Discovering Your Natural Rhythm

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When we are in meditation, most of us experience a sense of peace and serenity that may fizzle out quickly as we return to our mundane tasks. It can be quite challenging for us to sustain that sense of peace and serenity while we are focused on meeting the demands of day-to-day, practical life.

It's not easy to be sensitive to your psychic senses when you're running around 'like a chicken with its head cut off' (as country folks say), trying to keep up. That can make it difficult to exercise much control over your life. As daily life becomes increasingly more hectic, the difficulty grows. You wind up overwhelmed and fatigued. In some cases, it even leads to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. You may wonder if it's even possible to live a spiritual life and still continue to function.

Can we be spiritually conscious people outside of our meditations, when we are dealing with others? Can we affect the world in a positive way? Or are we confined to knowing true serenity strictly in solitude? Can the 'householder' experience enlightenment, or is that reserved for the gurus on the mountain tops?

The problem is complicated even further by the individualistic rhythm of our culture. How are we to follow our natural rhythm when this unnatural rhythm is being dictated to us? We need to find meaning in life.

This problem is not really new. We simply don't get enough spiritual refreshment. Not getting enough spiritual refreshment can sap us of our energy, lower our resistance to illness, make us pessimistic and eventually, affect how we function at work and in our relationships. How can we refresh our spiritual and psychic selves?

Some teachings suggest that we do away with our desires. Yet if we do that, how can we know compassion for others and experience desire for their suffering to be relieved?

It would seem that our only recourse would be to hermitize ourselves. Of course we need to do that from time to time. But the secret is to become aware of our natural rhythm. When we tune in to that rhythm, we can begin to truly love even the most mundane aspects of our lives. This is what is meant by spiritual simplicity. We can then bring our natural rhythm out to spiritually nurture those around us. This is what all the great masters have done and we can do it too.

It's easier when we recognize that all things are connected and that our spiritual selves are not separate from our physical selves. Deep awareness of our souls need not be apart from practical living. Ordinary life can be a canvass on which to paint the beauty of our souls.

If we want to get in touch with our natural rhythm, it helps to first know what natural rhythm is. Natural rhythm is the taking in of life at a pace that expands our capacity without breaking us. It is being able to function at a pace that is comfortable enough for us to be relaxed, and still stimulating enough to induce us to grow. It is relating to life and the world in a way that allows us to experience our purpose. In the quest for a spiritual life, this is what matters most.

Here are 10 ways you can get in step with your own natural rhythm:

	1.	Simplify your life. Get rid of clutter. Focus your de-cluttering efforts not just around you, but within you. That means freeing yourself from regrets and resentments. Forgiveness is a great spiritual de-clutterer. It gives your heart permission to come out from under the rubble.
	2.	Identify your priorities and commit to them. Say no to demands that do not contribute to your priorities. It is wise to place a high priority on nurturing your soul, helping others and getting adequate rest. All the best success experts will tell you that these are the activities that pay off in the long run.
	3.	Create rituals to bring you back to your spiritual centre. From daily activities like prayer and meditation to yearly holidays, religious or not, routine creates a sense of connection and harmony. Two rituals that never fail for me are exercise and time with nature.
	4.	Take time for yourself regularly; time in quiet solitude. Time to sit and do nothing, to still the body, mind and soul. It will lower your stress levels and give you the power you need to deal with life’s challenges, so you can have time for the joys.
	5.	Breathe. Slowing down to breathe consciously helps us focus better so we can work more effectively, whatever we happen to be doing. At any moment of the day, take a few deep breaths and touch something near you to ground you back into your body.
	6.	Look for areas where you can take greater control over your attitudes and your actions. You cannot control the people around you, and sometimes you cannot control your circumstances, but your attitudes and your actions are yours for the shaping.
	7.	Build a support system. People you can talk to, people who can offer insight and good advice. Be sure to include in your support system something greater than yourself. Be open to accepting help from others with whatever overwhelms you. And be kind to others. Focus on the good in the people around you and let them know why you value them.
	8.	Expand your perception. Try on a new outlook. Be an observer of your thoughts and when you notice negative thoughts, deliberately steer your thoughts toward the positive. Try on different perspectives. Imagine you are someone else, someone who thinks it would be wonderful to be in your shoes for a day.
	9.	Do not take yourself too seriously. Be willing to laugh at yourself. Do not sweat the small stuff. Make up some nonsense words. Practice making faces in the mirror. Wear silly socks.
	10.	Be where you are in each moment. Not in the past or the future, but in the now. Resolve to always do the best you can, where you are, with the life that is before you.

It’s all about living life to the fullest; relishing our joys as well as our sorrows, our troubles, our pain, and being compassionate toward ourselves when we hurt. This is the key to living a spiritual life. Holding respect and appreciation for the natural waxing and waning of life.

Our attachment to the ‘good’ causes our resistance to the ‘bad’, and when we begin resisting, that’s when we step out of our natural rhythm. All of life has rhythm; day/night, birth/death, and the seasons are just a few. Life is in a constant state of change. Living in harmony with your natural rhythm means accepting that fact.

Enlightenment is a balance of work and play, a continuous movement from the profane to the profound and back again. And through it all, the one thing that matters most in life is our relationships; with others, with ourselves and with the divine.

Too many times we get into a rut of ‘learning spiritual lessons’. Everything becomes a lesson... and nothing is ever a game.

Activities such as prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading become chores, and we wonder why we find ourselves resisting such disciplines.

We need to let our psychic/spiritual children come out and hopscotch and fly kites and stir a stick in the mud. It is this psychic child within us who can show us the way to peace and freedom within our mundane, practical, earthly lives.

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