The Power of Positive Disruption
and the Patron Saints of Positive Disruption: Ani and Ava
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May 31, 2026 / Full Moon • Strawberry Moon
The First Amendment was designed to allow for disruption of business as usual.
It is not a quiet and subdued amendment or right.
– Naomi Wolf
______________________________
Some years ago, a very dear friend came to visit me. We hadn’t seen each other in almost three years and I had forgotten an essential element of our friendship chemistry: when she is around, I often feel like the rug is pulled out from under me. She questions assumptions I didn’t realize I was carrying, she calls me out when I’m headed down a self-defeating path.
All of this has a disruptive impact on my life, and I have to admit a few times during that visit I felt like it would have been easier if she hadn’t come! But I dearly love this friend and know enough about her and me and our dynamic to trust that we find our way through it. And I know that what’s waiting for both of us on the other side of those glitches is a beautifully expanded sense of who we are, and a deeper appreciation of each other. It’s the gift of a deeply honest and loving friendship.
As I shared this experience with another friend, the phrase “positive disruption” came to me as a way to describe it. I thought that was so incredibly original until I googled and found the term has been around for quite a while. In 2013 there was even a whole TEDx event themed around positive disruption (check it out here). Here’s how they describe it:
Disruption is usually unwelcome. It represents conflict, chaos, and potential danger. We discourage disruptive behavior in our homes and our societies, often favoring passivity and compliance instead.
But disruption can be a positive — sometimes vital — catalyst for change. It can challenge old assumptions, ignite conversations, activate authorities and expose new possibilities. Disruption can shed a unique light on difficult issues, giving a fresh urgency and perspective to the challenges of our global community.
Ani DiFranco and Ava DuVernay are two powerful exemplars of this; I’d go so far as to call them the Patron Saints of Positive Disruption. Both of these artists went against the stream in their respective mediums (music and filmmaking) to blaze independent paths that enabled them to create with more freedom.
Frustrated by the traditional music business machine, Ani launched her own label, Righteous Babe, in 1990. The move enabled her to retain complete creative and financial control over her work, and to be a fierce advocate for gender and racial justice. Rolling Stone gave her this prop: “The world needs more radicals like Ani DiFranco: wry, sexy, as committed to beauty and joy as revolution.”
Ava founded ARRAY, a multiplatform arts and social impact collective, in 2011. One aspect of its mission is to amplify storytelling by Black artists, people of color and women directors of all kinds. Ava has been telling these stories on the screen in her own brilliant way, stories ranging from When They See Us (about the Central Park 5) to Selma to Origin. And if you don’t already know about it, you totally need to go check out her Substack: Onward.
Both women refused to settle for systems that routinely marginalize voices like theirs (and ours), and became catalysts for big change.
Let’s be honest — even though this is called positive disruption, it can still be pretty damn uncomfortable when it shows up in our life. Sometimes to the point of painful. That’s the defining characteristic of disruption, right?
So developing a capacity to hang out in those uncomfortable zones for longer than we are used to can be incredibly helpful in harvesting the rewards that await us there. (Hint: contemplative practice is a great way to do this!)
We can carve some pretty deep grooves in the ways we think and act, and some of those grooves carry a lot of pain and dysfunction. Positive disruption, whatever form it comes in, helps shake us out of those grooves so we can make healthier and more wholesome choices about how we live our life. I would venture to guess that positive disruption might even be what sets in motion the benefits that come from neuroplasticity.
By being unapologetically who you are and not complying with another’s maladaptive stories and behaviors, you will inevitably disrupt patterns.
You become an accomplice in their liberation, if they are willing to lean into that disruption. The same thing can happen to you when a positively disrupting force shows up in your life – if you’re willing to lean into it instead of shutting it down.
We do this with each other as individuals, and it also happens collectively. Black Lives Matter is a great example of a group, a movement, that has disrupted our usual narratives around race and privilege. In the wake of the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, activists started using the phrase #BlackLivesMatter on social media every time a police killing of an unarmed Black man or woman took place. In doing so they made abundantly clear that the mainstream narrative that’s been in operation for so very long is exactly the opposite.
We can see how uncomfortable this has made so many white people. Tone-deaf responses like “All Lives Matter” are evidence of this discomfort and the unwillingness to sit with it and learn something.
We live in a time when we absolutely need positive disruption in order to complete whatever lower vibration we’ve been operating in and move into a place where love, justice, and courage are the norm.
So the next time someone pops up in your life and your discomfort radar is wildly going off, stop and ask yourself…
Might this be a case of positive disruption?
What is it in me that is getting so deeply questioned?
Is it time to evolve from those beliefs and behaviors?
Can I stay open to something new, marvelous, and as-yet-unknown being born in me and my culture?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with positive disruption…
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Perfect timing. Yes, I need your patron saints. Yesterday I questioned my choices. Retiring and moving. So very uncomfortable yet seemingly necessary. Today I woke to a beautiful tree outside my new bedroom window, a new great-grandson born 6/1/2026 and your blog. Positive disruption surrounds me. I’ve no idea of next steps but I know I can do it. Fear and hope can walk with me. Thanks for your words.
Maia, those are great questions! Although, honestly, just the thought of someone questioning me, calling me out, and pulling the rug from underneath me triggers me. I understand why you sometimes wish she hadn't come. But I can also see how valuable it can be to take a step back when we feel triggered and ask the questions you present.