by Jennifer J. Morgan
This article was first published in Communities magazine (Communities #207, Summer 2025, Breaking the Spell) https://www.gen-us.net/communities/ (or gen-us.net/communities for short).
For a limited time, the entire issue can be viewed or downloaded for free here: https://www.gen-us.net/sample (or gen-us.net/sample for short).
Feeling unsure about how to engage and enact meaningful change during heightened times of chaos? Have you considered taking a break from media because it’s impacting your mental health? As collective anxiety is increasing, media engagement is a relationship that warrants thoughtful design. For me, this began in late 2019 when I faced the tragic loss of a family member, and my nervous system frayed before the pandemic arrived. I felt an overwhelming sense of chaos as I attempted to navigate social media, prompting me to embark on a four-year fast, returning each winter to reflect on my experiences. I also designed intentional breaks from involuntary news consumption by deleting news apps.
These breaks enhance my self-awareness, accountability, and self-regulation by allowing me to focus on my well-being. They also enable me to gain perspective as I research issues that resonate with my priorities instead of scrolling mindlessly. Most importantly, these periods help me concentrate on my immediate spheres of influence—my interactions with family, friends, and community members—where I can make a meaningful impact. We all likely want to experience a sense of connection and agency, which can be negatively impacted by growing civil unrest and political polarization.
In recent years, I’ve observed a troubling trend of radical polarization emerging from left- and right-leaning ideologies, straining relationships and communities and limiting people’s sense of connection and agency. While concerns about societal issues are prevalent on both sides, disagreements over their causes deepen the divide. This article advocates a shift from division toward common ground and shared meaning. It emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, educational frameworks, and community accountability processes that encourage social responsibility and civic engagement. Drawing upon my two decades of involvement with community organizing in rural Tennessee and my experience with Gaia University, I’ll share some approaches that have supported me in navigating division within the communities I’ve helped shape, exploring actionable strategies for nurturing connection and understanding amidst increasing societal challenges.
Civil Unrest, Polarization, and the Need for Transformative Education
Communities around the world have faced a rise in civil unrest and political polarization, often fueled by deep-seated divisions in ideology, culture, identity, and outdated beliefs. These factors, alongside unintegrated trauma and systemic inequalities, create an environment ripe for conflict.
As technology permeates our lives, individuals navigate a landscape filled with misinformation and divisive discourse, leading to the potential for overwhelming anxiety. This instability affects personal well-being and can erode trust within communities. In this digital age, education becomes essential in addressing the societal dysfunctions exacerbated by social media and poor mental health awareness, as these challenges threaten individual and collective progress.
Education can be a powerful intervention. Cultivating emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving skills prepares individuals to engage constructively with their environments. At Gaia U, we adopt a whole-systems approach that integrates various spheres of influence, recognizing the interconnectedness of personal experiences, social behaviors, cultural narratives, and systemic structures. We incorporate educational models into our curriculum, outfitting students with the necessary tools to navigate complex societal issues. As a community of practice, we’ve applied these techniques in communities worldwide. This article explores how the Integral Theory model and the concept of spheres of influence interact to help individuals and communities manage the strain associated with social upheaval.
Integral Theory offers a framework for understanding human experience through four quadrants: subjective experience (personal-interior), observable behaviors (personal-exterior), cultural context (collective-interior), and systems and structures (collective-exterior). This holistic perspective allows individuals to systematically analyze and address complex challenges, revealing how these dimensions influence one another and informing inclusive approaches to community engagement.
The concept of sphere of influence is particularly relevant for individuals who often feel powerless in the face of larger systemic issues. It highlights areas where they can effect change within personal, cultural, and system-wide contexts. Understanding the dynamic interactions among these Integral-quadrants empowers individuals to cultivate resilience and drive positive change in their communities.
Personal Experience: Integrating the Inner Landscape
According to Integral Theory, the upper left quadrant reflects individuals’ subjective experiences—thoughts, feelings, and inner dialogues. Recognizing that our sphere of influence starts with ourselves, our mental/emotional landscapes, then ripples out, affecting those around us. By cultivating self-awareness, individuals can constructively manage their thoughts and feelings and thus positively impact their communities. In this quadrant, a person’s sphere of influence is greatest, as their inner landscape is within their highest domain of control. Thoughts, emotions, and personal experiences shape perceptions and responses, guiding interactions and further influencing the collective mindset. Key tools for refining this layer of influence include mindfulness practices, unlearning, and self-regulation.
Self-awareness and mindfulness are foundational practices that enable individuals to recognize their emotions and reactions in real-time. Developing this awareness allows one to observe triggers without becoming overwhelmed or reactive. Mindfulness enriches nonjudgmental acceptance, allowing for reflection and compassion before reacting, which nurtures emotional intelligence and healthier interactions. In a politically charged climate, mindfulness helps maintain clarity and composure, reducing rash reactions.
Unlearning existing worldviews and social conditioning is vital for personal growth in a divided society. Many beliefs stem from cultural narratives and societal norms that may never have or no longer serve us. By recognizing and unlearning these ingrained perspectives or, in some cases, privileges, individuals open themselves to new ideas, cultivating curiosity, compassion, and a more nuanced understanding of complex social issues. This unlearning process and awareness can transform perceptions of self and others, encouraging empathy and constructive dialogue over divisive rhetoric.
Learning self-regulation is essential for managing emotional responses in challenging times. This skill integrates thoughts, emotions, and behaviors while noting when and why the nervous system becomes dysregulated. In times of unrest, where a feeling of distress may escalate into panic or aggression, self-regulation allows individuals to pause, assess feelings, and prioritize applying regulation techniques before even attempting to respond appropriately. Techniques such as deep breathing and grounding exercises enhance this capability. By paying close attention to the nervous system, applying self-regulation, and managing emotions effectively, individuals can increase a sense of calm within their communities.
This internal quadrant highlights the significance of personal experience in shaping our sphere of influence. We can all strive to take accountability for our reactions, beliefs, and emotions. By cultivating self-awareness through mindfulness practices, unlearning limiting beliefs, and enhancing self-regulation, individuals can better navigate anxiety and pressures related to civil unrest and polarization.
Behavioral Changes: Showing Up with Intention
In Integral Theory, the upper right quadrant focuses on observable behaviors and actions. As our actions impact ourselves and those closest to us, a person’s sphere of influence is substantial in this quadrant. Our behaviors directly affect us and the community. We can nurture a more constructive, less stress-inducing environment by intentionally redesigning our behaviors related to information consumption, utilizing critical thinking, and verifying information.
We can shift our engagement with news and social media to mitigate negative impacts. This change includes setting boundaries, such as limiting time on platforms and scheduling breaks. Curating news sources to prioritize fact-based reporting over sensationalism also helps, as can adopting digital detox practices to remove constant notifications. Individuals reclaim mental space by cultivating an intentional relationship with information, enhancing emotional well-being.
Critical thinking is vital for navigating today’s complex information landscape. The ArCEA model—Active reading, Critiquing, Expanding, and Acting—encourages deep engagement with information before forming opinions. This model, developed by Gaia U Founder Andrew Langford, promotes thorough examination by deconstructing and reconstructing concepts for clarity while reading, followed by critiquing the content for bias and accuracy. This process develops informed viewpoints. Expansion involves integrating personal insights and our best thinking before sharing and acting on the information. By applying the ArCEA model, individuals can better discern and articulate their well-considered opinions, essential for navigating political polarization and fostering thoughtful discourse.
The CRAAP test, created by librarian Sarah Blakeslee at Cal State, helps assess the credibility of sources. This practical framework evaluates Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose for verifying content credibility in an age rife with misinformation. Evaluating currency ensures information is up-to-date, while relevance assesses its applicability and logical consistency. Authority examines the source’s credentials and influence of stakeholders, and accuracy verifies truthfulness by comparing it to reliable sources and looking for assumptions or contradictions. Purpose uncovers potential biases, prompting readers to consider the intent behind the information (to inform, sell, persuade, entertain, educate, encourage action, or activate strong emotions) and the author’s contextual point of view (perspective based on gender, class, age, sex, or other framing). Utilizing the CRAAP test empowers individuals to make informed decisions about what to believe and share, building a more informed approach less susceptible to manipulation and brash judgments.
This outward quadrant emphasizes the importance of observable behaviors in shaping our sphere of influence. By redesigning our relationships with news and social media, enhancing critical thinking through tools like the ArCEA model, and verifying information with the CRAAP test, we can better navigate how we show up, what we share, and what we learn that influences our beliefs and thus our behaviors.
Cultural Context: Collaborative Engagement
Within Integral Theory, the lower left quadrant emphasizes the cultural and interpersonal dimensions of our experiences, focusing on shared values, beliefs, and collective understandings. This quadrant highlights the importance of community dynamics and cultural narratives in shaping our interactions. The sphere of influence here extends to how we collectively understand our identities and relationships, providing pathways to bridge divides through shared experiences.
However, a person’s influence in this quadrant is often limited, as cultural narratives and social norms operate collectively, making it challenging for individuals to shift entrenched values directly. Yet, each person’s embodiment of their values shapes group identity and collective behavior, cultivating a shared sense of purpose, community cohesion, and potential for change-making. Proactive participation, utilizing Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and implementing repair processes are three tools that increase this quadrant’s influence level.
In my experience creating a transition initiative in a rural area of the South/USA in 2006-2016, we faced significant political and religious divides. To build cohesion, we avoided discussions on contentious topics and focused on shared values, needs, and issues that mattered to us. This proactive approach helped identify common ground, allowing us to collaborate on community solutions that were a win for everyone participating. For example, we discussed agrotourism, local economic development, and energy conservation rather than charged topics like climate change or energy descent. By proactively prioritizing collective interests and cultivating a shared language on issues that mattered, we eliminated tension and created unity, enabling us to tackle pressing challenges without polarization.
Tools like NVC practice groups and empathy circles are crucial for nurturing understanding within communities. NVC provides a framework for expressing feelings and needs without judgment, inviting open dialogue. The approach includes taking personal accountability for thoughts and feelings, and learning to advocate for your needs, boundaries, and requests. NVC also teaches the concept of consent and learning to speak and hear authentic yes and no answers. Empathy circles enhance this process, allowing participants to actively listen and reflect on each other’s experiences, promoting mutual respect and compassion. Engaging in these practices creates opportunities for healing and conscientious collaboration.
Community repair and restorative justice processes are essential for addressing conflict and prompting the integration of tense interpersonal dynamics. These approaches prioritize dialogue and accountability over punishment, allowing individuals to understand the impacts of their actions while working toward collective healing. By implementing community repair processes, individuals can express grievances, seek closure, request mediation, and promote reconciliation. Repair resolves immediate conflicts and strengthens community ties by establishing a culture of trust, understanding, and respectful collaboration. In times of civil unrest and polarization, these practices empower communities to navigate differences, creating a more cohesive and safe environment for community engagement.
In summary, this interpersonal quadrant emphasizes the significance of cultural context in shaping our sphere of influence. By proactively crafting experiences that highlight common values, utilizing tools like NVC and empathy circles, and employing community repair and restorative justice processes, we can effectively address rising tensions related to civil discord. These efforts cultivate a deeper sense of belonging, respect, and mutual understanding, contributing to a more resilient framework for participation.
Systems and Structures: Empowering Change
Lastly, in Integral Theory, the lower right quadrant focuses on our environments’ systemic and structural aspects, including institutions, organizations, and the broader socio-political landscape. This quadrant underscores the significance of collective action and the systems that shape our experiences. Here, the sphere of influence is quite limited, as systemic structures can be rigid, rigged, and complex while also mired in systematic oppression, making it challenging for individuals to effect change without broader collective support. However, some tools, such as mentoring, action learning, and civic engagement, can increase influence.
Peer-to-peer engagement and mentoring are essential for fostering collaboration and support within communities. These approaches allow individuals to share knowledge, skills, and experiences in relatable ways, creating meaningful connections and supporting each other’s growth by modeling behaviors and triangulating ideas. This type of interaction incorporates built-in feedback, strengthens individual capabilities, and enhances community cohesion. As people mentor one another, they cultivate a sense of belonging and shared responsibility, reinforcing a culture of continuous learning and mutual support.
Action learning and experiential methodologies can revolutionize community culture. These approaches emphasize intentional engagement through active learning. The process incorporates direct experience and reflection, allowing individuals to engage with real-world challenges while prioritizing attention to the learning process over forcing specific outcomes. Community members apply their knowledge in practical settings by participating in hands-on projects, applying critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and reflecting on their experiences as a team. This balanced cycle of doing, reflecting, thinking, designing, and more doing together enhances understanding and encourages thoughtful collaboration among diverse perspectives, breaking down barriers and promoting unity. As individuals conscientiously work together to address local issues, they develop a deeper sense of agency and empowerment.
Civic engagement at the community level is vital for increasing active participation within local systems. Engaging with community initiatives, attending meetings, and participating in volunteer activities empowers individuals to effect change where they can have the greatest impact. This localized approach contrasts with broader sociopolitical systems, where individuals often feel powerless. Community members can build relationships, influence decision-making, and contribute to meaningful change by focusing on civic engagement. Collaborating on local governance or advocating for policy reforms allows them to shape the systemic structures governing their lives, alleviating some of the anxiety about larger political issues and strengthening community bonds.
In summary, this final quadrant highlights the importance of recognizing and engaging with systemic structures within our local sphere of influence. By promoting peer-to-peer engagement and mentoring, embracing thoughtful action learning and experiential methodologies, and prioritizing civic engagement, we can effectively address our desires to create meaningful systematic change during heightened civil unrest. These efforts empower individuals to shape their environments actively and collectively influence larger systemic changes, growing an amplified sense of resilience and unity in the face of complex socio-political challenges.
Embracing Transformation in Our Spheres of Influence
Navigating civil unrest and political polarization requires a holistic approach, with Integral Theory serving as a valuable framework for understanding these challenges. By examining the four quadrants—personal experience, observable behaviors, cultural context, and systemic structures—we reveal how individuals can cultivate resilience and drive positive change in their communities.
This article explores the various realms of influence, emphasizing the dynamic interplay between personal agency and collective impact. Recognizing our spheres of influence empowers us to take meaningful action beyond our immediate surroundings. By understanding how our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors shape experiences and ripple outward, we inspire intentional choices demonstrating resilience and collaboration within our communities. Engaging with our spheres of influence nurtures a proactive mindset, transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and connection.
Education is central to this transformative process, as each quadrant builds on developing awareness and applying skills. At Gaia U, we promote a holistic educational approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of personal and collective dynamics. By equipping individuals with emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving skills, we empower them to manage their internal landscapes and contribute to healthier communities. The actionable strategies outlined provide practical steps toward a more cohesive society amid chaos. Each aspect of Integral Theory underscores the significance of personal agency and collective responsibility, demonstrating that even small changes can lead to substantial shifts within our communities and beyond.
In integrating the challenges of civil unrest and political polarization, we can adopt an inclusive approach centered around our influence and capacity for change-making. We can collectively cultivate resilience and understanding by embracing the insights offered here and committing to education, empathy, and engagement. As we navigate these turbulent times, remember that our actions can create positive change when aligned with a shared vision of unity and collaboration. By prioritizing dialogue over division, understanding over misunderstanding, and community over isolation, we can pave the way for actual transformation.
Jennifer Jaylyn Morgan lives in an off-grid community in TN, US. She is the new President of Gaia U International. Jennifer previously worked as a regional coordinator, program director, instructional designer, facilitator, Director of Advisory and Mentor Services, and Senior Main Advisor for Gaia University from 2004 to 2020. Gaia U offers a holistic, interdisciplinary educational model combining critical thinking, community engagement, and regenerative design. Gaia U empowers students to navigate complex issues and effectively combat misinformation by emphasizing mentorship and collaboration within communities. Gaia U’s approach cultivates resilience and innovation, equipping individuals to assess information critically and engage actively in civic matters, aligning with the themes of informed citizenship and open dialogue discussed in this article. To enroll in Gaia U’s programs, contact info@gaiau.org.