I want to share the following references to positive tension in Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy and Rebbe Nachman’s teachings (expounded upon by his student, rabbi Natan of Nemirov) from a Jewish perspective.
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task…One pole is represented by a meaning that is to be fulfilled and the other pole by the man who has to fulfill it.” (Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl, p. 127)
“Man does not need homeostasis at any cost, but rather a sound amount of tension such as that which is aroused by the demand quality inherent in the meaning to human existence. Like iron filings in a magnetic field, man’s life is put in order through his orientation toward meaning. Thereby a field of tension is established between what man is and what he ought to do. In this field existential dynamics is operating. By this dynamics man is pulled rather than pushed. “(Psychotherapy and Existentialism, Frankl p. 21)
“A coercive power exists in the world, and all of life’s challenges stem from it. This power threatens to distance you from your truth. You can overcome the coercive power by consistently pulling yourself back to your soul-root (point of truth)…This is easy to do, because the power of attraction is much more powerful than the coercive power. The power of attraction is always in an active state, whereas the coercive power only gets activated, for the duration of time it takes to put a distance between yourself and your goal. Similar to the springs of a clock when they are held back and then released, the very moment that the coercive power is removed, the power of attraction brings you back…because the soul by nature is always attracted to its true source …We have come into the world only for this purpose: to cause the power of attraction to triumph over the coercive power by engaging in life’s conflicts and exercising the skills required to accomplish this. As a result you achieve remarkable strengths and true healing…”(Likutei Halachot, Rabbi Natan of Nemirov, Orach Haim Vol III p. 353 [p. 177 in the Hebrew lettering])