There are a number of qualities in complex systems. Let’s have a look at a couple of them and see how they can help us to understand why sometimes we get stuck and why on other occasions we when we get through a certain difficult experience we feel that not only life, but we ourselves, have changed irrevocably.
One quality is that of an “attractor”. The one attractor you’ll know something about is the kind that makes “Black Holes” – those whirlpools in space that suck everything, even light, deep into their swirling vortices. There are three kinds of attractor.
- Point attractors – these pull everything towards a single point.
- Loop attractors – these have two centres close together and anything which comes close gets swept back and forward between the two centres, flip-flopping between two alternating states.
- Chaos attractors – a focus of chaos, with everthing that comes near being pulled into a chaotic system.
What can these phenomena teach us about life? Well, a point attractor is the kind of thing that traps us. It might be a wound, a hurt, a bad experience. Or it might be a habit or stuck way of thinking. These are the well-worn paths that always, inevitably, end up at the same destination, producing the same outcome. It’s hard to move on, to grow or to develop when you keep going back or holding on to the same old thing. Point attractors are about stuckness. They produce routines that become ruts.
Loop attractors are those alternating states we often experience – a cycling back and forward between emotional highs and lows, between frantic activity and depression, between fear and anger. There is more variety in a loop than in a point, but they both entrap.
Chaos attractors are the most confusing of all. They hardly seem recognisable. They have no pattern, no rhythm and no predicability. Their only inevitably is chaos. These are the states we often find ourselves in when we are overwhelmed by something – bad news, loss, terror, grief. Like the points and the loops, the chaos attractors trap. At least points and loops have the comfort of the familiar, and, to some extent, the predictable. Chaos states are very hard to experience and can’t be sustained for long.
How can we break free of the pull of an attractor?
- Imagination. Developing your powers of imagination generates the potential for change and for movement. Without imagination it can be hard to believe that there is any possibility of breaking free from the entrapment of an attractor.
- Will. Determination and motivation. It’s one thing to imagine how life could be different but it takes a strong desire and determination to change to break free of the attractor.
- Relationships. Sometimes it takes an external influence to make the difference. This is where other people can make such a difference. It can be the attention, the love and the care of another which helps us to break free from our stuckness, our habits and ruts.
- Changes in circumstances. We all exist in constant interaction with our environments. As the environments change so do we. Changes in circumstances like new relationships, the ending of relationships (whether through break-up or death), loss of employment, new employment, moving house, and so on, can all exert huge power to knock us out of the old patterns and stuck places. This is why sometimes painful events can result in significant gains.
Bifurcators are like crossroads. They are points where things change. With a bifurcator you usually have two possibilities – growing or shrinking. At a bifurcator the system changes and either develops, changes and grows stronger or more resilient, or it declines, shrinking or disintegrating, becoming weaker. The key thing about a bifurcator is that life is not going to be the same again. A good example is pregnancy. Once pregnant, a woman’s life will never be the same. She can never again have never been pregnant. Either the baby will grow and thrive and the woman will become a mother (and how different does THAT make a life!) or the pregnancy will not progress and the woman will experience an abortion, a miscarriage or a stillbirth. In none of these circumstances will she ever be the same again. Often there are no choices possible. Life develops one way, or it develops another. However, in many situations a bifurcator is all about making a choice. The challenges which come our way for example can be accepted or rejected. Accepting a challenge brings the potential for growth. Rejecting a challenge can leave you stuck in the arms of an attractor!
So, here is a key difference between a hero and a zombie – heroes break free of attractors, grasp the bifurcation points and grow; zombies stay stuck at the same points, in the same loops, engulfed in the same chaos, avoiding bifurcators and preventing growth.
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