Annealing

It has been days since I wrote last time. I was with too many thoughts, all disarrayed up in my head, leading to perplexity and dread of putting them into some form of writing. Meanwhile, I was going through continuous regimes and schedules developing lot of tension and strain in the process, strain which is internal in the beginning and comes to the fore with time.

Let me get a bit technical now. A slab of steel is made into a coil by rolling. The process of rolling increases the worth of the slab by about 3 times. Rolling involves pressure and pressure results into strains. In our lives too, we go through this process. We work and get rolled to increase our worth resulting into strains inside us.

There are 2 ways from here. Either we neglect the strain or we address it. Negligence results into cracks and ultimately breakdown in tough situations. Addressing it reinforces and increases resilience. I am assuming that latter obviates the former.

Technically, the process of removing strains by heating steel above a fixed temperature, keeping it there for some time and then slowly cooling it, is called as Annealing. In human beings it is slightly difficult to replicate this process. For some it never happens until they break down. The heating agents in our case are emotional stimulants. An emotional stimulant is mostly external. Stimulant can be a touching song, a book, a picture, a movie, a good hard drink and many other things. Just beware of overheating as it burns up the product, reducing its worth.

The second stage is to remain at higher temperature for sometime. This means to be with your emotions, rather than snubbing them. Taking a step back is often desirable. Thinking over, restructuring ideas and notions, talking and sharing with people often helps. It results into reformation. It is called as recrystallization in case of Steel. Slow cooling might happen over few days and often weeks. Take time to cool down.

Annealing, for steel and humans alike, helps to increase stability and provides strength for the tougher times. Longevity is habitually overlooked as a virtue. Longevity at highest level is mark of champions and sustenance at that level is tough.

So next time when you get charged up, don’t trash your emotions. You might do a lot of good to yourself by staying with them and weighing them up. Anneal yourself!

P.S: This article is prequel to one where I talk about a stimulant, a really strong one, I think I understood to a very minor extent.