moments — waiting for a message, hoping for a different outcome, wishing a feeling would disappear. The tension is often quiet, almost polite, but it lingers. It drains more energy than the situation itself ever could.

Control can feel protective. It gives the illusion of stability in a world that is constantly shifting. But over time, it becomes clear that much of what we try to manage is not truly ours to shape. We cannot command outcomes, only our response to them.

Perhaps inner discipline does not begin with force, but with recognition — the gentle clarity of seeing what lies within our reach, and what must be allowed to pass.

And perhaps peace is not found in shaping life to our will, but in meeting it without resistance.