Closed-Heartedness

The Open Heart is the home of possibility. Visionmakers believe that openness is one of the conditions that best supports foresight. As a result, a Visionmaker guards against closed-heartedness as an obstruction to seeing.  

In a state of closed-heartedness, we resist new possibilities, and fail to consider them from a place of curiosity and optimism. They are often greeted with suspicion, as unwelcome guests who seek refuge in precisely the wrong way, and at precisely the wrong time. They are usually turned away at the border of our consciousness with a declaration: Dangerous Material!

Foresight is only available to those who can hold the creative tension that comes when a new possibility challenges the status quo. As you may recall from previous posts, creative tension is the perceptual stretching that is required to open to a new possibility.

Creative tension is the atmosphere that arrives with paradox, dilemma, unfamiliar people or circumstances, creative opportunities, and conflict.  It is the field of the emerging future.

Closed-heartedness provides no entry point for creative tension or disperses it before it has time to provide the stimulation required for us to see something new and be changed by what we see. Our own transformation is blocked as a result.

For most people, creative tension is like being tortured on the rack. To a Visionmaker, creative tension is the medium for growth and change.

Between a possibility and the status quo is the aperture for the emergence of a breakthrough. Our challenge is to stay open-hearted and resilient in these conditions, rather than shut down, which collapses the aperture.

We are currently experiencing conditions that test our ability to stay open in the face of uncertainty and volatility. Most of us hate it.  

A Visionmaker sees it as a thrilling adventure into "what's next."

Foresight requires the strength of character, resiliency and tenacity to accept life's experience-the good, bad and the ugly–without closing down and hardening the heart.

To do this, we must face our fears, disappointments and perceived losses and stay open-hearted...no matter what.

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.