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“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.”
~ Eric Hoffer
We learn from each other, but are you always aware of the extent to which you’re influenced? Do you consciously choose who and what you imitate, or find yourself influenced on random whims? Knowing yourself is the number one requisite for leading a self-directed life liberated from haphazard, potentially dangerous influence.
Winning multiple best 
book of the year awards, Nudge, written by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, explores how we make decisions and how we can make better ones. Through the concept of ‘choice architecture,’ authors nudge people toward best decisions.
By defining guiding principles and choosing to be influenced by what enhances and supports your values and prospects, you become our own choice architect designing liberated living today that continually betters today.
The Scale of Influence
Our thoughts and actions can be substantially shaped by the lives of others. Whether briefly temporal or significantly long-term, our state of mind is naturally more malleable to outside influence than we think.
Put it in perspective and realize that within the microcosms of our lives, nearly everyone is operating within society’s mold. Society, culture and social milieu is the soil from which our convictions grow.
Think first of the cliché ‘if everyone jumped off a bridge–would you?’ Then expand, if you’re roommates or family didn’t recycle–would you? If you’re friends only bought local–would you? If your community all rode bikes–would you?
First Know Yourself
The natural phenomenon of being swayed is in large part why people find travel can be so meaningful and wondrous, as you’re exposed to definitively different lifestyles that open your mind.
Solo travel, or simply times of solitude, allow us to see deeper into ourselves and gain a different kind of perspective based on our inner workings–not others, not culture.
Know yourself. Find inspiration that speaks to you. Do what you feel is right regardless of others.
Choose Your Influence
Next time you find yourself adapting to situational circumstance, stop and ask yourself if that is how you would act on your own prerogative.
To lead, one must know the self.
Rid yourself of outside influence–be unique, be happy, be prosperous how you see fit.
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via libforall
“When we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
~ Wendell Berry
In Sustainable Thoughts Part I: Reconstructing The 3 Pillars and Part II: Globally Fragmented Solutions, we ended with the potential solution of a globally fragmented conglomerate of local initiatives. What’s necessary among the fragments, however, is a sense of unification. Now we will address the shortcomings of improper fragmentation and how to overcome them.
Like to Problem Solve?
Nobody said solving problems was easy. Many enjoy the difficulty. Problems challenge our intellect and taunt our ability to devise and implement solutions. As humans, we naturally love this. Being able to conquer an issue is quite satisfying.
All problems allow us to exercise our minds, get creative and feel satisfaction and/or prolonged drive to find a solution. Some are complex problems as that have no definitive boundary, parameters are unstable and unpredictable, involve numerous stakeholders with conflicting viewpoints and interests, have no optimal, objective solution, are difficult to gauge success and offer vast alternative solutions.
Climate Change professor Mike Hulme calls problems of this nature ‘wicked.’ Further, Dr. Jeff Conklin, of the CogNexus Institute, is dedicated to providing information to best work with all wicked problems, defined by high levels of social complexity. He wrote Wicked Problems and Social Complexity (PDF) to highlight the creativity and resourcefulness groups and teams bring to collaborative problem solving. He highlights shared understanding and shared commitment as key components to dealing with wicked problems, presenting platforms such as dialogue mapping that integrate problem solvers into an accessible, shared dialogue for catalyzed breakthroughs. Writer, scientist and recent programmer, Michael Nielsen, wrote Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science to proliferate emerging data-driven intelligence, driven by the ability of varied groups to collaborate via the web.
Climate change, social and environmental degradation and food, water, energy and economic crises are all wicked problems shining a bright light of trouble throughout society. Myriad organizations, companies, working groups and businesses have been formed to address these problems in diverse fashion. Through their efforts, another problem arises: fragmentation. In Wicked Problems and Social Complexity, Dr. Conklin discusses forces of fragmentation that doom initiatives that would benefit from socially shared, collaborative cognition, where the concept of fragmentation represents pulling apart what is potentially whole and people see themselves as more separate than united, creating scattered and chaotic dispersal of information and knowledge. Culturally, collaborative attempts fall victim to reductionism and the market-economy, where a guiding principle to success is focusing on a specific problem so you can offer a specified product or service.
Reductionism on the Rise: Separated Fragmentation
Reductionism manifesting through fragmentation is stunting potential for change. Non-pejoratively speaking, initiatives like Shareable that focus on sharing-based lifestyles and worldviews by dispersing knowledge, inspiration and information through case studies and how-tos further display the massive scale of disoriented organizations. For instance, have a look at Shareable’s article 15 Sharing Nonprofits to Support Today and you’ll find a list of 15 entities, such as The Center for the New American Dream, The P2P Foundation, Sustainable Economies Law Center and Rebuild the Dream working separately toward the same ultimate goal.
Too many initiatives are segregated, striving toward similar goals and creating fragmented efforts to solve wicked problems based on integration and collaboration–which is exactly what they need to focus on. Competition exists in our current paradigm, but in a commons-based share economy–where we’re struggling to get–focus shouldn’t be on individual enterprise. Doing so wastes resources and stunts progress to an indefinite degree.
In a sense, individual organizations are continually studying their chosen area. Dr. Conklin discusses this natural, important tendency that results from complex, wicked problems, but highlights that study amounts to mere procrastination where objective data teaches little, but opportunity-driven actionable approaches requiring decisions, experiments, pilot projects and so on are essential. He recognizes it’s a Catch-22, where we can’t take action until we have enough information, but we can’t get more information unless someone takes action.
All Together Now
I’m not claiming like-minded organizations don’t collaborate or act, but aim to illuminate the potential success a synergistic unified collaboration utopia could offer. I intend to open the discourse and see if something can be devised and implemented, to offer perspective and ambition to all working toward similar ends to hold on to information they have, pause, and bring a new problem to the table–how to unify collective, collaborative efforts.
How can it be done? What is the potential? Can it be done within the current paradigm or will a major, risky shift need to be made in order to gather minds, organizations and entities of all walks to share their resources and skillsets in one, unified working environment?
If unifying common initiatives for collaborative pursuit can be materialized, throwing aside market-based parameters that create competition among those focused on sharing and segregate those focused on communing, then through the muck will rise an all-star ensemble of influential game-changers.
These issues are massively complex and socially integrated, where values, ethics, justice and behavior patters rule. What’s ideal is that a sustainable, communal-based social paradigm is increasingly taking shape. We’re reaching a point in history where we have gathered more than enough information and we need to stop what we’re doing and start experimenting and testing prototypes that breakdown barriers and unify efforts for change with real action. I can’t think of anything with greater synergistic potential than joining the multitude of segregated, venerable efforts currently plugging away in a fragmented framework of procrastination.
Triple-Pronged Case Study:
Let’s work through a brief example of three auspicious initiatives, each well organized, working in fragmented, independent fashion, while the ultimate goals they serve to meet overlap and would wholly benefit from unified collaboration.
- Ecocity Builders, battling finite space, climate change and endangered ecosystems–“life-threatening global environmental problems”–with an emphasis on transportation and sprawl. Their answer, building ecocities that shift “from cars, sprawl, paving and cheap energy infrastructure over to compact pedestrian oriented renewable energy and land, materials and energy conserving ecocities.” Recognizing the potential of their endeavors, they have yet fully implemented their approach.
- Transition Network, works in response to climate change, peak oil and economic hardship by inspiring, connecting, supporting and training individuals to initiate Transition Towns in their community operating to build resiliency and reduce CO2 emissions based on an energy descent plan. A wicked problem, followed with a well thought out and implemented crack at solving it that is spreading internationally. Creating local initiatives focused on collaboration, reduced energy use, connection, sharing, mutual responsibility, reciprocity, proximity and communal living, Transition Towns look to build happier, fairer, stronger, resilient, sustainable, independent and skilled communities.
- On the Commons, a commons movement strategy center working to overcome the confines of individual ownership toward egalitarian, reciprocal relationships and respect for the natural world, where a new narrative, worldview and set of practices grow from deeply held beliefs about creating change. They embrace visions beyond market economy, exposure to new ideas, new customs, understandings, systems and structures and renewed forms of collaboration and connection. Through a Commons Work initiative, they encourage and initiate co-creative projects toward protecting our essential commons, and also produce Commons Magazine highlighting common-based thinking, action and problem solving worldwide. This fantastic organization does too much for me to present a comprehensive review and I encourage you to explore further.
Ecocity Builders wants to build cities ideal for Transition Towns and both proliferate the goals of On the Commons, where On the Commons is uniquely placed to initiate and co-create projects that bolster unified efforts. Clearly, these three organizations can work together to further their goals, share strategies and information, catalyze change and proliferate actionable solutions that just aren’t possible if their efforts remain fragmented. A Ecocity Builder representative informed me that Dr. Rob Hopkins, founder of Transition Network, co-founder Transition Town Totnes and blogger of Transition Culture, accepted an invitation to speak at the Ecocity World Summit in Nantes, France September 2013 and they are aware of each other’s presence and goals, but until a form of collective consciousness, shared intelligence and collaborative action is taken, they are bound to their niche with limited potential.
All 3 are working against wicked problems, or as Ecocity Builders put it, life-threatening global environmental problems, with slightly varied, yet ultimately similar visions, working within their unique niche, while they would greatly benefit one another through unified effort. On the Commons may be the leading independent initiative focused on collaboration, offering amplitude of information, resources and connections toward unification. Nevertheless, efforts to create communal living rich with sharing, proximity and a mix of forgotten and newfound innovative practices for social and environmental benefit that would thrive in a Transition Town designed by Ecocity Builders remain encapsulated and fragmented by market-based hyper-individualism. These 3 examples represent just a subset, while the possibilities for unified collaboration are legion.
In Conclusion
The current status quo will continue producing game-changers like these with visions of a world that’s near unattainable operating within its parameters. Rules need to be broken, sharing needs to manifest beyond segregated market parameters and action needs to be taken. To enter the world innumerable people are striving to reach, we need to begin testing widespread unification and shared resources.
If this sounds like hocus-pocus to you, it should–it is confusing and visionary. Understanding these principles brings a sense of contradiction as it implies that organizations function within the confines they’re trying to break, where they need to break those confines–to practice what they preach–in order to reach results. Somewhere between tangible solutions and unified collaboration lies a mystery–a mystery we need to solve through collective, shared intelligence and action. Whether initial alliances of collaboration form regionally or beyond, something needs to get the ball rolling.
Moving past the status quo, past industrialism, competition, consumption and capitalism, really is a wicked, complex problem. This, however, is part of what makes it so elegant. Within the confusion an outstanding number of people worldwide have stepped up in the face of tradition and expectation to stand up for what they see is right. Through their actions countless groups have formed and we’ve seen the rise of historic growth in social and environmental consciousness manifest. As writer and marketing guru Seth Godin might put it, today working toward change in a fragmented fashion is the always and we need to do the never. Here, the never is breaking a pattern of segregated pursuit that has become the always initiative of change and stir things up to unify into one living, breathing system of change.
“It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.”
Arnold J. Toynbee
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via adoptanegotiator
“Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.”
~ Arnold J. Toynbee, Author of 12-volume analysis of rise and fall of civilizations
In Part I, Reconstructing The 3 Pillars, we examined the energy, climate and food crises through their origins, modern affects on society and potential solutions. In Part II, Globally Fragmented Solutions, we’ll explore a pragmatic vision of worldwide sustainable futures.
As was Part I, this article is also derived from a lost piece I wrote in 2010 that remains potent today, if not more so, as academics, policy makers and the general public find themselves increasingly struggling with environmental issues of sustainability.
There is no question the current economy is unstable during its post-crash recovery and that finite resources will only continue to be depleted and exacerbate hardship. The solution to turning a potential hardship into potential resiliency and wellness comes with preventive action. For example, we cannot wait for oil to run out or become outrageously expensive to adapt – the sooner we adjust, the smoother the transition.
Collecting the Fragments
Collective action is necessary and best, but in order for a successful transition to sustainability, fragmented, diverse collective action is key, where locally organized global initiatives share morals and values, but adapt systems to their specific locale.
Two outstanding international examples are Transition Network and Slow Food, which are thriving global organizations increasing resilience, sustainability, livelihoods, connection to each other and the environment, and so much more. As standalone entities, they share morals and values adhered to by locales worldwide creating a collection of fragments strengthening global resiliency.
Through this fragmented, local-global fashion, people become empowered within their communities, sustain locally while supported internationally and tighten bonds, generate resiliency and learn new ways of shared life. This is essential to a fragmented transition.
Fragmented Grassroots Local Initiatives to Globally Influential Movements
The natural course of unraveling will follow a movement trajectory similar to Derek Sivers’ TED Talk (short, powerful land hilarious – worth a watch), where community leaders will need to “have the guts to stand out” and take initiative, followed by the first follower, who is the second leader. As Sivers points out, “the first follower is an underestimated form of leadership in itself,” then a third follower creates a crowd and a crowd is news – and a movement must be public. Soon enough, a tipping point is reached, momentum is gained and a movement is made.
These local movements can be completely focused on their locale, but will invariably be part of the global movement. When the government is not addressing critical issues such as the energy, climate and food crises with effective action, policy or governance, these grassroots movements hold the potential to gain enough momentum to garner significant influence.
When there are enough locally organized initiatives, the fragmented global web begins to interconnect as regional locales share resources, etc., and the shared values and morals create diverse, yet similar societies, institutions, markets, economic opportunities and urban functionality that dictate policy and planning.
Organizing local systems on a fragmented international scale will create a global system consisting of conglomerates of these local initiatives that will unite a new world order focused on sustainability and sharing knowledge, goods and core values with each other to reformat the layout of the world, while each local community has a chance to prosper uniquely as part of the global portrait.
Through this approach, today’s conventional wisdom will slowly vanish – one thing that should be discarded and not reused – and a new, traditionally infused conventional knowledge will arise. Harmony among humans and the environment, food and each other will be met. It is this global change of consciousness that will change the world, and starting to adapt, one fragment at a time, may be our best bet.
The vision is grand, indeed, but only by aiming for something extraordinary and devoting oneself to the unreasonable do great historic feats rise to existence.
How Do We Evoke Such Change?
There are multiple scales one can view this enormous endeavor. The bigger picture outlined above may appear more overwhelming than feasible. It may appear out of reach and drive one into paralysis at the infinite possibility for analysis, but in order for its roots to extend, we have to do just the opposite – to avoid procrastination via over analyzing and begin going to work.
The Internet provides a means for people to connect and reach out – to find support in other’s and raise awareness. Gone are the days of feeling one is alone in their actions.
One must open their mind beyond feelings of apprehension to see the achievable greater good through a new perspective, one that understands the complexity. It is a wicked problem, yes, which crosses all sectors of society and is directly related to hard-to-measure behaviors, but through this fragmented collective of local conglomerates creating a united global network, we can all evoke change by addressing what issues interest us and approaching it however we see fit.
Creativity and proactive transitions from thoughts to organized action are bolstered through this loose-knit, yet impenetrable powerhouse of change. Each must act and cannot be concerned with who is putting in the hours and who are the free riders – it doesn’t matter. Those free riders will soon enough join the movement. It’s about co-creating collaborative solutions within our means and simultaneously stretching the boundaries.
We all must be risk takers! We must jump at opportunities without looking down to realize the greatness below, but looking forward with hope, optimism and enthusiasm to influence our seemingly small actions have to the greater cause.
Take the risk of diverging from consumerism society and conventional wisdom, learn new things, create meaning in your life and other’s and you just might save the planet for posterity.
What do you think? Is a global collective of fragmented local initiatives a feasible approach to begin adapting toward sustainable resiliency?
**Be sure to check back for a follow-up article arguing fragmentation is good, but in some respects has many pitfalls. I’ll explore these pitfalls and you’ll get a case study of three primary organizations advancing society: Ecocity Builders, Transition Network and On the Commons.
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The ideas represented in this piece formed text in 2010. Restructured and here to share in a 2-part series. Enjoy.
Tri-Pillar Debilitation
It’s hard to know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re coming from. The foundation we face is the mechanization of society that arose with industrialization to create a structured system of development dominated by developed countries. It requires machines and many external inputs to run these machines and create profits. As a result, energy, climate and food are 3 decaying life-support pillars of the world.
In response to energy, we can start with a focus on natural, human empowering, human operated systems that are self-regenerative and autopoetic. Mechanized, industrial societies emphasize technology to take people and labor out of the picture. This approach is dehumanizing and unsustainable in that it requires finite resources to operate and only leaves people to less meaningful, less enjoyable, less fulfilling lives. People struggle to divert, but often have no choice but to succumb to the path of least resistance, the path governmentally organized to sustain one’s livelihood, which supports the corporate, industrial, unsustainable framework – the root cause of 3-pillar decay.
Developing Deserved Necessities
Climate, food and energy are 3 abundantly natural resources. Humans harness them, but they are not human-made. They are basic, deserved, pleasurable necessities of life. They are quality, real and trustworthy. Nature does not skimp on costs to produce shoddy trees, rivers and sunshine.
The natural environment we inhabit lives in accord with universal values and ecological self-regulating systems. We are part of the ebb and flow of life, coexisting, yet we have separated ourselves.
It was a neat trick, but will not last. The sheer force, complex simplicity and utter reliance on the environment we inhabit consistently reminds us of our values as a species. New generations are wise to the game and find less concern with glamor and glitz (…not all), but want quality.
In the age of mass production led by industrialized market economies, economic logic leads to decreased quality of products. From toy cars for kids to kitchen tables, the average item on the shelves is second or even third rate – meant to be bought, trashed and upgraded in a short period to perpetuate consumption.
Lasting Quality Versus Consumptive Quality
Technology assisted cheap manufacturing, but also aided in our socially supported trade of quality for quality, meaning the definition of quality has been psychologically revised.
Gone are the days of quality in terms of craftsmanship. It is something of the past or something unique and generally unreasonably priced, when it used to be the standard. Today, quality is more quickly linked to quality service, pretty presentation, accessibility and affordability.
The Bright Side Of The Beast
Answers are increasingly becoming supported and transmitted throughout society. Some solutions are being acted on and while others waiting to be acted on, youth are the agents of change.
New knowledge and approaches to life must reach the ears of the youth, so youth can grow as a new generation with new understandings, values, ethics and morals to transform the status quo. When the new mixes with the old, the traditional, pre-oil dependent strategies of living blend with the vast potential of innovative thought and applications for novel systems that mimic nature in a self-generating manner. When these are applied to communities and represented via social institutions within societies, those actions bolster interactive social institutions and personal social conditions for lasting change.
Some call it a living democracy, whatever this culmination is coined, it is an active democracy focused on sustainable living, rebuilding beyond society’s 3-pillars. “The way it is” can change from the machine, profit and consumer driven structure inducing stress and emptiness to involved work, knowledge and connection resulting in fulfillment and enjoying life. We can use technology to advance the latter, instead of support the former.
Connecting the Disconnect
The evidence for a connected, yet disconnected society is evident. We blog, text, Tweet, Facebook, Instigram, Pin, email, etc. to share our lives more readily than sharing time with others. Face-to-face relationships are diminishing and taking with them essential life-skills leading to successful work lives, but more importantly the fundamental personal independence and well-being that grounds all social activity, connects society and generates tangible emotions.
Face-to-face versus technology driven communication is like comparing grass-fed beef to conventional in some ways – where they both provide the same edible piece of meat, but one is produced far more quickly and cheaply and the quality and benefit of eating grass-fed superiorly outweighs conventional.
Take another technological example of diminishing health and well-being – the “slow, children at play” street signs. They’re still there, remnants of the past, but where are the kids? When was the last time you actually saw kids playing in the street – and playing on their iPhone walking down the sidewalk doesn’t count.
Kids are no longer faced with down time, where they may sit bored and be forced to devise creative forms of entertainment, the anecdote to boredom is at their fingertips, only the side effects are grand and unlisted. These new lifestyles create a generation lacking ingenuity, where money buys ideas, entertainment, survival, etc.
If the pillars of energy, climate and food continue crumbling, where will people be left? Self-sufficient resiliency will be gone with the wind as no oil, extreme climate and need to produce sustenance (in the extreme case) leaves an answerless hard reality.
Simple Solutions
The more that is produced, the more there is to be consumed and the less time we find for ourselves. It is the paradox that producing timesaving machines leaves us with less time. In this stressful debacle, people are increasingly seeking simplicity, and simplicity is the solution that may just bring far greater results.
We’ve come to see the old as trash or out of style, to be discarded – whether a computer or pair of jeans being sent to the dump or elderly being sent to nursing homes. Resourcefulness and appreciation of traditional knowledge, however, holds secrets to posterity’s prosperity.
Thought patterns and styles of living less reliant on technology will lead to the greatest application of technology today. We must look back in order to clearly see forwards.
Let’s focus on a transformed future necessitated by our industrialized past and confused present. In order to fulfill the future to our best, we must understand knowledge that was basic to life for generations before us.
In perspective, we must look into our rearview mirrors more often as we drive forwards. The more we check our mirrors and understand what is going on behind us, the faster and more progressively and accurately we can proceed ahead.
What do you think? Are these ideas still relevant today? Do you hold issue or support certain points?
Check back for Part II, addressing a model for international sustainable change.
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What if I told you combating climate change is worthless? Worse, in fact, that it’s draining–of time, money, brainpower, innovation, energy, resources? Would you agree?
Are we taking action, or procrastinating? As it states in Oxfam’s photo above, many are “hungry for climate action,” but is there more static analysis than actual change?
What can we do to get on track? What can you do to help? There are pertinent issues to explore and relevant actions to take. Let’s have a look.
Current Climate Change Standstill
Basic observations were made–CO2 levels are rising, temperatures are following suit, winters are mild, rain seasons are changing, etc. After that, an enormous amount of waste has been poured into this climate jumble continuing to observe, research, discuss and report, where government, media, nonprofits, for-profits and entrepreneurs are devoting time and resources in vain.
We are standing still through procrastination guised as action via planning, speculating and trying to predict and alter things we should not play God with (as geoengineers look to control climate with a remote control, putting additives into the atmosphere similar to chemicals and pesticides in mono-crop agriculture, and we know where that’s got us–more trouble). Adjusting the climate is simply out of human reach. Perpetually straining ourselves to do so is not positively advancing society or solving problems.
A New Approach
We’ve started into climate analysis and now we’re in too deep to stop–we feel pressured to continue with numbers, statistics, reports as meaningless as a weather report for next year’s Christmas day and failed negotiations. We need to put ego aside, to humble ourselves, especially those in authority, and accept the universal uncertainty that surpasses human understanding to recognize that our approach, no matter how widespread, is rather futile.
Nevertheless, climate is invariably varying. It has done so for time far greater than human existence. If we want to sustain life throughout steadfast fluctuations, it’s time we start devoting the mass resources–money, time, brainpower, innovation, you get it–toward adapting and evolving ourselves–our thinking, habits, expectations, societies, government, and overall structure as a race.
Power Vs. Humility
Although it seems more daunting and contradictory to our natural human impulse to be the controller instead of the controlled, we are inferior to the greater forces of Mother Nature. Natural disasters and historical events have proved that we are but helpless to their profound force.
We don’t need to get real on climate–we need to face our own reality, our own place within a system of time, power and magnitude far greater than us. Human intuition drives us, advancing our ability to manipulate life and explore tremendous technological advancements, but due humility is more powerful–and more conducive to survival.
It’s said that you need to know yourself before you can help others, that if you’re happy with yourself you’ll make others happy. Similarly, if we stop trying to figure out the natural world system within a greater universe beyond comprehension (others) without first understanding who we are and what our role is on Earth (self), than we are acting immaturely and without proper insight.
If we first get to know ourselves and understand our role in the grand scheme, we can evolve and sustain accordingly. We will inevitably help others and increase the probability of decreasing the effects of climate variation to better suit our lives, while adapting and evolving to live out our place on Earth in cooperation with the natural world.
Sowing Seeds of Change
Phenomenally, there is a large and growing population of people who have realized things are backwards, that we must act in accord to forces and systems more powerful and beyond our comprehension–I stress–we do not control them but must evolve to live within their parameters.
These pioneers are sowing diverse seeds within communities worldwide as common understanding rises and initiative accumulates. We are a living species and our innate instincts are starting to surface. We know what’s right, we believe what’s right and we’re struggling to break free, wiggling confined to a mold.
You are part of a greater effort toward success, one where nothing is in vain and even simple acts make a difference in the grand scheme. When you’re on the track of humble action, powerful changes ensue instead of resource-depleting, procrastination-ridden strategies of analysis.
What do you think? Are we making strides? Does this reason strike rhyme with you?
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“All there, totally immersed, fascinated and absorbed in the present, in the here-now, with the matter-in-hand.”
~ Abraham Maslow about creative people
Think about the last time you were so engaged in a task time was nowhere to be noticed, where whatever you were doing consumed your mind and warped time into a nonexistent externality.
Chances are, you were engaged in a form of creativity. These states of “flow” or “time-free tasks” aren’t random phenomenon we’ve come to love and seek ways of becoming Flow-State All Stars.
Although seemingly shifty, as the mind often is, a simple understanding of hemispherical brain function matched with raised consciousness will help you find more peace in the present, lose track of time and engage fully in life more frequently.
The Left And The Right Of
Dr. Robert Levine examines time-free tasks in his thought-provoking book The Geography of Time. Highlighting Nobel Prize-winning biopsychologist Roger Sperry’s research at the California Institute of Technology, we learn the left-hemisphere is characterized by verbal, analytical thought such as counting, step-by-step procedures, rational and logical statements and time-based tasks. The right-hemisphere, on the other hand, is “intuitive, subjective, relational, holistic, and time-free.”
Simply put, when we creatively engage ourselves our right-brain takes over and the right brain doesn’t concern itself with time; whereas using our left-brain, we become consumed by the clock. As brain asymmetry scholar Jerry Levy put s it, “The left hemisphere analyzes over time, whereas the right hemisphere synthesizes over space.”
Understanding this basic comprehension of brain function, we enable ourselves to recognize our daily actions in reference to category–are we working on an analytical left or subjective right task? Our heath and mental balance will benefit from not overloading ourselves with left or right brain tasks.
In America, people are more prone to operate consistently with their left-brains and maintain a hurried concern with the clock. This isn’t so everywhere, however, as Dr. Levine points out Bali’s culture, which emphasizes right-brained tasks and finds less concern over stringent time restraints.
It boils down to culture–our attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, expectations and roles in society shape our perceptivity to flow-state experiences.
The Here-Now Of It
At the start of this post, Maslow describes creative people, falling into his “self-actualized” category at the top of his Hierarchy of Needs, as those who are “all there,” “immersed, fascinated and absorbed in the present, in the here-now.”
Buddhist monks spend lives in meditation to increase their ability to proactively engage in the here-now of life, while Maslow’s categorization labels the highest personally developed people to experience the present in such rich taste. It is not an easy task, but why?
Why is it difficult to break from the clock, to engage fully in the present?
For starters, it takes focus and practice. In a culture that breathes distraction, there is little room for neither focus nor deliberate practice.
Sustainably Sustaining
Considering time as an influential factor in sustainable living efforts seems abstract, but it’s not. In Dr. Levine’s book, he duly emphasizes cultural differences in the perception of time and how it affects diverse aspects of our lives.
When we engage our right-brain more frequently, we are more creative. One could go on to presume mental and physical well-being would be enhanced, as well. Beyond these benefits, there is a disconnection between habits of consumption.
When we slow down and engage with the here-now more frequently, we diminish our perpetual cycles of desires and fears matched with tireless technologically choreographed production and consumption habits that tire ourselves and squander resources.
As individuals, societies, global community and natural world, we ultimately benefit from here-now lifestyles.
How to Increase You’re Here-Now Experiences
Although mainstream culture fights for our attention, we can fight back. Here are few battle tips to help you maintain the upper hand, or right-brain.
- Build here-now forts. Create microenvironments of sorts within your life that welcome creative engagement. You will likely still need to be conscious of time, to a degree, but can block of large portions to focus on tasks that free you from time within you’re here-now forts. Take on time-free tasks in your forts, where you can block out external distractions and interruptions. Whether your fort is a room to write or paint, a café where you can focus, a bike and the open road–whatever works to get your right-brain functioning on high.
- Choose no-brainers. I don’t mean trivial things, but choose to do more things that break from the stereotypical categorization of “brainy” in terms of analytical, objective, timed, left-brained tasks.
- Travel. Go spend time in a “timeless,” or at least less-concerned-with-time culture, such as Brazil or Bali. While there, be conscious of the role of time and native’s relation with it. Are people hurried, stressed? What are do they prioritize? Are they happy? What can you learn? Relax, and soak up the essence of timeless time.
How do you relate to time and in what ways can we use time or timelessness to our advantage? Or should we relax and stop trying to use everything to our advantage?
If you found this interesting, I recommend social psychologist Dr. Levine’s book, The Geography of Time. It is a fascinating examination of time’s relation to life.
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