Pack it up Reader!
The other day I noticed something small, but telling.
I had finished a long day. Nothing dramatic. No crisis. Just one of those steady, full days where everything worked but nothing really stopped. I sat down, scrolled for a bit, checked one more email, and realized I still felt tight. Shoulders up. Jaw clenched. Breathing shallow.
Nothing had gone wrong.
And yet nothing had been released either.
And it got me thinking…
Pressure does not always show up as a spike. Sometimes it shows up as accumulation.
Most of us are pretty good at identifying big pressure moments. Tryouts. Big games. Evaluations. Deadlines. Performances that feel heavy because we know they matter.
What we miss is the quieter version. The pressure that never resets.
It is the small stuff that stacks. The comment that lingers. The mistake that never got processed. The expectation that stayed in your head instead of being said out loud. The day you pushed through because that is what you do, and then did it again the next day, and the next.
In sport, this shows up constantly.
Athletes carry pressure from one rep into the next. One practice into the next week. One season into the next year. Coaches do it too. Parents absolutely do.
Nothing explodes. Nothing breaks. So we assume we are fine.
But carrying pressure is not the same as managing it.
Pressure that never gets released does not disappear. It just changes form.
Sometimes it becomes tension. Sometimes irritability. Sometimes overthinking. Sometimes that feeling of being on edge even when nothing is happening. For younger athletes especially, it can show up as emotional swings that seem out of proportion to the moment.
That is not immaturity. That is load.
Think about how we train physically. You would never expect an athlete to lift, sprint, and compete without recovery. Rest is not optional. It is part of adaptation.
Mentally, we often pretend recovery is a luxury.
We tell athletes to move on, shake it off, focus on the next play. All useful skills, when paired with release. Not when used to bypass it.
Because when pressure never resets, the mind stays in protection mode. Attention narrows. Timing gets rushed. Decision making becomes reactive instead of responsive. Not because the athlete is weak, but because the system is full.
One of the most overlooked skills in mental performance is knowing how to let pressure go, not just push through it.
That release does not have to be dramatic.
Sometimes it is naming what you are carrying instead of pretending you are not. Sometimes it is a pause between drills instead of rolling straight into the next one. Sometimes it is a post practice routine that signals closure instead of replay.
For athletes, this might look like a short reset ritual after practice. Change shoes. Write one sentence. Take three slow breaths before getting in the car. Something that tells the brain, this segment is done.
For coaches, it might be resisting the urge to debrief everything immediately. Letting silence do some of the work. Allowing space for processing before instruction.
For parents, it might be the simplest and hardest release of all. Not carrying the game home. Not replaying every moment in the car. Not adding weight to a kid who already carried enough.
Pressure itself is not the enemy.
Unreleased pressure is.
If you never give the system a signal that it is safe to stand down, it will keep acting like the threat is still present. That is when confidence erodes, not because belief is gone, but because capacity is maxed out.
The goal is not to eliminate pressure. That is not realistic.
The goal is to stop hoarding it.
Here is the closing image I want to leave you with.
Picture a backpack. Every day, something gets added. Expectations. Effort. Emotion. Care. The problem is not the weight itself. The problem is never taking it off.
Eventually, even a light load becomes heavy if it never comes down.
This week, notice what you are carrying that no longer needs to be there.
Then, intentionally put something down.
Not to be soft.
Not to avoid growth.
But to make room to actually handle what comes next.
