walking with tension

 Walking home from work tonight, I reflected on how being present with one's body is not about experiencing things "smoothly" but rather, being truly present with all those tensions. Why is this hard to do, at times? I think it's because a lot of times, a person whose body feels tense will associate the tension with thoughts they are having in that moment. It leads me to wonder, does "tension" even exist in the absence of any thoughts? The tension we experience due to stress and exhaustion is often at least exacerbated by one's thoughts. The more radical view is that tension is perhaps entirely the result of thinking! That may be partly true but it doesn't explain why a person feels more tired at certain parts of the day than others. Perhaps one has accumulated many thoughts over the course of a day?
   I have also reflected that it's important to make space for compassion when one feels tense or exhausted. That compassion doesn't add to one's tension by insisting that they should not be tense. On the contrary, there is a felt sense that even the tension is deeply allowable and embraceable just the way it is. This is not about taking a neutral stance on the pain itself but joyfully allowing it to emerge and even embracing it at times. This allows a different way of relating to the phenomena which is much more spacious and less "divided" within oneself.