Finding Your Rhythm

It’s January and the days have just begun to get longer in the northern hemisphere – more hours of sunshine and fewer hours of night. Many people practice a New Year’s resolution tradition, making a commitment to start or stop doing something to make life better in some way. There’s a certain amount of self-discipline that can be really helpful in making life as a good as it can be, but life changes. We change. What’s good for us today may not necessarily make sense for us tomorrow. Perhaps this changing is a bigger impediment to growth than lack of self-discipline?

When I use the phrase ‘find your rhythm,’ I’m not talking about developing new habits. Habits can be helpful, neutral, or harmful. Being in rhythm with yourself and your environment may mean changing things up from one day to the next. You can think of your rhythm like a heartbeat, or a river, or a musical performance. It changes. It speeds up and slows down. The volume rises and falls. It responds to the environment and the environment responds to it.

Finding your rhythm involves noticing what is, so as to adjust in ways that make sense at the moment. You can check in with yourself to notice how you’re doing, right now in this moment. How are you physically? Mentally or emotionally? Socially? Spiritually? Notice first, then put words to the experience. What’s happening in your life that’s good? That you would like to be different? Notice first, then put words to the experience.

Once you’ve taken a pause to notice what’s already true, you may be pleasantly surprised by how intuitively you’re drawn to whatever gets you closer to what you want to be true. Sometimes we want two conflicting things at the same time. Will it be the heartbeat, the river, the musical performance, or some other rhythm you tune into to navigate that conflict inside? There’s a rhythm that fits for your whole self. And yes, that rhythm changes.

You may really enjoy knowing that you don’t have to choose just one rhythm to run your life. Check in with yourself. Check in with your environment. And listen for the rhythm that lets you know you’re on the right path.