Connective Agents: A Frame for a World in Transition

Empowering Frames

I’ve been thinking recently about the power of a good frame and the connection it has to empowerment and aligned action. A frame is some sort of story or narrative that helps us contextualize the present moment and make sense of what is happening. The reason an episode of a great TV show is so engaging is because of the way it is framed by all the other episodes before it. The previous episodes give the current one context and a frame for us to make sense of the characters actions and motivations. A great note in a melody is so great because of the way the other notes in the melody frame and contextualize it. Seeking context and meaning is one of the fundamental drives in the human experience. It’s what make reality navigable.

There are times where life feels like a whirlwind of seemingly random events and circumstances. Times where it feels like life is happening to you. It’s usually a time full of confusion, frustration, indecision and stagnation. But then some context comes along. A proper frame comes into view that helps you see this time in your life differently which completely changes the way you are relating to the happenings.

Ahh, this time in my life where I had to move back to hometown is asking me to heal some old wounds and make peace with the past. 

Ahh, this situation with my family is inviting me to develop healthy boundaries. 

Ahh, this situation at work is asking me to own my voice and speak my truth when that has been something I have struggled with. 

Ahh, this period where work is slower is asking me to slow down, rest and do some inner exploration. 

(the insight hits deeper when you say “Ahh” right before it, by the way)

Often times a clear frame for a period of life comes in hindsight after you have gone through it but sometimes it can come while you are still in that phase. The frame can come through spontaneous insight, a conversation with friend, help from a coach or therapist or through your own deliberate intention to bring some context to the events transpiring in your life. Whichever way the frame comes is not an important as what the frame does for you. This new frame allows you to see the current conditions of your life as ultimately serving your evolution and growth, when before those conditions might have felt unfair or confusing. Its empowering because it brings confidence and clarity of action. When we know what we’re moving towards it becomes easier to move.

A really good frame helps us see the truth that life is happening for us, rather than to us. We can now work with life rather than working against it. A great frame is an invitation into a particular kind of alignment with the intelligence of the universe. It doesn’t mean you won’t have to confront some of your fears and experience discomfort but it does mean you will be supported as you do so.

Scope

What’s great about frames is that they can take different sizes. Helpful frames can be for certain periods of our lives but they also can be for lives themselves. I’ve gained incredible clarity through working with intuitives who have given me detail about what lessons my soul incarnated in the body of Trace to learn. Having a frame for the life of Trace has helped me see situations in my life as cirriculum for learning these specific lessons that my soul has the intention of learning. One of the many reasons I am a fan of doing soul work is because of the way it gives empowering frames for understanding our lives. 

Now to widen that scope even more…

A Collective Frame

One of the things that I have tried to do in my work is give people a frame for this current time period on earth so that they can better understand their unique role in shaping a more beautiful future. I believe that contextualizing this period in human history is crucial part of empowering people who know they have something powerful to give to the world (and the power of framing is that it can help people uncover what it is that they have to give). A lot of my work around the consciousness development framework Spiral Dynamics was to give people insight into where this whole thing is headed and what their participation in this unfolding looks like. 

Much of my study into the current psychedelic renaissance, new discoveries in psychology, healing modalities, post-capitalist economics and next tier systems is to help give me more frames and more context for where the human species is at and where we are going. I’m so passionate about this kind of framing because it can help people find the intersection of their soul gifts and what the world needs in this time of transition. Context is empowering because it can help can clarify what it is that we are being asked to step into.

There is so much to say on this topic and I probably will be talking about this for the rest of my life so let me boil down this collective frame to its essence.

On a collective level, we are emerging from a paradigm of separation into a paradigm of connection. 

And this frame points to what is being asked of us. We are being asked to become agents, cultivators and facilitators of connection. 

The multiple converging crises that we are seeing manifest around the globe are a result of a particular story that has defined the way humans relate to themselves, each other and nature. The philosopher Charles Eisenstein refers to this story as “the story of separation.” The story/paradigm of separation says that we are all discrete, isolated, individual beings who must compete with each other and manipulate our environment. It’s an old frame that fueled the creations of the modern world and its dying due to the fact that it’s becoming obvious that it’s unsustainable and untenable in a universe that requires reciprocity, co-creation and acknowledgment of its inherent interconnection. 

The story of separation has separated us from ourselves. We need those who can help us heal this separation and connect back to our authenticity, expression and our exiled parts. We have to tend to that original wound of separation so that our stewardship of the outside world is a reflection of the attentive, loving stewardship of our inner worlds. The story of separation has also separated from us from nature. We need guides who can help people experience the wonder, awe and sacredness of the natural world. This story of separation has separated us spiritually. We need spiritual teachers and guides who can help people reconnect to the unconditional love of Source/Universe/God. 

We also need new stories. We need storytellers and visionaries to give as an idea of the new story that we are growing into. We need frame makers who can give us frames that serve as attractor points and architecture for our understanding. What kind of society are we trying to build? What really matters? What kind of lives should we be trying to live? What are the new cultural myths and guiding narratives?

Artists. Healers. Storytellers. Teachers. Stewards. Visionaries. Guides. We all embody these archetypes in our own unique way. This is less about trying to become one of these roles and more about understanding the way we express all of these archetypal energies in different contexts. Finding each one of these within us is the invitation rather than trying to become just one of them. 

Being human is all about connection which means we are all agents of connection in our own special way. A world between stories, between paradigms, is asking us to lean into our humanity and own the fact that we are forces for connection. The pain of living within a paradigm of separation comes from the fact that it is the exact opposite of how we were are supposed to live. This current frame of connection I am presenting is asking us to live fully in our humanness and how we were designed to experience life. We are being invited to heal and help others heal. To love and help others love. To connect and help others connect. To create and help others create. To play and help others play.

And it’s not about writing a bestselling book or even creating external facing work. Your own inner healing work, caretaking for your elderly parents or raising conscious kids is some of the most important and profound connective work you can do. Being a connective agent is not about size of impact or reach. It’s about living what’s authentic and real for you. What’s yours to give is yours to give. 

It’s a gift to be alive at this time. We get to participate in one of the greatest paradigm shifts humanity has ever gone through. Sometimes the context given for our world can be disheartening and depressing. Nihilism is one of the products of the story of separation and its deadening energy can be seen in our educational systems, media and cultural ideas. Connection, in its myriad of forms, is the antidote.

My hope is that we start to use the conditions of our world to create empowering frames for people that help them live their fullest expression. There’s a lot to grieve and there’s a lot to be hopeful about. Let’s focus on what what kind of world we want to create and use our current situation to give empowering context to all those who are just trying to figure this whole thing out. It’s one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and each other.

Much Love,

Trace