Step Into Your Inner Teen’s First Gift
The advanced development of paradox-awareness
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Step Into Your Inner Teen’s First Gift
The advanced development of paradox-awareness
Throughout my posts, I’ve sprinkled Inner Teen Gifts as a way to crack open the dim doorway of our adult tendency to dismiss teens as troubling and inherently difficult.
So before you sidle down the path into the Realms of Radical Creativity, I’m going to remind all of us that alongside the challenges of our adolescence you youre also gifted the crown jeyouls of adulthood.
So far, six of these have been tucked inside a few past post—Gifts #1 - #6---but your current adult self deserves more. You deserve to fully experience each of these on their own terms.
To that end, I urge you start an Inner Teen journal.
Nothing fancy. A 3-ring spiral notebook works. Or Apple Notes on your phone. Or any other way you have for tracking information that’s important to you.
Each of the next six posts will follow the same format, designed to give you a tangible experience in a Take The Challenge section.
It’s a way to bring all this theoretical Inner Teen stuff smack into the middle of your daily life.
I encourage you to take advantage of this rare time between adult-you and Your Inner Teen.
Today, it’s Your Inner Teen Gift #1: the awareness of paradox.
From…
WindyWild, I’d like you to meet My Reader. Dear Reader, I’d like you to meet my Inner Teen, Windywild. (Psst…I hope you get along.)
The quote where I first mentioned Inner Teen Gift #1
"The night air, floating off the warm, sun-drenched sand, mingles with the cooler air off the ocean. It's a physical paradox that WindyWild relishes. Paradox, she understands."
What’s the point?
In Robert Kegan’s Orders of Consciousness, the highest stages (4th and 5th) involve the ability to:
Hold multiple perspectives simultaneously
Understand systems thinking
Navigate complexity and contradiction
See paradox as natural and meaningful
In this model, the ability to embrace paradox is considered a marker of advanced adult development where the 5th order of consciousness includes holding opposing ideas simultaneously while seeing these as interconnected parts of a whole.
Sophisticated stuff, right?
So, how remarkable is it that it’s not until your teen years that you have the cognitive capacity to do this? Your Inner Teen bequeathed you the very foundation for this advanced adult development.
As an adult, it’s easier to view paradox as a problem to solve rather than a phenomenon to embrace. Yet your Inner Teen knows better.
The teen brain that ruled you, once upon a time, came pre-loaded with paradox-awareness, a critical quality when generating your adult-specific, creative project.
Whether you're writing a novel that balances multiple viewpoints, navigating different perspectives on a canvas, composing music that weaves together conflicting emotions, designing a building that serves both function and beauty, or solving a complex work problem that requires holding competing needs in balance - this gift of paradox-awareness from your Inner Teen is a blessing.
The ability to sit comfortably with apparent contradictions allows you to explore creative tensions without rushing to premature resolution. When you reconnect with this gift, you discover that apparent contradictions aren't barriers but gateways to deeper understanding and creative solutions.
Take the challenge and experience the forgotten pleasure of paradox-awareness as you allow your Inner Teen to offer their natural ability to hold complexity without needing to resolve it.
If you create a simple, silent, request for the presence of Your Inner Teen, they will offer a response.
The Challenge
Find a place where two opposing elements meet - like a doorway between warm air inside and cold air outside, or stand along the edge where sunlight kisses shadow. Stand exactly at this meeting point for 2-3 minutes.
Refrain from analyzing or resolving the contradiction. Instead, like Windy Wild on her beach, give yourself over to experiencing how these opposites coexist.
What thoughts or feelings come up? Is there a judgmental edge to these? What happens when you allow paradox to simply be?
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What’s Next?
Do you remember a time (recently?) when an injustice in the world or in your personal relationships called out for your response?
Well, Your Inner Teen Gift #2 laid the groundwork for the adult you to do more than gnash your teeth.
And that’s next time….
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Meanwhile, please …
1. Add a comment to this post because hearing from you makes my day! Your thoughts and questions can spark a conversation. Controversy welcomed!
2. Tap the heart icon if you’re resonating with any of this, or just because I light up knowing you’re out there and care!
3. Discover why Inspiration changed from a what to a Who. Come Meet The Goddess of Inspiration and expand your creativity: an original, guided meditation for any time you hit a creative speed bump or doubts are stealing the show.
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