Order out of Chaos—Learning to Embrace Uncertainty
by Mel Schwartz, L.C.S.W.
November 25, 2008
Psychology Today A Shift of Mind Blog
The words, order and chaos, are particularly value laden. We tend to embrace order and avoid chaos at all costs. I’ve come to wonder why that is so. And more to the point, what do we mean by order or chaos? Let’s start by examining what these terms suggest.
The notion of order is equivalent to a sense of predictability. Predictability in this form lets us know what we can expect. It speaks almost of a range of motion. A pendulum, unaffected by friction, will follow its predetermined path. We know just how far it will travel to either point in its arc before beginning its return. Predictability relies upon certainty and measurable outcomes. It has been a major tenet of our culture and our science since Newton introduced the motif of determinism in the 17th century. This range of predictable order is known as equilibrium.
In our lives, order suggests that we know the parameters of our experience, as though the boundaries and limits are determined in advance. The emotional and psychological highs and lows are familiar. The rules of relationship are understood. Knowing the range of our experiences provides a sense of order. As such, order creates a comfort zone as we can be assured of familiar terrain, even if that familiarity doesn’t serve us.
Chaos, on the other hand, suggests an absence of predictability. It triggers the unknown, which for most people is very problematic if not outright daunting. It is a venturing into uncertain territory, far from the familiar zone. Sometimes life’s transitions or crises present chaos in the form of illness, death, divorce, job loss, etc. These events are thrust upon us and we do the best we can to cope with them, aided by family and professional support. Occasionally, we buffer the roller coaster ride through chaos with alcohol, medication and/or therapy.
Sometimes, people seem to slip into personal chaos without any apparent reason. The struggle that ensues may feel like a crisis, as the familiar slips away and we try to avoid plunging into an abyss. But learning to navigate the chaos rather than shutting it down can provide rich rewards. The inclination to flee from chaos and return to order tends to stunt our growth, as it precludes vital new learning and experience. Although personal chaos can be very challenging and often feels threatening, the flip side is that it provides tremendous potential for personal evolution.
Learning to accommodate the accompanying disquiet is the desired goal.
In science, what we refer to as order is known as a state of equilibrium, with its accompanying predictability. Yet, there are times when people move far from equilibrium and approach what we might refer to as chaos. In such a state a single small fluctuation can throw the person into chaos. In science this is known as a bifurcation point. This is a fancy term for the point of departure where we head into new territory. This is more commonly referred to as a tipping point.
When Rosa Parks was too tired to give up her seat on the bus to a White man and remained in an area barred to African Americans, a tipping point ensued and the civil rights movement was catalyzed. When systems or organisms, including people, reach such a point, chaos ensues. Yet out of that chaos there is a spiraling up effect, which leads to a new and higher ordering. We move into a transformative process whereby we can evolve more thoroughly. In other words, chaos may lead to a deeper and more evolved state, which then evokes a new and higher order. It’s simply an engaging of process in which we let go of control. Think of this as a spiraling up in complexity, moving up the ladder of intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth.
One difficulty lays in the fact that we live with a cultural imperative (Newtonian mechanistic worldview) that values predictability and shuns if not outright disdains uncertainty, let alone chaos. Yet, without accepting some degree of chaos, our lives become programmed in a deterministic way that precludes growth. A question arose recently in one of my Emergent Thinking ? classes, which addressed this issue: Does personal transformation have to be catalyzed by some measure of crisis or struggle?
After a prolonged discussion we came to an understanding that ordinarily it does. As a therapist, I see my role in such circumstances as not automatically trying to restore order, but assisting as a guide through the chaos toward a new and more evolving experience. This is the new territory that I previously referred to. It’s a terrain of greater complexity and richness. Small or moderate doses of chaos can bring us to higher levels of personal evolution. I’m not speaking of uncontrolled chaos, which is anxiety producing or worse. I’m proposing embracing a reasonable degree of uncertainty as the flow of life presents wonderful opportunities for our enrichment. Chaos is simply a word. We might do well to ask why we are so reactive to it.
Uncertainty: Ally or foe?
Certainty and predictability, the dominant motifs of Newton’s worldview are deeply rooted in our culture and in our thinking. These deterministic features are sought after and prized. We base our lives upon such predictability and they provide for most people a sense of comfort and security. Ironically, this is not only a false security, but actually a self-limiting philosophy that impoverishes our lives. Certainty dulls our life experience, for not knowing the result in advance requires us to be present and mindful.
We immerse ourselves in spectator sports because of the thrill of not knowing the outcome. The uncertainty is what causes us to engage and at times feel spellbound. Similarly, reading an intriguing book or going to a suspenseful movie equally evokes the excitement of uncertainty. Perhaps we seek these experiences as a compensation for living dulled, non-present lives, choked by certainty. Living in a mechanistic mindset doesn’t provide much vitality
Uncertainty is the essence of romance
Falling in love is a remarkable experience of uncertainty, for the condition of not knowing inclines us to be extraordinarily present. This experience is rich in discovery and enhanced by a lack of determinism and predictability. The wonder and suspense that we encounter during such states of Eros is antithetical to certainty. In fact, predictability may well be the death knell of romance as suggested by Oscar Wilde.
Just consider the phrase—falling in love---which indicates a letting go.
Falling is certainly rooted in uncertainty.
Predictability is rooted in the mechanistic approach of cause and effect. Naturally, we need to know what time to pick up the kids or when the train leaves. Certainty has its place in our lives. But when we make it a deity, we lose not only an important part of our humanity, but the ability to create meaningful change in our lives. We become the conductors of the train, making all the scheduled stops along the way, but stuck on the same rail. This is a far cry from embracing the creative potential of amy given moment and explains why we struggle so much with change.
Just consider the following:
Predictable = certain = already known in advance = no need to really be here = a non-participatory life
Uncertainty = not knowing in advance = fully engaged in creating the future event = participatory in our life’s creation
Uncertainty is necessary for both creativity and potentiality, for if the future is known in advance, there is little opportunity to be the masters of change. We all seem inclined to struggle with change, if not outright transformation. As such, we futilely try to access new states of potentiality. Embracing uncertainty invites these states of potential. In that potential we become the masters of change. Without uncertainty, we are characters in a book, the plot already written. Engage uncertainty and the next chapter is yet unwritten and the pen is back in your hand.
Picture standing by the bank of a river and imagine the river as the metaphorical flow of life. I am coaxing you to enter the river with me to engage this flow. Hesitantly, you agree. Yet, upon moving into the river you grab hold of a boulder and try to hold back the flow of the river. I ask you to let go and embrace the flow, to come along for the ride. You look ahead and see a bend in the river and you protest, “But I can’t see where the river will take me, I need to know before I let go.” And so you block your engagement in the fuller current of life.
This pictorial well illuminates our dependence upon certainty. As such, we miss the fuller and richer flow of life. Uncertainty restores our human potential. Determinism and predictability lead to many of our struggles and travails.
During Al Gore's recent endorsement of Barack Obama, I took note of a particular question he asked. He inquired, " Do we want predictability or creativity?" (Of our next president) This question beautifully illuminates the choice we have when we consider uncertainty or predictability.
The notion of predictability leaves us outside of the creative window. All we can do is analyze, measure and predict. And the greater limitation of this approach is that it leaves us as spectators outside of the events that unfold. Uncertainty brings us right into the fold of activity, co-creating the realities that emerge. From this vantage we are fully participatory in the process of reality making. From a political perspective, a candidate's predictability factor may comfort some and dismay others. On more personal levels, when our lives and actions become predictable, we have removed ourselves from the creative potential.
Our creative energy engages uncertainty and permits the unfolding of many forces. To predict, is to stand back and for see a future, which ironically may not have the opportunity to emerge differently, as the script has already been written.
A fully present and participatory engagement with life embraces creativity. Life rooted in control and fear seeks seek predictability.
What if
Chaos meant unfolding?
And predictable implied stagnant
If uncertainty implored potential
If chance were golden,
What if mind were the straitjacket?
The lack of flux imprisoning
Life would emerge
Discovery cherished
Mistakes a forgotten value
by Mel Schwartz, L.C.S.W.
November 25, 2008
Psychology Today A Shift of Mind Blog
The words, order and chaos, are particularly value laden. We tend to embrace order and avoid chaos at all costs. I’ve come to wonder why that is so. And more to the point, what do we mean by order or chaos? Let’s start by examining what these terms suggest.
The notion of order is equivalent to a sense of predictability. Predictability in this form lets us know what we can expect. It speaks almost of a range of motion. A pendulum, unaffected by friction, will follow its predetermined path. We know just how far it will travel to either point in its arc before beginning its return. Predictability relies upon certainty and measurable outcomes. It has been a major tenet of our culture and our science since Newton introduced the motif of determinism in the 17th century. This range of predictable order is known as equilibrium.
In our lives, order suggests that we know the parameters of our experience, as though the boundaries and limits are determined in advance. The emotional and psychological highs and lows are familiar. The rules of relationship are understood. Knowing the range of our experiences provides a sense of order. As such, order creates a comfort zone as we can be assured of familiar terrain, even if that familiarity doesn’t serve us.
Chaos, on the other hand, suggests an absence of predictability. It triggers the unknown, which for most people is very problematic if not outright daunting. It is a venturing into uncertain territory, far from the familiar zone. Sometimes life’s transitions or crises present chaos in the form of illness, death, divorce, job loss, etc. These events are thrust upon us and we do the best we can to cope with them, aided by family and professional support. Occasionally, we buffer the roller coaster ride through chaos with alcohol, medication and/or therapy.
Sometimes, people seem to slip into personal chaos without any apparent reason. The struggle that ensues may feel like a crisis, as the familiar slips away and we try to avoid plunging into an abyss. But learning to navigate the chaos rather than shutting it down can provide rich rewards. The inclination to flee from chaos and return to order tends to stunt our growth, as it precludes vital new learning and experience. Although personal chaos can be very challenging and often feels threatening, the flip side is that it provides tremendous potential for personal evolution.
Learning to accommodate the accompanying disquiet is the desired goal.
In science, what we refer to as order is known as a state of equilibrium, with its accompanying predictability. Yet, there are times when people move far from equilibrium and approach what we might refer to as chaos. In such a state a single small fluctuation can throw the person into chaos. In science this is known as a bifurcation point. This is a fancy term for the point of departure where we head into new territory. This is more commonly referred to as a tipping point.
When Rosa Parks was too tired to give up her seat on the bus to a White man and remained in an area barred to African Americans, a tipping point ensued and the civil rights movement was catalyzed. When systems or organisms, including people, reach such a point, chaos ensues. Yet out of that chaos there is a spiraling up effect, which leads to a new and higher ordering. We move into a transformative process whereby we can evolve more thoroughly. In other words, chaos may lead to a deeper and more evolved state, which then evokes a new and higher order. It’s simply an engaging of process in which we let go of control. Think of this as a spiraling up in complexity, moving up the ladder of intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth.
One difficulty lays in the fact that we live with a cultural imperative (Newtonian mechanistic worldview) that values predictability and shuns if not outright disdains uncertainty, let alone chaos. Yet, without accepting some degree of chaos, our lives become programmed in a deterministic way that precludes growth. A question arose recently in one of my Emergent Thinking ? classes, which addressed this issue: Does personal transformation have to be catalyzed by some measure of crisis or struggle?
After a prolonged discussion we came to an understanding that ordinarily it does. As a therapist, I see my role in such circumstances as not automatically trying to restore order, but assisting as a guide through the chaos toward a new and more evolving experience. This is the new territory that I previously referred to. It’s a terrain of greater complexity and richness. Small or moderate doses of chaos can bring us to higher levels of personal evolution. I’m not speaking of uncontrolled chaos, which is anxiety producing or worse. I’m proposing embracing a reasonable degree of uncertainty as the flow of life presents wonderful opportunities for our enrichment. Chaos is simply a word. We might do well to ask why we are so reactive to it.
Uncertainty: Ally or foe?
Certainty and predictability, the dominant motifs of Newton’s worldview are deeply rooted in our culture and in our thinking. These deterministic features are sought after and prized. We base our lives upon such predictability and they provide for most people a sense of comfort and security. Ironically, this is not only a false security, but actually a self-limiting philosophy that impoverishes our lives. Certainty dulls our life experience, for not knowing the result in advance requires us to be present and mindful.
We immerse ourselves in spectator sports because of the thrill of not knowing the outcome. The uncertainty is what causes us to engage and at times feel spellbound. Similarly, reading an intriguing book or going to a suspenseful movie equally evokes the excitement of uncertainty. Perhaps we seek these experiences as a compensation for living dulled, non-present lives, choked by certainty. Living in a mechanistic mindset doesn’t provide much vitality
Uncertainty is the essence of romance
Falling in love is a remarkable experience of uncertainty, for the condition of not knowing inclines us to be extraordinarily present. This experience is rich in discovery and enhanced by a lack of determinism and predictability. The wonder and suspense that we encounter during such states of Eros is antithetical to certainty. In fact, predictability may well be the death knell of romance as suggested by Oscar Wilde.
Just consider the phrase—falling in love---which indicates a letting go.
Falling is certainly rooted in uncertainty.
Predictability is rooted in the mechanistic approach of cause and effect. Naturally, we need to know what time to pick up the kids or when the train leaves. Certainty has its place in our lives. But when we make it a deity, we lose not only an important part of our humanity, but the ability to create meaningful change in our lives. We become the conductors of the train, making all the scheduled stops along the way, but stuck on the same rail. This is a far cry from embracing the creative potential of amy given moment and explains why we struggle so much with change.
Just consider the following:
Predictable = certain = already known in advance = no need to really be here = a non-participatory life
Uncertainty = not knowing in advance = fully engaged in creating the future event = participatory in our life’s creation
Uncertainty is necessary for both creativity and potentiality, for if the future is known in advance, there is little opportunity to be the masters of change. We all seem inclined to struggle with change, if not outright transformation. As such, we futilely try to access new states of potentiality. Embracing uncertainty invites these states of potential. In that potential we become the masters of change. Without uncertainty, we are characters in a book, the plot already written. Engage uncertainty and the next chapter is yet unwritten and the pen is back in your hand.
Picture standing by the bank of a river and imagine the river as the metaphorical flow of life. I am coaxing you to enter the river with me to engage this flow. Hesitantly, you agree. Yet, upon moving into the river you grab hold of a boulder and try to hold back the flow of the river. I ask you to let go and embrace the flow, to come along for the ride. You look ahead and see a bend in the river and you protest, “But I can’t see where the river will take me, I need to know before I let go.” And so you block your engagement in the fuller current of life.
This pictorial well illuminates our dependence upon certainty. As such, we miss the fuller and richer flow of life. Uncertainty restores our human potential. Determinism and predictability lead to many of our struggles and travails.
During Al Gore's recent endorsement of Barack Obama, I took note of a particular question he asked. He inquired, " Do we want predictability or creativity?" (Of our next president) This question beautifully illuminates the choice we have when we consider uncertainty or predictability.
The notion of predictability leaves us outside of the creative window. All we can do is analyze, measure and predict. And the greater limitation of this approach is that it leaves us as spectators outside of the events that unfold. Uncertainty brings us right into the fold of activity, co-creating the realities that emerge. From this vantage we are fully participatory in the process of reality making. From a political perspective, a candidate's predictability factor may comfort some and dismay others. On more personal levels, when our lives and actions become predictable, we have removed ourselves from the creative potential.
Our creative energy engages uncertainty and permits the unfolding of many forces. To predict, is to stand back and for see a future, which ironically may not have the opportunity to emerge differently, as the script has already been written.
A fully present and participatory engagement with life embraces creativity. Life rooted in control and fear seeks seek predictability.
What if
Chaos meant unfolding?
And predictable implied stagnant
If uncertainty implored potential
If chance were golden,
What if mind were the straitjacket?
The lack of flux imprisoning
Life would emerge
Discovery cherished
Mistakes a forgotten value
... because, on one hand, I am attracted to the romantic notion of lettting go being equated with creativity and fully living - but, on the other hand, I recognize that for me to live creatively, I need an amount of predictability and structure behind me first - structure being the form, the building, which houses what I already know and makes me confident in owning my personal history. It doesn’t imprison me in the past or necessarily confine me to a predictable path - so long as I don’t let it. It only allows me to know there is a place to come back to. I may never return to it, but having it gives me a sense of continuity which does not falter when change occurs. The experience of an ongoing "self" is, I think, essential to any creative endeavour. Everything around me may change. There may be chaoe, but I am not brought apart by that. I can take advantage of the creative opportunities inherent in that chaos, but only if my sense of self is continuous.
