In your life, are you an Actor – or a Reactor? Both are essential. Let’s take a look at them, and how they can work together.

Reactions, Responding and Reacting

The most typical way of being in the world is to react. This is understandable, as it’s fairly habitual. Social constructionists say that our personalities are formed in response to everything around us – and we continue to reify and reenact those patterns unless we undertake an act of intervention (e.g., therapy, meditation, or a dramatic life event).

Benefits: You’re in tune with everyone else.

Drawbacks: Everyone else determines your reactions, triggering your own habitual responses.

Worst case scenario: Being a “nuclear reactor,” where external stimuli set off internal explosions that ricochet back to others and create unhappy dynamics.

Best case scenario: You know what’s happening with others, and are in touch with the best way to respond to them.

Next, we’ll take a look at acting.