What happens through you? This question may help you find direction and hope

Developing our connection with the world and people around us can give us a sense of purpose, lighten our burden of achievement and direct our efforts in a satisfying way.

I’m fascinated by many things in biology. One of them is ants. 

Ants think collectively and their behaviour is dictated by the traces they leave behind for other ants. For example, they mark their trails with scents so that their mates will know which trail is the best one. 

Biology professor Deborah M. Gordon studied how ants respond to disturbances by setting obstacles on their trails. Even though the obstacles only affected one group of ant workers directly, other ants in the colony responded by changing roles and tasks. Even after the obstacles had been removed, the ants continued to follow their changed routines for some time. 

We as humans face a multitude of collective challenges from the mental health crisis to a pandemic of burnout and climate change. Yet at the same time we’re encouraged to approach our life in a very individualistic manner. Could we instead live more like ants?

Authors Chris Johnstone and Joanna Macy have a beautiful way of describing collective action. In their book Active Hope, they invite us to ask this question: What happens through you?

The authors suggest that even when our actions seem miniscule in the grand scheme of things, it is through each action that the world becomes what it is or changes. Even in situations where we hold seemingly very little power, our choices are still intertwined with those of others. 

What happens through you doesn’t ask us to tell how we’re changing the world or which actions we’re taking for a specific cause. It invites us to become mindful about our role in this world — our families, communities, and societies.

What happens through the thoughts, words, and actions we express every day? Who do we impact and how? And is there perhaps a way for us to act as a conduit for positive impact, for hope? 

We need to believe in our personal agency – even if it’s just to increase our own hopefulness

Johnstone’s and Macy’s idea of actions, thoughts and ideals moving through us is not new as such. This idea can be interpreted in a worldly and a more spiritual way. 

In a worldly sense, considering ourselves as conduits for positive change means aligning our values and activities with ones that we’d like to see more of in this world. 

In practice, this means that if we would like to see less profit-driven decision-making, perhaps we adopt less consumerist lifestyles, vote for more left-wing parties, or raise our voices about our communities' social and ecological impact.

Or, if we’d like to fight the culture of burnout and overwhelm, maybe the best action is to take our own mental health seriously, ask our bosses to support our work-life balance, or find a job where our well-being is respected.

There are many ways we can contribute to positive change, even when the problem is larger than us. The point of these individual actions isn’t necessarily to create a significant measurable change but to promote the values and attitudes favourable to advancing a cause. 

For example, my choice not to eat meat is a small action on a worldly scale and doesn’t significantly cut down meat production. However, every time I choose a vegetarian meal at a restaurant, I encourage that restaurant to keep a plant-based choice on its menu. Every time I have to explain my vegetarian choices to someone, I’m given a chance to share values and ideals that feel important to me. In the best case, my actions might inspire another to try vegetarianism. 

I think it’s a bit pointless to discuss whether individual choices have an impact or not. Obviously, global decision-makers can speed up societal and environmental development in ways that would be impossible for a person who doesn’t hold that type of power. But I don’t believe this is an either-or type of situation. 

We need to believe our actions have an impact for our own sake. Because that is how we’re able to live in a hopeful state. If we give up on our personal agency, we give up on ourselves. 

Have you ever felt moved by something bigger than yourself?

For centuries, philosophers and thinkers have believed humans are vehicles for important ideas. Historically, this process has been linked with creativity and art. The Greek philosopher Plato described art as ‘divine inspiration’, a type of madness in which gods speak through humans. 

Many artists describe their creative process as a spiritual experience where they connect to their creative genius and enter a flow state in which the art comes easily to them.

Having worked as a writer and commissioned creative for several years myself, I know this feeling very well. There have been moments when I’ve been inspired by something in such a way that it’s almost as if I couldn’t stop writing because the words would flood through me. Sometimes, I’ve been tired and wanted to go to bed but haven’t because I couldn’t stop the creative flow.

Fellow creatives reading this might recognise this feeling. 

For me, these moments of creative flow, as I would call it, are usually the result of time spent working intensely on a project, such as a book. They’ve occurred in moments where I’ve felt relaxed and creatively unobstructed. 

Carl Jung has described this process as an Extraverted creative process, in contrast to the Introverted creative process.

Whereas the Introverted creator is directed by their own willingness to create, the Extraverted creator is controlled by a force bigger than themselves. As cited in a text by the Jungian Center, the Extraverted creator is involved in a process where “works [that] positively force themselves upon the author; his hand is seized, his pen writes things that his mind contemplates with amazement. The work brings with it its own form; anything he wants to add is rejected, and what he himself would like to reject is thrust back at him. While his conscious mind stands amazed and empty before this phenomenon, he is overwhelmed by a flood of thoughts and images which he never intended to create and which his own will could never have brought into being.” 

Why connection is vital for a sense of purpose and relief 

Now, you might be wondering: what do creative works of art have to do with hope and societal impact? 

Whether we believe in god-like forces or not, it’s possible to experience a connection with the world around us that helps us direct our efforts. 

I believe that the idea of having something move through us can help us develop a more mindful and present state of being and find relief in the fact that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

There’s humility in the fact that our actions are of service to something bigger. We can also be inspired to develop a connection that allows us to envision things we didn’t know existed. 

Like Johnstone and Macy say: “There is no such thing as a ‘self-made person’. While we play a role in making ourselves, we are also made by one another and our world.”  

If we believe that we, like ants, possess a type of collective intelligence where information is shared, multiplied, and expressed in a myriad of ways through every one of us, our lives take on another dimension of purpose.

We don’t have to solve our problems in isolation or overthink our ways through personal challenges. Instead, we live and breathe in sync with others. Opportunities and responsibilities come more organically to us. Like ants, we can follow the successes and mistakes made by others and build upon them instead of competing with them.

This connection can give our lives the direction that many of us are desperate to find. 

Instead of being disconnected from each other and the nature that surrounds us, we can become comforted by knowing we’re not alone. 

Instead of the hopelessness and depression caused by disconnection, we can find hopefulness and self-worth in the small actions we’re able to make. 

Instead of waiting for someone else to take action and feeling helpless when they don’t, we can claim our own power. 

I gathered a checklist of ways to reconnect with life, the people, and the forces around you. You’ll find it below this post.

I also encourage you to keep asking: What happens through me?

Become the hope you wish to see in this world.

With kindness,
Aurora