Crisis As A Start - Image

Before talking about all sorts of forms of creative adaptation, it would be nice to orientate yourself on the social, historical and psychological "terrain".

Social affairs

The vast majority of people do not like drastic changes due to their mental organization. And therefore all sorts of optimistic reasoning on the topic "to change is great and very good!" can be attributed more to the category of "sweet pills" for residents of developed countries, forced to cope with modern living conditions. The world has set a standard for a “successful life” that has nothing to do with the previous formula: “know how to be happy at the place of registration”.

By and large, modern life is one big crisis. But the main problem is that no one has asked us for a long time whether we want to change or not. Everything is done in an orderly manner - it is necessary! Master constantly updated gadgets, learn English, build into new relationships, and more. And the price for everything is one's own survival, not well-being, but survival. Without new skills, you will simply be thrown into the trash heap of life. What, in fact, is happening now with entire countries. In general, do not be born happy, but be born in a developed country!

Professional affairs

People more and more often have to change their profession or change within one profession, to move more and more during their lives, not only geographically, but also politically and value-wise. The life of a modern person is continuous creativity. In fact, those who were inflexible are no longer with us. Survivors manage to somehow reconcile within themselves diametrically opposed views, or continue to exist successfully without them.

From the pulpit to the counter

From the changes in the social status of the professions, according to my observations, doctors and teachers suffered most of all. Both in terms of position and morality. But how many wonderful market traders and businessmen of all kinds have graduated from teacher training institutes. Whoever happened to work for my fellow musicians! And this applies not only to the post-Soviet space. Workers in factories, locksmiths in auto repair shops, translators, accountants - and these are those who were immediately remembered. True, twenty years later, some returned "to music" as amateurs, and one even as a teacher at a foreign conservatory. None of them expressed any particular happiness from the forced adaptation. Rather, they were glad that they had managed to survive, regretted the wasted years and were glad that their children would not have to be so “creative”.

All age submissive

But there are also "objective" crises in a person's life, which have nothing to do with social and political situations. Take age-related crises, for example. Here the main creativity is to notice the appearance of others against the background of decreasing opportunities. Without restructuring your life to fit the requirements of your age - nowhere. Age is when you have diseases for no apparent reason. Here I, for example, ran, ran, suddenly a bang - my leg was swollen. The doctor says: “Everything! The body has ceased to tolerate your flat feet! It's time to correct old sins. " And so - in almost any area. It takes a certain resourcefulness of mind to open up new possibilities in limitations. For example, to do something that your hands have never reached before - your health, for example, or relationships with loved ones, or just something interesting. In those countrieswhere "secure old age" is practiced, people do just that. In our case, it would be a sin not to take advantage of at least the respite that the infirmity gives us.

How are the "border guards"

There is no such psychological feature from which a person would not manage to extract at least some benefit. It seems like someone, and "border guards" (people with a border organization of personality) can be attributed to the champions in terms of crises! Their whole life is a continuous crisis. But even in such a desperate situation there are characters who manage to creatively approach the organization of their lives. So, one longtime acquaintance has been able to go from endless "searches for oneself", interspersed with bouts of alcohol-drug idleness, to professional extreme sports and tourism over the past ten years. It is the borderline organization of the personality that fosters the desire to try something new, and preferably risky. Instead of a long series of one-day relationships “I don’t remember with whom,” this woman now has long-term affairs. For the sake of completeness, we add that alcohol-drug breakdowns still happen now, but on the whole she lives much better than in the previous, already "turbid" times.

The Chinese word for crisis is composed of two characters: one means danger, the other means opportunity. "

John F. Kennedy

The experience of the "outcasts"

The logic is simple - since I cannot live normally in the proposed circumstances, I can change these circumstances. People who, for various reasons, cannot adapt to modern life, find themselves in “out-of-the-way” practices - from esoteric circles and yoga to all kinds of “schools of spiritual growth”. And, I must admit, for many it helps to somehow socialize. The same yoga "keeps" the psyche of people with various disabilities quite well, but, however, on condition of lifelong regularity of classes.

Free innovators

For some lucky people, crises are a direct call to creativity! After all, these are periods when the old rules do not work. So, we will create new ones! The same is with the "measure of permissibility" and with the understanding of oneself. A crisis means that a new self is needed, in a new image and with new possibilities. As one client said: “When something happens, even irreversibly bad, in the first seconds I feel relief: here it is, will! The world has gone crazy, it does not keep its promises, so I am free too! No decency, no social acceptability! I can fight, cry, ask, in general I can! Colors, loopholes, inspiration and, most importantly, strength appear”.

Stream fans

When a crisis occurs, some people have the feeling that they are "in a stream". As one such extreme lover described his feelings, "events line up in a neat row, you begin to rely more on intuition, on sensations in the body, desires, you become kind of like" more animal ", but at the same time with" overclocked brains. " Vivid sensations! And if the external crisis does not happen for a long time, you can create an internal one. To deliberately put yourself in a critical situation is too scary. But somehow, little by little, by accident - to get sick and miss the deadline, inadvertently make a row, so that "it happens by itself." When you become insipid and boring for yourself, disgusting and decent to the teeth, "it" is close. You swing yourself, and something will burst out, and for a while you can breathe in deeply!

Successful under duress

Another important factor is when life is pressing, and there is nowhere to retreat. One physicist I knew was quietly writing a dissertation for himself. When his daughter was born, there was not enough money, and he began to look for a job as a programmer for two or three days. At that time, they didn't take part-time jobs - there were a lot of applicants, the salaries were high. But he spoke with such inspiration and confidence about his hopes for defending his dissertation that he was hired for three days a week - it was akin to a miracle. At the interview, he did not invent anything, he spoke exclusively about his beloved physics. By the way, after the defense, he was well promoted in the field of programming. Later, he once admitted that he would never have achieved such an income and such a job if someone helped. “You just understand that there is no one behind. So, you just take and do as much as possible."

Poverty as creativity

In a sense, a crisis is always a return to the old system of values. So congratulations to everyone for whom making money and buying all kinds of junk is not the main meaning of life! Your time has come. You know what to do with yourself and how you can dispose of yourself without money. And what to do with all those who have been in the last five or ten years in continuous heavy shopping? Being poorer is also creativity. One menu change is worth it! How much culinary invention must be applied in order to feed a family deliciously using a different set of products. But there is a reason to remember what the taste of fried potatoes and sauerkraut is. Seasonal supplies are returning again. For urban youth who no longer remember this way of life, everything that happens is sheer creativity! So we do not hesitate - we rememberthat everything new is well forgotten old.