On the word “collapse”

My morning meditation today was weird .
Yesterday my mind was all over the place.

Today… nothing. Quiet in the horizon.
A couple of random thoughts about a conversation I had with a friend yesterday, but really, nothing wanted to come in. I just sat there, metaphorically twiddling my thumbs, but it felt clean, not empty in a bad way.

Towards the end, the word collapse popped into my mind. And I realized I don’t actually know what it means.

I’ve always associated collapse with something negative: the physical image of someone falling to the floor or a building imploding on itself.

In another conversation, it was mentioned “collapsing in front of power”,  In the sense of fear I presume.

In personal development they talk about collapsing time.
Quantum physics talks about collapsing possibilities.
And it seemed like the word holds so many contradictions.

So I asked ChatGPT what does it actually mean. Here’s the reply:
“Collapse isn’t actually contradictory.
Collapse means a system can’t hold multiple states anymore…
so it becomes just one.
It can look like destruction, or it can feel like relief.
It can be overwhelm, or it can be surrender.

In physics, collapse is when infinite possibilities narrow into one.
In collapsing time, you’re bringing what ‘would happen later’ into now by making the future and present occupy one state. 
In timelines, collapse is all the versions of who you could be converging into the one you choose.
In the body, collapse can be losing strength… or finally dropping the tension you were never meant to hold.”

And then I wondered:
Is that why today was so quiet?
I’ve been holding so many options, so many thoughts, so many directions, so many truths— all at once — and it’s been driving me a little nuts. I am more of a black and white kinda gal. Or used to be. Maybe the stillness wasn’t “nothing happening.” Maybe something inside me finally collapsed in the surrender way… where everything I was juggling just dropped, and I landed in one coherent place.

I don’t know.
Maybe.
Hopefully.

I was wondering if someone else also wondered about this word and decided to share my findings just in case .
​Thoughts also welcomed.