Imagine you catch the basketball facing away from the basket. Offensively, You can’t help your team facing away from the basket. It’s hard to score on the court if you can’t see the basket. You have no idea what’s in between where your feet are and where your goal is. You must pivot.
To me, basketball is a game that teaches us about life. Though it’s a children’s game, it can help us understand and express our human experience in a way unique to basketball. Pivoting is a basic fundamental of basketball, allowing a player to change direction or generate speed1. Pivoting is also a valuable skill in life. When your health declines, your mental health deteriorates, your relationships fail, it’s necessary to pivot out of the negative emotions that follow. Pivoting is not just to deflect from the pain or to protect the basketball from being stolen, but it is to direct us to a new path or to create a play for your team to put the basketball in the basket. Pivoting allows us to find and rediscover the purpose we want for ourselves.
However, Pivoting against a good defender requires strength and ball handling to take care of the ball. It’s not always easy. Pivoting in life could be the same, challenges arise and obstacles block our way to freedom. In basketball, when you are not the singular focus of the defense, it is easier to pivot and to move freely. Your team can help relieve pressure by being available as a release to pass to. I ask you, in life, what if you’re not alone in the pivot?
I want to encourage whoever reads this to find a connection in your pivot, starting with yourself and then the community you trust around you. When you feel comfortable, allow the people in your life to support you in your pivot through your own understanding of your spirituality, diverse culture and artistic expression.
Identifying Loneliness
Being 100% transparent, I have recently had one of the biggest pivots of my life. Earlier in the year of 2024, my ex-fiancé broke off our engagement. My fear came to life. My fear sent me into a spiral of introspection. I became isolated, antagonistic, and antisocial due to my feelings of uselessness and incapability. I knew I could not live the rest of my life like this. I wanted answers. I wanted to understand. I had to search for a deeper meaning behind our separation. I had to pivot.
Dharma is a term in multiple religions and described by Sahara Rose as the soul’s fullest expression, your divine purpose, or your unique place in the universe2. It is the part of NBA stars, like Jayson Tatum, that allows them to perform at a high level and bring their teams success. It is the part of spiritual teachers, like Jesus and Buddha, that allows them to find their unique place in history. It is the part of each and every one of us that allows us to express our imagination.
However, I believe finding our dharma, our soul’s purpose, is one of the greatest mysteries to humans. I believe religious groups have used and recycled different spiritual practices to fit within their society’s understanding. I am not going to recommend a specific church or practice that will reveal your soul’s purpose in your present moment. Nevertheless, I do have a couple ideas of where you could start.
I would first recommend understanding the traditions your ancestors have had. Knowing your personal cultural history may open you up to practices that free part of your body’s generational memory.
Next, I would recommend understanding the traditions of the land you reside in. Being in tune with your natural surroundings could help you become more grounded of where your two feet are. When you know where you are you can then decide where to go or where not to go.
Finally, I would recommend understanding the traditions of the majority of the people in the land. When you take time to sense the majority’s practices, you could realize practices you have, that you may have unintentionally cultivated. Finding practices that have subtly attached themselves to you gives you the opportunity to then free yourself of the extra burden and free yourself to express your soul fully.
Pivoting through different aspects of cultural understanding is not a simple process and for people like me can be quite draining. Who are my ancestors? What if I miss a part of the land’s heritage? When will I purge all my unnecessary burdens? I am still asking these questions and I think the answers to these questions will change as I continue to grow. Still, one thing I do know is that I’m not alone.
Life happens to everyone everyday, and no one knows what their days will hold. When I take time to have exposure to other cultures, have dialogue with different faiths, and express my spirit, I realize this world is full of pivoting people. From financial struggles to financial success, from wisdom to foolishness, from sadness to joy, I believe everyone is pivoting to find harmony between their understanding of how things are and their expression of how they want things to be.
I encourage you to connect to your spirituality, wrestle with the complexities of your soul, and integrate your spirituality into your everyday life. I believe taking these steps could lead to building relationships and navigating them confidently. I encourage you to burst your bubble, sense the paths of others around you, and take a deep breath.
Embracing Loneliness
Taking a deep breath can help you ground yourself and be present of your surroundings. Taking a deep breath helps sync up your spirit to your body. Taking a deep breath helps align your purpose within the culture you are in. I believe breathing is the most important skill humans can learn. Breathing allows you to open up your lungs and receive the cultures around you. Breathing can slow you down to realize the different perspectives and practices surrounding you. Breathing can help you embrace what is to come.
I recently listened to a podcast about an intercultural couple, where one person is from Australia and the other is from Japan.3 The couple shared similarities in their culture, the shared modesty in both Australian and Japanese cultures. They also discussed the shock of moving to the United States of America where there is more freedom and encouragement to flaunt your individual success. They lived in all three places at certain points in their story, following the path they felt was true to themselves and found a way to connect in the process.
Emi Nishimura is the Japanese woman in the couple. Emi traveled around with her partner to their home in Australia, brought him back to her home in Japan, and eventually found a new home in America. Emi’s parents saw this as natural and wanted to make sure she visited Japan to see them before she moved to Australia where her partner lived at the time. Emi never mentioned moving to Australia. I believe Emi’s parents’ culture led to them assuming how their daughter would live her life. Emi could have followed in line with the tradition and understanding of her ancestors and no one knows what her life would be now. Yet, Emi planted one foot with her family, and used her other foot to change direction and generate speed. Emi pivoted.
Emi also is a professional actor. Emi went to Australia with her partner to be with him, but also tried to find acting jobs. Emi found herself trying to showcase parts of her identity more than others to help fit within the Australian media industry. Emi was not successful and the two ended up heading to Japan. Emi then decided to pursue her path in Japan, her home country. When Emi would go to producers, they would ask for her age. Emi was told multiple times that she was too old for the job. Emi got smothered by the defense once again. Not sure what to do, Emi decides to travel alone to visit her friend in Los Angeles. Here she feels a sense of calling to the place and wonders if she and her partner could ever end up there. Time passes and Emi is now a successful actor in Los Angeles while her partner stays home and takes care of the cat. Emi continued to pivot through the pressure and stayed true to her path in multiple avenues of her life.
Pivoting is a basic fundamental of basketball, but without communication, pivoting might not be able to save you from pressure. On the court, you could be the best pivoter in the world, but if your teammates don’t know what you need, they can’t help you. In life, this principle is present as well.
Emi speaks on her experience visiting her partner’s family in Australia. Emi states she thought she knew English pretty well, but she struggled to understand what her partner’s family and friends were communicating to her. Their heavy dialect and alcohol induced words left her estranged in a culture that was not her own. She tried her best to make out what was being said. Emi’s partner supported her, encouraging her after the fact that she was great, but that’s not what she felt.
Just like on the court, when no communication is shared or understood between a coach and their player, the struggle is not settled. The time and score of the game could be unique to an individual, and may not know what to do best to help the team win. Without the experience or understanding, the intensity of the moment rises inside of their head, adding more stress. The individual pivots his way to victory and their coach congratulates them after the win. He affirms the great job he did handling pressure. Even though the individual has played a lot of basketball, the heat of the moment was nothing they had ever experienced before. The coach left the gym with an assumed understanding that their player is ready for more opportunities like this, while the player leaves having no idea how they won that game.
In real life, navigating diverse cultural practices is not easy, but I believe it is worthwhile. When you take time to understand and have dialogue with different cultures, it not only allows you to empathize with others, but allows you to question your own understanding of things. It takes a substantial amount of courage to not just passively question your beliefs, but actively challenge your stance on life. “Courage is not having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”4
Two minds are better than one is a common phrase emphasizing the power of teamwork. In a similar sense, navigating diverse cultural practices could be easier while walking with someone who you trust. Having a person in your life who you can be fully vulnerable with, who you can express your insecurities to, can give you the strength to move through your journey. For me, I am very grateful for my therapist, more for his friendship than anything else. I would encourage you to find someone you can trust as well.
Most of the greatest explorers in our human history never traveled alone. The few who did travel alone, found a land where their new understanding was shared with those they trusted or had to trust. Those explorers had to embrace the new culture and make decisions based on their understanding. I hope by embracing what we know from history, we can make different decisions than our ancestors have. I encourage you in your exploration to not disgrace the people of the land or the land itself. I encourage you to have dialogue and express yourself in a way that brings freedom to yourself and others. I encourage you to embrace empathy.
Expressing Loneliness
I believe understanding your spirituality and cultural influence is important, but it’s only half of the equation. If you inhale and don’t breathe out, you will end up passing out eventually. If you take the time to understand your dharma and don’t release it, I believe it will be hard to find your unique place in the universe. The question is, how do you express your spirituality and cultural influences? How do you express what makes a part of you special? How do you express life? My friend shared with me once that “art imitates life”. I would pose art as one way to express your spirituality and cultural influences.
Heather Arenas, a figurative oil painter, who shared her story of starting in medical school, working in the medical field for years, and transitioning to full-time fine art.5 Heather knew she always loved to paint and eventually took the leap to not just copy photographs, but create art from them. In every work Heather does, she makes sure to add her own flare, her own touch, her own soul to the expression of art. While going on through a time of pivoting, it might be beneficial to take a deep breath and build your creative practices. Practices like painting, drawing, sculpting, collaging, writing, filming, making music, etc. I believe creating art is similar to a pivot in basketball, allowing you to move forward towards your goal.
The BoldBrush show is a podcast to help others “learn business of visual arts from today’s finest artists and art marketers”.6 The host creates a space where artists can learn from others to fully express their soul full-time. No matter the culture or the spirituality of the individual, the BoldBrush show creates a space to connect artists. I believe art links the past to the present and the east to the west. I encourage you to remember your expression of spirit can reinforce your personal experiences, connecting you to those who empathize and resonate with your work. I hope this emboldens you to start creating art and possibly join a larger community that you trust.
Reaffirming Loneliness
Be yourself. Pivot the best way you know how. Explore others’ experiences with pivoting. Add your own flare to your pivoting. Share your experiences with others. Realize you are never truly alone.
Bibliography
- “Pivot in Basketball Definition – Google Search,” Google, accessed September 3, 2024, https://www.google.com/search?q=pivot+in+basketball+defintion&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1091US1091&oq=pivot+in+basketball+defintion&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgNGIAEMgoIAhAAGAUYDRgeMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBBAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgoIBRAAGIAEGKIE0gEIMzIyMmowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on. ↩︎
- Sahara Rose, “566: Going Through a Pivot? How To Align With Your Dharma (Soul’s Purpose) with Sahara Rose,” podcast audio, September 3, 2024, accessed September 3, 2024, https://open.spotify.com/episode/1uhTSQLuVRNqXwR5qbNN9o. ↩︎
- MIXUNDERSTOOD, “EP 32: Timing, Tenacity, and Logistical Triumphs: Emi and Phil’s Intercultural Love Story,” podcast audio, September 2, 2024, accessed September 4, 2024, https://open.spotify.com/episode/06bRkU5TXcDtU6BouuAoUH. ↩︎
- “50 Quotes About Strength That Will Help You Step into Your Power,” TODAY.com, last modified 14, 2024, https://www.today.com/life/quotes/quotes-about-strength-rcna142950. ↩︎
- The BoldBrush Show, “99 Heather Arenas – Put Your Self on the Canvas,” podcast audio, September 3, 2024, accessed September 5, 2024, https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QtZmamH1Y98EItNfmy2np. ↩︎
- BoldBrush, “The BoldBrush Show,” Spotify, accessed September 6, 2024, https://open.spotify.com/show/2CE1L5FF8HNfp1vJiz8ksq. ↩︎
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