When I hear the word rhythm, the first thing I think of is music, and then dancing! When I was younger, dancing was just about the most frightening thing I could think of possibly doing. Self- consciousness, not knowing the “moves” (this was the 90s), and many other thoughts got in my way. As I got older though, those thoughts just really didn’t matter to me as much and I quieted them or found other ones, and eventually, dancing became something I enjoy…. please note, I did not proclaim to be good at it! : ) Anyway, the point is with the dancing, when I was younger something was interrupting the rhythm of my own thoughts, interrupting a rhythm that would have told me that I could let go and move to the music. There was a dissonance that was blocking the flow.
Ezra Pound, an American Poet has a thought to offer about rhythm. “Rhythm must have meaning.”
Find the meaning. Then find the rhythm. Last month we explored alignment which also must have meaning. How can we align to something if we don’t know what we want or where we are going? That doesn't work in function or logic. So, the golden question becomes ~ What is the meaning? Once we have this valuable placeholder of meaning, tools like alignment and rhythm bring momentum.
What does nature say about this need for rhythm? Well, a lot! There are many examples in the natural world of the concept of surrender that allows the process of rhythm. Plants and animals flow into the rhythm of rest, hunger, excitement, urge, and movement, almost all activity is in a rhythm of their instinct and in the rhythm of Earth (and the Universe if we dream big enough). This pulse of life rhythm can be supportive to us humans when we fall out of sync with our instincts and chaos and dissonance creep in.
The activity of walking is a type of rhythm and paired with time on a hiking trail or just being in the woods can work wonders on resetting the “vibe” we can find ourselves in. Being with something that is in rhythm brings rhythm to what is around it. Being with the rhythm of the walk has the potential to shift your internal rhythm. The nature aspect adds to that or the company of your pet or a good friend! Science can reproduce this effect with work with tuning forks. It demonstrates resonance. This experiment includes taking a tuning fork, activating it, and brought next to an inactivated fork of the same pitch. This will cause the inactivated fork to activate and begin vibrating. It will pick up and resonate with the sound and fall into rhythm with it.
My favorite way to ground my struggle, confusion, overwhelm, or any other form of being out of rhythm is to sit with the farm animals (or any animal) and watch them just be animals. They eat and breathe and check out the water. The cow's bellies grumble and work as they moo softly or bellow out a roar. What's inside just comes out, and they move on. They will slowly make their way across the barn and wonder what is going on over by the feeder, or stare at the treat bin until something treat-like happens! Yes ~ every single animal knows where the treat bins are and will allow the rhythm of their own will to resonate with my willingness to spoil them… LOL But with all silliness aside, back to the grounding into a productive pulse or rhythm.
You may have heard me talk before about the analogy of the mind being made of 10 people. Those ten people that make up the example of a mind can be broken into two areas, the subconscious mind, and the conscious mind. If we divided those 10 people, the subconscious mind would be 9 out of ten of them! Leaving only one to be our conscious mind. And a quick reminder, the conscious mind is the part of the mind that we have control over. When we are marching to a beat of a different drum as the expression goes, we are following the beat/rhythm of our subconscious mind. So I wanna offer two thoughts of the subconscious mind being in a place to improve its function. The first thought would be, what if those nine people in that subconscious mind were each in a rhythm of their own? What if each one of those nine we're trying to keep the beat that was a little bit different than each of the others? What if there were nine voices of dissonance competing with one voice, the conscious mind, trying to be a conductor? Trying to be a conductor to those nine voices that don't know they're supposed to be the orchestra of your magic. The second thought is what if those nine people were in harmony and were the perfect orchestra of sound but they were playing in a harmony of hopelessness, failure, betrayal, or anxiety? That conscious mind would have perhaps a more difficult experience as a conductor trying to change that rhythm, change that harmony into something that felt more like a rhythm of self-honor, hope, success, or confidence.
When you find there is chaos brewing inside the mind or the heart (or the body) how do you support finding a healthy rhythm?
Does it work?
Do you feel it in a certain part of the body?
Is there a predominant emotion?
Or is there a specific memory that comes up?
It is my hope you find something productive in the rhythm and go to it to grow your wellness. Be with it. Talk to it. Let it teach you without words to allow again, to trust again, and to let go of the dissonance and vibrate with a rhythm of love and health and wellness.
As always,
Offering you all Endless Love & Gratitude!
~Sarah
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