Why chaos is necessary for growth
One of my favorite books in the world, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche has taught me a lot of important life lessons. One of them is the importance of chaos in our lives.
In his novel, he quoted the following:
“I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche’s statement is quite bold and spot on in relation to how we can shine and be our best selves.
How can we as human beings be these dancing stars? I think there’s a simple answer to this question: we need to accept and embrace chaos in our past and present moments to create our best selves in our future.
Let’s start to understand this answer by defining chaos.
Per the Merriam Webster Dictionary, Chaos is defined as: “A state of utter confusion; A state of things in which chance is supreme — especially : the confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms.”
The definition makes complete sense once you compare it to how a star is actually created in this universe. Associate Professor, Richard Brill at Honolulu Community College described the birth of a star:
A star is born when atoms of light elements are squeezed under enough pressure for their nuclei to undergo fusion. All stars are the result of a balance of forces: the force of gravity compresses atoms in interstellar gas until the fusion reactions begin. And once the fusion reactions begin, they exert an outward pressure. As long as the inward force of gravity and the outward force generated by the fusion reactions are equal, the star remains stable. — Richard Brill
It doesn’t take an astrophysicist to understand there is chaos involved in the birth of a star, but it takes a lot of self-reflection to understand how the chaos in our lives can impact our growth as human beings.
It is in our present moment where chaos can surround us, but it is in the present moment where we can organize and master any inner or outer chaos in our lives to help us transform into our own version of the ubermensch — Nietzsche’s idea of the super human.
To me, the ubermensch is a human who can overcome and rise above to think for themselves and learn from their mistakes, and constantly be in a state of growth of constant self-improvement.
This is the key to creating ourselves as dancing stars on this planet. As humans, we aspire to be bright, strong, balanced, organized, conscious individuals that lead with their heart and minds and overcome obstacles that cross our paths.
When we look up at the night sky, the stars fill me with wonder and excitement and I feel inspired. That is how I feel about inspirational human beings who have overcome their pasts to become better versions of themselves.
There are forces at hand out of our control (what some might feel is chaos) that provide us the opportunity to grow and evolve within ourselves. This is where understanding inner/outer chaos is important. Once we understand the types of chaos in our lives, we can begin to use it to help us grow.
To me, inner chaos can be anything caused by the mind such as anxiety, depression, restlessness, self-imposed stress, anguish, emotions that cause us to lose focus on the present moment, etc. The list can go on with the type of inner chaos that we can experience as humans.
Outer chaos can be things such as our environment, work, social events, family, friends, interactions with things outside of us and things outside of our control.
Here is a prime example.
Imagine growing up as a child who was bullied constantly from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. The bullying has the potential to cause tons of inner chaos from feelings of worthlessness and depression. This can then trigger anxiety and insecurity into their teenage years and later on into adulthood.
From that environment, the child had several choices to make on who they wanted to become.
They had the choice to decide whether they were going to let that chaos and stress of their situation define them by taking revenge on those who hurt them, completely ignore the situation and pretend to not be bothered by it, become a bully and make others suffer because they wanted others to feel as miserable as they did, or the final option as I’d like to call it: the ubermench option:
Allow the past and present chaos to mold them into a better human by recognizing that what happened to them does not define them, and they can consciously choose create a better version of themselves to help others and stand up for others as they grew up, despite of the fact that they could not control what happened to them as a child since it was out of their control in their school environment.
In that example, the child was me.
While kids were cruel to me my whole life, I chose to not let it define who I became as an adult. I spent my adult life wanting to protect and help others from being bullied by trying to understand what caused certain people to act out in their childhood. I also decided that I was not going to inflict suffering on others because the world had enough of it, and I decided to spread kindness since I knew how bad it felt to feel alienated and alone.
Do I consider myself a burning star?
What I do know is that I have overcome and risen above my mental health issues and circumstances that life has thrown at me to realize that I can keep consciously pressing forward and staying positive and remaining a light in the darkness for myself, and for others.
Maybe that’s all a star is in it’s simplest form — a light in the darkness for others that was born from chaos, and that alone is enough to be considered a “dancing star” amongst humanity.
So here I stand, a dancing star, ready to help others shine their light, and remain a light for others stuck in the darkness.
By: Cecilia J. Sanders
