Negentropy: the strategy to recover energy and harmony

Go from chaos to order. Moving from uncertainty to security. Starting from imbalance to relaxing balance. How to jump from one dimension to another? Negentropy is a concept that emerged from physics that invites us and proposes to make that transformation so necessary today. In a context marked by unpredictability, we need a certain sense of control as much as possible.

It was Erwin Schrödinger who introduced this concept in his popular science book What is life? in 1944. In this work, he explained to us that negentropy is the opposite of entropy and that it is defined by a process that allows us to go from a random disorder to a predictable order. The idea as such is still interesting for multiple reasons.

Somehow, A good part of the things we do every day follow the principle of negentropy. Sometimes, the creation process itself meets this pattern, starting from disorder and multiple unconnected ideas to suddenly form something with meaning and significance. Our daily lives can also carry out that leap, that process of change.

There are times when everything that surrounds us is disorder and even chaos. Achieving a more organized reality would allow us to feel more competenteffective and satisfied with ourselves.

Negentropy the strategy to overcome chaos

There are many ways in which entropy is installed in our daily reality.. When we procrastinate, for example, our entire personal universe drifts into that entropic abyss in which everything is disorder, tasks accumulate and anxiety grows. Parents who do not set clear limits or rules for their children also show this problem.

Likewise, we could also talk about those organizations that, far from following a common objective, are governed by their own interests without achieving anything and causing frustration to set in throughout the company. Entropy reigns in multiple scenarios, both individual, family and also work.

For this reason, and beyond the field of physics and thermodynamics, the disciplines of social systems are already widely interested in this topic. Figures, like the doctor Alison Carr-Chellman, dean of the University of Dayton (Ohio), tells us that Negentropy is a space open to multiple disciplines that would allow us to maximize human progress in infinite areas.. To better understand this concept, it is worth delving into a series of characteristics.

Negentropy: energy is not lost, it is transformed

Richard Buckminster Fuller was a systems theorist, inventor and architect who took the term negentropy introduced by Schrödinger to popularize it. Something that he taught us is that entropy is that energetic force that tends to disintegrate things to leave them in their primordial chaos.

However, In negentropy, energy does not decrease or disappear, it is limited to constantly transforming. We are, therefore, facing a self-regulatory mechanism capable of making any system more effective and sustainable. For example, as we have already pointed out previously, the act of procrastinating is a clear example of entropic energy.

On the other hand, if we applied this theory what would be done is transform the energy that the person who procrastinates accumulates (fear, anxiety, stress) to transform it into something new (hope, confidence, effectiveness).

Every system (including the human one) is mediated by the environment

All open systems interact in their environment. Negentropy tells us that what surrounds us can give us or take away energy. In this way, while entropy disorderes everything, The negentropic system seeks order and to do so it tries to benefit from that energy from the environment that generates help and balance.

This forces us to reflect on two things. The first is that our entire environment affects us for better or worse. The second is that If we are able to be open to positive and transformative energies, we will achieve that negentropic impulse.

Steps to gain energy and efficiency according to negentropy

This idea drawn from thermodynamics and physics can be applied to any social scenario. The keys that define it are as inspiring as they are suitable for positively transforming our reality.

Thus, experts like Dr. Alison Carr-Chelman give us the keys to avoid energy loss and make our environments work better. These would be the strategies:

Identify where the entropy is in your life. What makes you lose your motivation, harmony and energy?Make a list from highest to lowest of what stresses you or worries you the most. That way you will know where you should first place your attention to improve your daily life.Make a plan to confront what makes you lose energy. For example, if you have pending things to do or deliver, get to it. If there is a problem that worries you, solve it. Don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it (receiving positive feedback is always essential). Once you have resolved those annoyances in your life, you have to maintain balance that you have achieved.

This last strategy, that of conserving energy and balance, is the most important thing in negentropic systems. For it, You have to be attentive at all times to ensure that entropy does not set in again. In our life.

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