For someone who is accustomed to being on, to having things under control and figured out, disorientation, disorder, and even just rest can be discombobulating. These are the phases that almost always look better once you are on the other side of them. It’s easy to talk about the...

Whether we’re talking about a marriage, a career, training for a marathon, building a business, writing a book, or walking a spiritual path, the middle phases are often the hardest. They are immune to strategizing and planning and controlling. There’s a risk in spending too little time in...

This is quite similar to a framework that Brad Stulberg, bestselling author of Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox, and co-creator of the TheGrowthEq.com, has written about extensively, and one that is backed by over 100 years of science: stress > rest > gr...

Rob Bell has a framework for growth that goes like this: orientation > disorientation  > reorientation.

Another well-known spiritual teacher, the Franciscan Friar Richard Rohr, often speaks about transformation as a process of order > disorder > reorder.

This is true for individuals and for organizations. It’s true for small communities and entire nations. It’s the stuff of not only spiritual teachers but also science. Evolution is literally a process of order > disorder > reorder. Rush through disorder without listening ...

Herein lies the paradox: It’s counterproductive to suppress or repress disorientation and disorder. But it’s also counterproductive to romanticize and dwell in them. What is one to do?

Perhaps the answer is simply to pay attention — ideally with a non-judge...

As Bell says, the natural tendency is to fight being lost; or perhaps to shut-down altogether in the face of disorientation and disorder. Generally, this isn’t helpful. Decades of psychological science shows that suppression and repression have negative effects.