Spirals
“You are spiraling.” I’ve heard that many times in the last ten years. Never as a good thing. Spirals are a good thing. I’ll try to convince you.
Have you ever heard of the Golden ratio? In mathematics, art and nature, it is widely considered as something near perfect. Just look at this.
It is perfect. You just feel it. And it is a spiral.
Crime Scene Investigation or search parties often organize themselves into a spiralling pattern. It is highly effective, especially when there is not enough people to perform a grid search or anything else that relies on a large number of people.
When I am dealing with some strong feelings, I usually have “waves”. The thing keeps coming back, but with smaller intensity. I describe it as a sinusoid with a decreasing amplitude. Which is actually a spiral if you look at it from a different angle.
So why is “you’re spiraling” so negative? It feels even more negative than “you’re running in circles”. Well, it is because you are following the spiral in the wrong direction. You are crashing into it’s center.
Oftentimes, “running in circles” means being lost, repeating the same pattern all over again. What a circle and a spiral have in common, is the centerpoint. The Thing. The Person. The Situation. And you seem to be orbiting it no matter what. It is there, always in sight. You can’t change it. When you are running in a circle, you are in the same distance at all times. No progress, no change.
When you are running in a spiral, the distance changes. You may be drawn closer to the centerpoint or you may be increasing the distance.
When you’re coming close to the centerpoint, you are risking a collision. The space you can use to navigate yourself is getting smaller, you are suffocating yourself. And you may hit very hard.
When you are spiraling out though, the distance increases, the space for your manoeuvres increases. You have more freedom, maybe it can feel like you have more control. Less gravity. The centerpoint is still there, it is static, it is not going away. But you are getting further away with each orbit.
When people in relationships are saying “I need some distance”, this is what they mean. Unless they are running away as fast as possible in a straight line. That’s a different, much sadder story.
And this was just 2D. Let’s add another dimension.
Even in 2D, we can talk about escape velocity. But in 3D, that is something else!
Do you feel the force of a tornado that you can tame and ride? I do.
Next time somebody tells you that you are spiraling, start spiraling in the other direction. Instead of spiraling inwards and down, spiral up and out. Deny physics if needed.
Maybe you will find a different centerpoint. The universe is quite big. Stay Fearless.