Rhythm is a Dancer

We all have within us a daily circadian rhythm. We are also subject to the wider chronobiological rhythms which shape our experience. These may be weekly, monthly, seasonal or annual. On the day-to-day, our body likes to know when it can expect to wake, when it can expect to eat and when it can expect to sleep. There are so many hormonal changes required, temperature changes, activation of brain patterns, physiological engagement of key systems and so on, that it is critical that we coordinate these diverse activities in some organised fashion, and the more precise, the better. For example, our mind and body find it useful to be able to time the end of the 90 minute sleep cycle to correspond to our waking up (and the rising of the sun).

Our bodies also need to be able to digest the food we consume, metabolise the nutrients, and transport these nutrients far and wide, not once, but several times a day. This is a hugely sophisticated coordination of various digestive phases that takes place over many many hours.

Our physical activity is also working to a rhythm. We have stages where we are more ready to engage in physical and mental activity, and stages where it is best we calm down and relax. We have all experienced the focused attention when we work early, compared to the 3pm lull that is caused by drops in key hormones at this time each day. There may be another rise in activity come later afternoon and then the need to rest come late evening. And of course, in order to provide a physiologically and neurologically stable platform for the following day, we all need a good restful sleep so that with the morrow\’s rising golden orb, we can continue to thrive once more. Many of these systems counterbalance each other, and so our amazingly complex and genius human organism will operate in symbiotic harmony throughout the day, like some biological symphony making music in our day.
And these daily rhythms must also align with those wider chronobiological rhythms which are constantly waxing and waning like the effulgence of the moon. Seasons are an essential feature of life on earth and we must adapt accordingly. Monthly cycles are an essential feature of procreation. There are numerous other cycles of expansion and contraction and other influences taking place that we would never be able to keep track of through conscious means. Instead, we must resort to that incredible computing device that is our natural creative intelligence which exists within the cells, mitochondria and DNA of our being.

When we take a stock check of all of these well established basics of biological functioning, we see that many of us are in fact living life largely out of sync. Thanks to some excellent biological mechanics, we do have a degree of latitude when it comes to stretching things. However, when we do this incessantly, as we so often do in our modern world, things start to break down.

The late night working hours, irregular waking hours, inconsistent eating times and over-eating are all habits of our modern fast-pace living, but they are contrary to our inherent programming. How many of us have felt the challenge to get to sleep at a good hour on Sunday night and wake fresh on Monday after 2-consecutive lie-ins over the weekend? One restorative restful morning on the weekend can be most beneficial when required, 2 on the trot actually creates confusion and often proves to be counter-productive, throwing us out of sync for the working week. And what about the late-night eating hours which stimulates your digestive fires when the rest of your body is ready for deep rest, leaving you awake at night and sluggish in the morning?

In an attempt to break these bonds of evolution, we fight an uphill Sisyphean battle, self-medicating with caffeinated stimulants, living a detrimental cycle of sleeping and waking rhythms, exciting our nervous system with an overabundance of blue frequency light from all those screens we look at and forever chasing our tail throughout most of our waking day.

Needless to say it is taking its toll. We thus have a big strategic choice to make in our lives. Do we choose to live in ignorance and leave ourselves open to a sub-optimal experience. Do we enjoy a twice-daily dip of transcendence to restore a level of harmony and counterbalance some of the negative influences? And/or do we choose to tune in to our natural rhythms? Instead of going through life dancing out of tune like some embarrassing middle aged gentleman at a wedding, we can groove with the tides of life where we find ourselves powered by the slipstream as opposed to swimming against the current. It can be fun to splash around in the water for a while and transcend the natural flow for the sheer enjoyment of it, but to constantly swim against life\’s influences throughout our whole lives is an unconscious embrace of an imbalanced existence. And it will often strip us bear of energy and inspiration, and deny us the ability to tune into the flow of life which is where all richness resides.

Working with your rhythms and not against them is far more sustainable, and if you systematically utilise a meditative practise that also works with your natural rhythms then your capabilities will become far more enhanced. Instead of using up a good portion of your meditative energy offsetting imbalance, you will find things develop so much more quickly. There comes a point when you can seemingly face anything if required to, and you have the wherewithal to ascertain whether the investment of time, energy and resources is really worth it, or whether your time and energy is better invested elsewhere. It feels incredibly gratifying to be in tune in this way. It is not about promoting a tame life-style, or to suggest we all become militant healthy eaters and to be in bed at sundown! It is simply about using our energies wisely. Indeed, life is not, and never should be about denying ourselves the richness of experience (unless you are born with monastic tenancies). However, if we are under the misguided impression that we can engage in chronic self-abuse without consequence, or that we can simply stimulate our way to happiness and fulfillment, we will simply dig ourselves a bigger hole to climb out of.

If we truly wish to live a life less ordinary (as I suspect we all really do), and if we wish to live in the flow of life, tapped into the needs and opportunities around us, then becoming aware of your rhythms and working in sync with them will help lead to everything in your life flowing much more mellifluously. Such a platform of dynamic balance and stability allows us to effortlessly take on the challenges of life without being phased or exhausted by their occasion.

Make friends with your body and make friends with your mind, for they are integral to the quality of your life. Nourish them with rhythm and they will nourish you with enormous energy, capability, well-being and vitality. You can surf the waves of opportunity as they inexorably roll by, enjoying every single second of the ride.

And if you feel disjointed from your own natural rhythms, simply meditate for twice each day and you will find all the cues you need to re-establish the groove. Instead of awkwardly dad-dancing our way through life, we can glide our way across the tiles, effortlessly in tune with beat, thoroughly uplifted by the harmony, and free-styling with the melody that is the very expression of your deepest you.