BREAKDOWN

A breakdown from an ontological perspective is an unwanted interruption in the flow of your emotional preferences, a disruption in how you prefer people and your circumstances to be.

There is a skill in dealing with breakdowns and producing positive results with them. This skill of addressing a breakdown and creating a new future – rather than contracting into resignation, fear, or tolerating it – is an act that creates a commitment to take care of the breakdown with further action. It is initiated with the act of “declaring the breakdown.” Some people see broken situations and never speak up. Others say “let’s do something about this.”

Here’s the basic structure of the breakdown and actions that we can take to cope and respond:

• Old Flow – we are in our automatic, transparent, embodied practice in life Interruption that requires coping arises
• Breakdown – the assessment of positive or negative consequences and the need to respond
• Standard response – automatic responses and practices – from paralysis to standard actions

Or

• Declare the Breakdown – make a generative declaration to pay attention and pay attention to your network of help and asking for help, looking for equipment, and managing your prior commitments.
• Manage the Breakdown – organize and design coping actions for new possibilities both individually, or in teams, organizations, or communities; you may design, invent, or innovate for new value
• Resolve the Breakdown – from our conversations in managing the breakdown we achieve the state of clear commitment to actions for going forward
• New Flow – we are in new commitments and a new flow to the future, no longer in a breakdown

In short: This is an interruption in a well-established flow of events. You become aware of of the presence of something that you were previously unaware of. It was “transparent” to you. It leads to a different assessment of what is going on or assumed to be happening, which brings new thoughts and possibilities to mind.