The Necessity of Disturbance
There is at least one significant moment that triggers us to do some kind of “revolutionary act”.
Mine is my neck and back pain.
I remember those mornings amidst my WFH period due to pandemic that I woke up with neck and back pain, feeling quite unwell and I loathed it. Then one morning I decided to start working out…consistently. Why? On run-of-the-mill days of mine, before the pandemic of course, I used to walk (and stand up) a lot. I didn’t have time for working out, not even able to religiously join a day - a week yoga session in my office. Thus, spending at least 2 hours on the way to the office and at least 1.5 hours on the way back home, every day, was my opportunity to “work-out regularly”. So at that exact moment, I was pondering to myself that I needed to get back on my feet to at least move and get sweaty, so when it’s my time to get back to routine, I won’t shock my long-rested muscles or worse, wind up injuring it.
Long story short, I got myself a work-out mattress, I started to work out for the first time and suffered muscles pain the next morning and few days after. Then, I realize maybe I did it wrong? Some things were lacking? Later I did warm up and cool down, respectively, before & after each work out session. Now, I realize it’s been weeks that I spend at least 30 mins, 5-6 days a week, for working out! It feels fun, really, to get pumped up and sweaty (kind of over glorying, but hell I’m a newbie so give me some space to feel the euphoria and do a tad of flexing here;)) No more muscles torment after, too. I feel upbeat!
Due to that new experience, I came up with a thought how similar us, as individuals, and the ecosystem. Ecosystem endures events of disturbances oftentimes, which disrupts its structure and changes its resources, substrates, or physical environment. The events of disturbance can varied from fires, floods, droughts, storms, herbivory, and disease outbreaks.
Us, human beings, likewise suffer unsettling occasions oftentimes. Say it failures, rejections, betrayals, sickness, and any other forms of inconvenience. Though we all agree that disturbance is not a good thing to happen, we all kind of need that pressure in our lives. We can say that disturbance is inevitable, no? For ecosystem, disturbances are critically important for maintaining healthy and productive functions. As for me, my new work out schedule wouldn’t happen without me feeling unwell, without me suffered a neck and back pain. So there was disturbance that triggers me to aim for a betterment.
Ecosystems have their natural resistance and resilience to disturbances, as we are. How far we can withstand and regain our functions after the events of disturbance. To what extent we can suffer from the effect of the inconvenience. Then, the series of unfortunates may push us past a certain threshold. Once the threshold is reached, we proceed to change. In the end, disturbance leads us to take the revolutionary act, to achieve balance. As these changes occur, we enter a transition from our original or prior state to a new state.
As someone who “loves” to embrace the chaos and pain and channel it toward something positive (at least that’s what The Pattern describes me), I believe that maybe we all should consider to see it this way: Disturbance isn’t entirely meant to wreck us, it’s only another way for us to reach a new state of advancement. Advancement can be related to our self-growth, or maybe career, love-life, anything. Okay, maybe at one point it gives us a great misery, but maybe if we look closer we’ll see something that we can channel toward something good? (now I’m quoting my Pattern again. And was that sound like what people say “toxic positivity”? Kindly let me know.)
So it’s all on us, our call. Will you let it disrupt you or embrace it & take advantage of it instead?
References:
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Wildlife Habitat Council. 2006. Importance of Disturbance in Habitat Management. Fish and Wildlife Habitat Management Leaflet 37:1-11.
Paine, Robert T. 2019. Ecological disturbance. https://www.britannica.com/science/ecological-disturbance. Accessed on June 23, 8.04 PM.
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