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The Beauty of Insanity – A Place Where Pure Creativity Blossoms

3 Heart it! Natasha Potter 50
July 21, 2018
Natasha Potter
3 Heart it! 50

History dictates that a touch of “madness” lets you tap into the stream of alternative thought — otherwise known as pure creativity.

All the great artist and thought leaders like Van Gogh, Newton, Mozart, Beethoven, Hemingway, Tesla, Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, Lincoln, Michelangelo to Darwin would have been diagnosed in today’s society with mental illness or disorders.

*John Kuroski wrote an insightful article on their potential mental disorders that you can read here*

If they were alive in today’s world — they would have likely been recommended some form of medication to balance the “chemical imbalance” inside of their “mechanical” bodies.

However, without this choice, there was no option but to let their minds undress to see a reality others don’t & honestly, without their ventures into the darkness, they likely wouldn’t have gifted humanity with such a different and often beautiful slice of the world.

I regularly wonder if they had the options to take medication and get psychiatric care if they would have

Aristotle once said that “No great genius has existed without a strain of madness” — a more recent scientific study, by Szabolcs Kéri, confirmed that stating that a gene called neuregulin 1 was linked to one’s creativity and one’s likelihood of developing any number of psychoses. Including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This finding confirmed the undeniable link from madness to genius.

But what really constitutes sanity?

How well we follow society’s overall collective value or how little we break down in despair?

Socrates touched upon this notion admirably well with his “Socratic questioning” — which is a method that teaches you how to expand your perceptions and mental explorations.

If you really start questioning the basis of our lifestyles, you begin to wonder how sane the collective of humanity really is.

“There are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.”

― Bill Hicks

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for — in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.”

― Ellen Goodman

After reading these quote and other similar intellectual essays, I was inspired to dig deeper into the creation of our social-economic system and the general consensus of opinions that we let dictate our reality & lifestyle day to day.

Did you know that “The eight-hour workday was created during the industrial revolution as an effort to cut down on the number of hours of manual labor that workers were forced to endure on the factory floor” — Travis Bradberry.

Back in those days, a happy life was considered one where you were wealthy enough to afford slaves so that you didn’t have to work. Then long before those times, our ancestors lived happily as berry pickers and boar whisperers.

Then one-day labor was capitalized by influential & often greedy individuals with big visions. After that villages formed, governments were created and systems were put in place for optimal productivity.

So isn’t it justifiable to say that everything we know in today’s society, our present reality, happened on nothing more than a whim based on our ancestors desires and actions hundreds to thousands of years ago?

These days it’s considered the norm to trade our time for money and our money for everyday conveniences and materialistic possessions. Yet we never really meet a point of pure satisfaction. Likely because we are bombarded with an industry that feeds on us not feeling satisfied or good enough how we are. Then we medicate these feelings away, often with drugs, alcohol and pharmaceutical medication, so that we may brush with that feeling of “sanity” and being “good enough” once again.

But, what if I told you, the most significant changes in history came from those willing to believe in the power of their own minds, their own dreams and creating their own reality.

As Terence McKenna once said — ‘Only psychos and shamans create their own reality.’ I’d also add to that — creative geniuses, thought leaders and artists.

Why is that?

What is the secret to their often pure and exotic creativity & why can’t we have more of it?

Because since childhood we are taught to draw between the lines of societies expectations.

A prime example is found in the popularity of gossip magazines, beauty advertisements and general clickbait we see all over the place. The magazines are often filled with the latest drama of the rich and famous. Adverts that promote products & brands that help us to be more attractive and ideal. To the clickbait ads like “buy a Russian wife” or “how to lose belly fat with this one insane method.”

In one form or another, they all feed on our need to feel “normal”, attractive and lovable without any real effort.

When you’re keeping your “demons” at bay with mind-numbing substances — you have no motivation to create new ways to explore and express yourself. You end up becoming more complacent and falling easily into these materialistic “distractions” to fill the void of not feeling adequate enough. But we should all know by now, that true and lasting happiness is only derived from a healthy mindset.

“Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.” — George Carlin.

Here’s a different viewpoint.

Look at the headlines on gossip magazines and question why many often feel so enticed to see the failures, frustrations, and feuds of the “media elites”.

Have any ideas?

There is actually a psychological term for this phenomenon called “Schadenfreude,” which is defined as “the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.”

Why?

Because as humans, we need to be reassured that our very subjective emotions, appearances and general failures aren’t all that bad, that there are others out there doing worse than us. Which makes us feel more comfortable with our own reality. It’s kind of like the “healthy” alternative to using mind-numbing substances, which enable us to forget our inadequate reality in order to cope better mentally.

While this really isn’t all that bad, for ordinary people that battle with anxiety or mental illness, they often experience a feeling of isolation and loneliness that they can’t escape. Leading to the abuse of mind-numbing substances or feeding of the failures of our fellow humans. These days though, one of the most popular ways to avoid the concept of our overall reality not being purely sunshine and lollipops is to wear a mask — conveying our life in a way that is picture perfect. Otherwise known as the “idealic” instagram life. This contributes highly to the notion that there are “flawless” people out there that we need to aspire to be like.

All of these ideas convey the fact that as a collective species — all we really want is nothing more than to be like everyone else — to be loved and accepted. Because we are taught that what we are experiencing, i.e this feeling of being inadequate, anxious or generally different, is fundamentally wrong.

However, I believe that what we are experiencing is one of the real creative turning points of humanity.

Depending on how we let our minds perceive this “insanity” — it can end in a beautiful insight into the depths of our thoughts and emotions or a slow unravelment of our identity and connection to the rest of society.

I think it comes down to the individual’s willpower and self-belief, if it is strong enough, they can harvest a more profound meaning from the darkest parts of their minds and express it — whether that’s creatively, chaotically, poetically or simply expressed to a close friend.

It’s a VERY healthy practice to express that feeling and to know that it isn’t the end of the world to be different or unhappy.

Otherwise, most aren’t taught how to deal with this often unavoidable darkness and depression, falling ever so deeper into the stigma and anxiety of being an outcast from “normal” society.

Has anyone else noticed that the fundamentals of emotional intelligence are one of the few things our mainstream education lacks?

I feel like it is due to this, that we often feel like we are on the edge of something far more significant then what we can handle. We end up cowering in the face of insanity’s stigmatized & enigmatic glare. Terrified of what is hidden in the layers of madness — leaving us looking for something to numb or distract ourselves with.

“Youth always tries to fill the void, an old man learns to live with it.” — Mark Z. Danielewski.

One of the healthiest mindsets I’ve ever learned is this.

That it is NORMAL for life to be beautiful and chaotic, and more often than not — incomprehensible.

That the only way we can live it to the highest degree is to believe that our ability to experience the spectrum of “human” emotions is an innate gift as a species.

To learn to never label it as good or bad — but merely an experience, hoping one day to master surfing the waves of life with a monk-like grace.

If we choose to experience life in it’s raw, unhindered form (with the assistance of good books, mindful techniques and the support of well-educated psychologists), we can better derive wisdom from it — helping us to improve our understanding of reality and oneself.

Leading us to better manage the darker parts of our minds when they inevitably rise once again. In turn, it naturally strengthens our presence of mind & appreciation of the good times.

Which overall makes us less susceptible to becoming incapable of handling the unavoidable woes of life — making life overall more bearable and in my experience — much more enjoyable!

But back to the point of insanity being beautiful.

No one’s journey or mindset is the same, but I can guarantee, at one point or another, that we will all experience this feeling of disconnection and anxiety about not being “good” enough.

If you dig deeper, you can realize that nothing is truly right or wrong, only the perceptions you allow to dictate the meaning of your reality.

When is despair we should try to observe and appreciate the thought that the most majestic creativity was born from the few creative geniuses and artists who dare venture into the depths of the void (aka insanity, aka outside of the box).

As Carl Jung famously expressed — “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”

So next time you feel like you’re losing it, or that you’re mentally impaired know that with the right tools and insights, one day you might be capable of redefining it — instead of letting the world dictate the meaning of you’re very unique experience of this once in a lifetime existence.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

― Albert Einstein

“The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.”

― Anton Chekhov

By no means should you drop all medication and start relying purely on yourself and the power of the mind! These concepts and observations are nothing more than a warm thought to help you through the general insanity of life.

The best thing you can do is teach yourself the power of mind over matter, the power of emotional intelligence, and the gifts that are found within “insanity.”

Afterall it’s our differences that make us uniquely beautiful. If life wasn’t full of twists and turns, would we even pay attention and be grateful for the good times?

The most celebrated movies, music, and literature of all time play on this fundamental truth of relatability; that as a collective all of us, at one point or another, have suffered from our actions and perceptions. The real beauty is found in our ability to overcome it and create something even more significant from it.

P.S

If you don’t know how to enter the void, but would like to for reasons of self-progression. You can find areas that you can improve by using Socratic questioning and mindfulness techniques like meditation in everyday life — which helps you to create a space between your thoughts and common perceptions so you can redefine how or who you want to be, moment to moment.

Another place you can also find areas to improve is how you relate to (or react to) the world outside of you — which often defines a lot about your inner psyche and subconscious. As Ralph Waldo Emerson says — “People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” Once you take full responsible for your reactivity and mindset — only then will you be able to understand and control it.

“You are the writer, producer, and director of your own mind programs.” ― Elizabeth Bohorquez

P.P.S

Here’s a bit of over the top wordplay to think about for all of you simile lovers out there.

Enlightenment is defined as “the intellectual movement emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.” (aka outside of box)
Sanity is defined as “the ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner; sound mental health.” (aka inside of the box)

So if the void or the unknown is darkness, which makes reality “depressing or heavy,” and being aware is viewed as the opposite — which is brightness, making life more “light-hearted and enjoyable.” Then enlightenment is the act of bringing awareness to the darkness inside of us. Meaning we are having a more en’light’ed experience of reality.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed my work — please leave a comment describing your thoughts, I’d love to hear others philosophy on life and it’s countless perceptions.

You can find more of my writing on medium.

With love,

Nash.

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3 Heart it! Natasha Potter 50
3 Heart it! 50

mrcrispp Jul 21, 2018 1:39am

So many juuuuicy thoughts, thanks for writing.

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