Creative people break patterns.
You are creative, and there are many patterns that need interrupted right now. I believe strongly that it is up to the artists (abstract thinkers) to help humanity course correct.
Tall order? Uh, yeah.
Lady Mary Shepherd, an 18th century Scottish philosopher I read about on my trip to Scotland, believed there were a variety of intellects. There was the scientific way of looking at things (order, manipulation, understanding, expertise) and there was abstraction (arts, language, spirituality). Contrary to the much-better-known Hume, she believed that scientific inquiry was aided by abstract thought and that our ability to break patterns is where we find the ability to better understand new phenomenon.
In many ways, I agree. While she was speaking more about an abstract belief system such as religion, I believe we need abstraction as a path to come to clearer conclusions, the way most humans do: by messing up. We begin unraveling truths by figuring out what it is not true, and this begins with BIG and abstract thinking. We find out how to succeed by failing.
Abstract language is a good example.
We create metaphors that are easy to remember and make us feel; they represent something (see: business jargon, politics, anything that is commoditized) until, ultimately, said words lose meaning and we are left facing what is beyond the abstraction.
For me, “triggered” is a word that seems too simple in the colloquial sense lately. It’s loosing meaning because it’s used too much, for too many scenarios.
The word often refers to something happening in our current timeline that causes an emotional reaction connected to trauma. Somatic instructors say we hold the past in our bodies and we need to let go with breath. Therapists say we create thought patterns to offer a sense of safety or try to correct what we perceive as a threat.
But triggers are a daily thing.
If I read enough news, I could find multiple triggers in a single hour.
To be “triggered,” if we look deep enough, simply means to be human.
And as much as it is human nature to want to find contentment at all times, struggle and anger and fear are part of being human. They are not definicies. And they FEED art, inquiry, and often empathy.
No one is always content. Nothing in nature is always at ease.
Watching the skies darken yet again, even after the weather app predicted sun and the patterns promised far less rain, reminds us how precious and fragile our ecosystem is. We can talk about the “super” el nino, building from a phrase that orginially came from fishermen who noticed patterns of ocean warming around the holidays every few years, but when a Midwestern neighborhood floods in August and we look squarely at that harshness, we can learn a lot about our capacity to recognize our part in that harshness.
How we not only create abstraction but also how we respond to it are how we shape our reality, and this feels like the artist’s call.
I believe, like Lady Shepherd, that we can find ways of healing from patterns that are deeper than a passing disappointment or isolated storm. Sometimes finding something closer to the truth means allowing ourselves to break down. Allowing all the solid parts to break apart in order to rebuild as something stronger.
This journey is part of almost every narrative arc, after all.
A tree can be knocked down by a storm, but it will eventually make its way back to the ground, adding a nutrient-rich offering to the earth or lending itself to the warmth of fire. It will reform purpose by responding to circumstance.
Creative exploration helps us to decode the recurring patterns and ways we numb.
Instead of saying, “I’m triggered,” we can ask, what is recurring and why? What reality do we want to create, and how/where do we need to reinvent ourselves?
Anyway … anyway … I invite your abstraction.
Prompt: What is something (a behavior, a circumstance, a business deal) that triggers you/your character? Use the trigger as a catalyst for a new reality.
Alternate prompt: Write about a character who successfully avoids all triggers. (If you can actually pull this off, please email it to me. I’d love to read it.)
Note: I am having to make video trailers for all my Insight Timer courses. As such, I am downloading them all and plan to slowly add them to this site. They will be available to paid subscribers by the end of the year. Also, for my cherished supporters, here is an invite to write with me. A silent accountability followed by some creative exploration.
Meditation: Honoring our uniqueness, our unique journeys.
🎤︎︎
Extra note: RADICALS is going to be available for pre-release everywhere soon. It’s currently available on Kindle and at LTP. If you’re on StoryGraph, enter here.