adapt to change

This blog article is the result of a conversation I had last week around 2am in front of my house. A friend of mine and me discussed the possibilities to produce changes in the world and increasing the awareness for topics like climate change, third world aid or anti-Semitic thoughts. How can we, being aware of these problems, inspire those who sometimes even don’t know about them, to rise their interest and engagement in order to improve society?

Many people who are quite active attend demonstrations, host alternative parties or just exclude themselves from the society we live in trying to be different. But is this the best method to improve the world? I personally doubt that. And – I have some thoughts, how we could do better. We must create change through adaption.

about adaption

I know it might sound weird: adaption to create change. For most people the term ‘adaption’ has the same meaning as ‘acceptance’, which includes a passive and noncritical way of dealing with things. For me ‘adaption’ is positive. It describes the way of understanding, observing and analyzing the problems we have to solve.

Our environment is the best example to explain the aspects of adaption. Animals adapt to their environment in order to feed themselves and grow offsprings. Plants adapt themselves to the climate changes of a year. Nature teaches us: if you want to interact with the environment around you, you first have to understand how it works.  

For us that means, if we want to change a situation, we first have to analyze and go with it. 

create the changes from inside

I have an image for you: imagine an economist who manages a lot of money and is well known as a person who cuts jobs in order to increase his own fortune and power. Society finds out about it, and very soon demonstrations against his company will take place. There will be articles on social media and the news might mention it, but what happens to the manager? Nothing! He might just take the backdoor in order to go home. Imagine a second version introducing a young economist who works in the same field. He also does not agree with the method of our first economist. Therefore he introduces a plan, how this economic field must be conducted and publishes the plan online, so the society will be informed about that. In addition to that he creates a workshop for interested people to exchange ideas about how to change the situation. 

Which case do you think will affect our manager more? I am pretty sure that it will be the second one. Why? The reason is, he does not fear the outside, but the inside.

pathways or crossroads?

Adaption in this case means we have to become a part of the inside in order to change something. The young economist possibly studied economics, gained a profound knowledge about the field and is able to have precise ideas but also concrete interaction on a professional level. If you want to change our economic system, if you don’t agree with capitalism, there is one thing you have to do: study economics and start working in that field to improve it.

Change is always a question of power. Power has many different faces, such as financial support, followers or knowledge. It is easier to work with the force, which is already there, instead of creating a new one. Taking the given is a resource. People believe in what they’ve already known and experienced.

Taking the given is a tool we use in movement therapy too. Working with a patient doesn’t mean showing him my wonderful way of moving, but understanding the way he moves, take it as a resource and try to create something new out of this.

Let’s say you want to change the way people use social media. Then you should not exclude yourself from using social media, but create a webpage, which teaches people how they could use social media.

change on a long-term perspective

Change is nothing to start in the morning and to finish in the evening. Who wants to have an impact needs to think long-term, which includes your own preparation.

The long-term perspective includes profound research about the topic you want to work in, maybe study it, or research for information. On the other hand, joining a demonstration against something for one day is a short-term solution, but won’t have a great impact in the future.

This sounds rather pessimistic, but it is not! No one has to change the whole world, but if you focus on one or two things you want to improve, you will achieve loads by working in a profound and precise way.

be an invisible alternative

I also had witnessed the so called “alternative bubble”. In my city you find such places, where people try to exclude themselves from the given situation and live an alternative way. There is nothing to argue about this decision – the point is: two blocks away no one knows about it. And these are the people who should know, being the majority we want to mobilize with our ideas.

The second problem is fear. I can tell from my own perspective: I am afraid of demonstrations. Being a small person, I avoid violent and uncontrolled environments, knowing that I will be the first to be hurt if something happens. So I circumvent these places, even though the ideas attendees fight for might be good and should invite people to join in.

This inspires me to introduce another aspect of adaption: if you want to reach people, you must speak the language they can understand.

Take nature as an example again: a tree who wants to grow does not fight against the wind, but is flexible enough to join its movement.

Adapt – and leave something new

If we adapt and follow, maybe for many years, how should be stick to our original ideas without being changed by society or the companies we work at?

I believe that many of us don’t know how much power they already have and the self-confidence which should result from that.

We are all teachers, engineers, doctors or something else we can use to improve things. A teacher who wants to help refugees can join a project about teaching children in third world countries. Every one of us is a resource for this world. We just need to see and take it. Therefore we should connect ourselves with the given, use it, and create something new out of it.

for vlo, thank you for the drum-night and the chocolate-energy-ball.

be aware of the city

How fast is the city? Can you measure it?

Okay, let’s go to Cologne city center on a Saturday afternoon. Streets are packed with people struggling from shop to shop, carrying huge paper bags and talking about winter sale. Many of them might walk being unaware of their surroundings. But some do realize that something weird is happening here. There are three people, in the middle of the street – just standing or meditating. They don’t talk, have no bags, don’t even look at somebody. They just wait, eyes closed, focused on their own breath. Even though they don’t disturb other people, some of those feel pressed or unsecure about these three humans. What they don’t know is that, these three people belong to a larger group of dancers training group awareness in the city center.

let’s be a group

But, why do people feel weird about us, even though we don’t disturb or contact them? To understand this phenomenon we have to have a glimpse on social psychological aspects of group dynamics. Of course you would not consider yourself to be part of a group when you go shopping on your own, but actually - you are! As soon as we enter a specific environment, such as a supermarket, a train, or a shopping street, we automatically adapt to the given situation, trying to identify with it. The result is, that our bodies unconsciously adapt to walking speed, muscle tonus and the visual perception of those people surrounding us. 
 

Maybe you have realized that people in the city all somehow seem to look alike.

Group identification is an important process in order to create harmony and stability, but also safety within an environment containing many people. So we follow these unspoken rules to prevent ourselves from anger, and to reach our goals within this environment.

what happens if we un-group

There are some interesting observations about that: Once people realize, that you are not respecting the given rules, but still belonging to a part of another group (such as an awareness training group), your behavior will be more accepted, then being on your own.

Many people asked us, if we are a performance group even though we didn’t perform anything. That implies, that acting different is seen as showing something to this group, even though we didn’t seek for any interaction with them. 

Once we enter an environment, we stop our private habits and start acting in a way which is appreciated by others. What did our training group do though? We started to include private movements into our research, such as sitting, waiting, relaxing or meditating. The result was that people around us reacted even more afraid and suspicious. 

My last point concerning this experiment regards concepts we have in society. Our tryout included having three people walk down the street holding hands – all three of them. Society nowadays already got used to homosexuality or love between races, but three people being together is still something most people can’t capture. No need to mention the reactions and observing faces we attracted doing this.

have a coffee break

As a second environment we chose to have a coffee in a coffee shop, but not as most people would. Our rule was: we can only drink, if everyone in our groups drinks. And further, we would always shift the objects on our table and change sitting places, all of these, nonverbal.

My first observation is that, even though we were ten people, not talking at each other, acting really weird - most people would not notice us. We sat next to two guys playing games on their cellphones, and it took them about an hour to realize that something was going on. Our conclusion about this behavior also states that, coffee shops nowadays change into a silent environment where people go on their own, not talking, but maybe reading or relaxing.

My personal feeling about this whole situation was quite unused and disconnected, as I acted completely opposite to what I would usually do in a coffee shop: talk to the people I am in with.

The whole time we’ve been highly concentrated, demanding to focus the objects or other group members trying to engage everyone drinking by lifting their bottles. Compared to other people there, we were in a different universe; our communication happened on another level, integrating features as laughing or views.

A coffee shop is a perfect prove for the division of big groups into smaller subgroups. Even though everyone in there belonged to the environment labeled “coffee shop”, people would split up into smaller groups, such as friends or being a single person.

city can train your concentration

We learned which effects an environment could have on us was, but also how to concentrate within a group, how to be aware of other group members, while acting in a complex and complicated environment.

Critical environments can be a perfect training spot for all kind of groups, such as managers or dancers, who want to improve their communication and listening skills.

So let us transform more shopping streets into meditation hotspots.