The Layered Wheel Concept
Imagine a series of concentric circles—like a target or a mandala. Each ring represents one of your double binds, with the two opposing forces marked on opposite sides of that circle. At the center is your core self, feeling the pull from all these directions. The layers stack from the broadest (cultural) to the most personal (daily choices), showing how these binds overlap and interact. Here’s how it could look:
- Outermost Circle: East vs. West Bind
- East: Humility, indirectness, avoiding the spotlight.
- West: Assertiveness, directness, self-promotion.
- This is the foundational tension—your cultural roots clashing with your adopted environment. It sets the stage for everything inside.
- Next Circle: Gender vs. Ambition Bind
- Gender: Societal expectations for women (restraint, modesty).
- Ambition: Your personal drive to succeed and speak up.
- This layer captures how your identity as a woman conflicts with your goals, shaped by both culture and society.
- Middle Circle: Creative vs. Commercial Bind
- Creative: Artistic integrity, staying true to your ideas.
- Commercial: Business demands, profit, practical realities.
- Here’s your professional tension—balancing the thinker with the doer, often muddied by unspoken rules.
- What It Is: You want your art to make a political statement as a “starved artist,” but you also need money to survive.
- Tension: Ideals vs. reality—sticking to your message keeps you broke, while chasing cash might mute your voice.
- What It Is: You rely on collaboration with others for your work, but trust has crumbled since 2020.
- Tension: Needing people vs. fearing betrayal—lost trust isolates you and makes teamwork tough.
- Trust Decay Fuels the Statement: With relationships shaky, you lean harder into solo art to speak your truth.
- Collaboration Affects Survival: Less trust means fewer partners, shrinking income and pushing you toward “starved” status.
- Cycle: Distrust isolates you, amplifying your need to make a statement, which keeps you broke and wary.
- Next Circle: Connection vs. Protection Bind
- Connection: Desire for deep relationships and networking.
- Protection: Fear of betrayal, gossip, or rivalry.
- This is your relational bind—wanting real bonds but guarding against past hurts.
- Innermost Circle: Presence vs. Peace Bind
- Presence: Need for visibility (business, sharing your voice).
- Peace: Preserving mental health, avoiding overexposure.
- Closest to your core—this is the everyday tug between stepping out and staying safe.
Professional Bind: Statement vs. Survival
Relationship Bind: Collaboration vs. Distrust
How They Connect
At the center: Your core self—pinned in place by all these opposing forces. Each bind pulls you in two directions, and they’re so interconnected that moving one affects the others.
How It All Ties Together
This layered wheel doesn’t just list your binds—it shows how they’re part of a system:
- Interdependence: The outer cultural bind (East vs. West) influences your gender and ambition struggles, which shape your professional and relational choices, all the way down to your daily peace. It’s not one issue; it’s a stack of tensions.
- Why You Feel Stuck: The center—your core—is caught because every layer pulls against another. For example:
- Leaning into Western assertiveness might ease the Creative vs. Commercial bind (owning your work), but it could worsen the East vs. West tension (feeling “too loud”).
- Choosing Protection in relationships keeps Peace intact but limits Presence for your business.
- Visual Clarity: The wheel maps this complexity so you can see it, not just feel it.
Making the Wheel Work for You
You can use this as more than just a picture—it’s a practical tool:
- Start Small: Pick one layer to tweak. Maybe test the Connection vs. Protection bind with a low-risk step, like a casual chat without overcommitting.
- Find Balance: On each circle, imagine a spot where the two forces meet without breaking you. For Presence vs. Peace, maybe it’s posting online with clear boundaries.
- Watch the Ripple: Shift one bind (like embracing ambition) and see how it tugs the others (gender norms, cultural roots). The wheel helps you predict what might shift.
Why This Fits
A layered wheel captures the multidimensional mess of your binds—cultural, societal, professional, relational, personal—all in one glance. It’s not about solving everything at once; it’s about seeing the system so you can navigate it. What do you think—does this feel like it maps your experience? Which layer grabs you first?