Some conflicts feel intractable. These can get me stuck in a thought loop. As someone who loves solving problems, I’ve learned that when no clear solution emerges, the best move is to shrink the problem. Let me explain.
When I was premiering ‘Okeanos’, I partnered with a trendy organization for preshow talks. In our initial meeting, the producer said she would purchase 300 of our tickets for $30 each on Friday night and we would provide a free venue for her event. We shook hands and I thought it was done. I was naive because the next time we spoke about the details, she stated she would only pay $25 per ticket. My entire production budget had been built around selling those tickets for $30, so this change presented a major problem. Without a formal contract, I had no leverage. To make matters worse, she claimed I had agreed to rent specialty equipment for her event, something I had never agreed to.
At first, I spent a lot of time stewing over the unfairness, thinking about karma, bad energy, and how she was a deceitful person hiding behind her supposed love of the arts. But ultimately, I realized that this kind of thinking wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
I made a wish for myself. I wished for the Saturday night show and collaboration to be so successful, it would shrink the power of her 300 tickets. For this night, I collaborated with one of my science advisors Dr Tierney Thys and National Geographic. Thys lined up such an impressive roster of pre-show speakers including a NASA astronaut, celebrity chef Barton Seaver, and her Deepness Dr Sylvia Earle that we sold 600 tickets for that night. The sheer celebratory positivity of the second night fully dwarfed the darkness of the Friday production.
When I am stuck in a situation where I can’t find the solution, sometimes I think it is better not to win. Maybe the better answer is to focus elsewhere and shrink that negative situation by comparison. This approach is projective rather than reflective. I put my powerful brain-actualizing machine on where I want to go. I imagine a future so bright that this shitty past situation is shrunk in comparison. It goes from being massively oppressive and laden with powerlessness to something small, twisted, and irrelevant. It also gives me something to push against as I reach toward something fun, satisfying, beautiful, and empowering. I run toward the world rather than being trampled by my past.
Perspective is powerful. Psychedelics offer new perspectives by breaking you out of your neural habits and desynchronizing areas of the brain that are usually tethered. Let’s shrink that shit and run toward your big bright future!