I’ve been thinking about balance and personal rhythms a lot lately, in various contexts of my life. For example, I find if I don’t blog at least a couple times of week I feel a bit unbalanced. It’s as though thoughts and topics and sharings accumulate at an alarming rate and then I don’t know where to begin. Or when I reach that sweet spot in my creative rhythm where I have lots of balls in the air and magic is starting to happen, I need to make sure underlying this a strong foundation of exquisite self-care, so I can continue riding the creative wave without reaching a state of overwhelm where all the balls falls to the ground in a crash.
I think it’s always a good practice to pay attention to how things are going and be open to tweaking them. Although I imagine we’d all prefer it if life were a figure-things-out-once-and-be-done-affair, that’s not actually the adventure we signed up for. Life is nuanced; energy shifts; we’re new in each moment and we have to pay attention to our innate rhythms and how we balance those with outside rhythms. It’s a beautiful complex dance of layering and it excites me. Until it doesn’t.
But that’s the amazing part as well. When things stop being exciting, when things stop working in preferred ways, when our hearts aren’t fabulously excited or our minds sparkling with clarity or when all those brilliant balanced balls start dropping, we totally have an opportunity to refine and re-do and tweak and start again. Everything, and I mean everything, is a clue we can use to align ourselves. My passion is teaching myself, and others, to align with our Divine Soul Self, so we can express who we truly are with as much clarity and joy as possible. But of course we all get to choose what we want to align with – we’re sovereign powerful creators.
I’m playing/working within a group and we’ve been talking lots in the last couple of weeks about both values and self-care. Not surprisingly when you start to focus your attention on something, you get to see it show up in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of circumstances. I happen to think both those topics, values and self-care, are quite important and worthy of returning to examine periodically.
As we evolve and grow some of our values change, and it’s good to look at what it is you actually care about right now – and how you can live your life expressing those values in every area. It’s also deeply grounding to look and re-discover that certain values are still what you hold as most core. I like to imagine those as touchstones, as though I could physically touch them and instantly know who I was.
In order to do our work, the work of our living here in physical embodiment, just as much as the work we do in the outside world, we all require self-care, which hopefully is exquisite and nuanced, and not basically unconscious and ignored. And while our practices of what truly supports and nourishes us are likely as individual as our fingerprints, I think it’s important to review them frequently as well. Our bodies (and minds, and spirit) certainly have shifting needs based on seasonal changes – for example heavier foods, more sleep, more innovative ways to connect with light during the winter months. But you can look at other cycles as well – daily cycles, weekly cycles, lunar cycles, seasons of your life, creative cycles, astrological cycles, project cycles…You get the idea.
This is exactly why I’m always going on about cycles and rhythms. Ever the opportunity to look at ourselves, and how we are in relationship to everything.
I certainly feel the pull of the darker inward turning times now, and as the year is winding into its final months, I’m reconsidering balance yet again. I always lean more into the inner realms and so I have to make an effort to push outward, and yet all that needs to be balanced with what feels right for me and honors who I am. And that is ever changing and evolving, as it should.
What about you? Are you finding your self-care needs shifting with the season? Thought about your values lately? Finding balance is up for your consideration? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
Great points on balance, Deborah! I do tend to overdo to a point of burnout.
Seasons do certainly require a shift (for me, anyway) if we’re living in awareness. I’m still trying to figure out how to get my favorite back (spring) which has all but disappeared in the last two states I’ve lived in.
This post is particularly timely with a move planned and all the cyclical, rhythm and balance issues that come with such an event that involves a great distance between familiar and new. Thanks for sharing.
Wishes you lots of ease and grace with your upcoming move Nanette.
Hi Deborah – I’ve learnt not to burn out – but in the process don’t do as much as I should do … but I need to balance life. Autumn is always a good time to rethink as the season changes … thankfully we are being eased in to winter – it’s still warm … so time to take stock in a calm measured way. Cheers and yes – we need to look inward and help ourselves as much as possible, otherwise we aren’t the best for those outward positionings … take care – Hilary
You navigate with such grace and balance Hilary – you are most definitely an inspiration. And here’s to a lovely autumn turning into winter where we can quietly reassess where we are and what we want.
What a powerful post. I read one paragraph over and over five times because it touched my heart so deeply. It’s the paragraph where you speak of ‘everything is a clue in which to align ourselves’. THANK YOU for that whole paragraph!!! (I liked your whole post, however that part really resonated with me)
I’m glad Elda. It’s always interesting/fun when we unexpectedly find just what we need to hear isn’t it?
As the days get colder, my desire to be warm and cozy becomes a strong and inviting need for self care. I love to cuddle up inside a soft blanket, or if I’m working on my dolls, turning on a little space heater by me feet. There is something sublime about the ease in which I can now access self care. thank you for the reminder of its importance.
Good for you Kimberly – I love hearing that!
What a timely post, Deborah! I’m feeling it too…the wonky, check your balance time of year. I wonder if the change of seasons is the reason? Thanks for this post!
The time change definitely puts a wobble in my rhythm. Hope you get your balanced grove back soon Michelle.
I like to think that if I’m inspiration to others. Then I am doing what I am happy to do. Also I like that what I focus on manifest in my time. So true.
I think I look at that a bit differently Debra. If I’m doing what makes me happy and that’s an inspiration to others, that’s a bonus. But I don’t want to be inspiring by doing something I don’t love.
I’m delighted you stopped by to say hi.