The Art of Nourishment
Life has a rhythm. It speeds up and slows down according to mysterious forces.
Your personal rhythm dances with the celestial bodies, seasons of the year, developmental phases, and the pulse of your Soulful evolutionary process. Living in harmony with these rhythms is in many ways hard to understand as it is a complicated and deeply personal process.
Your rhythm dances with everyone’s rhythm in the grand Cosmic Dance.
There is a Way of living in harmony, ease, and joy. Yet, most people in society have lost their rhythm and, thus, the wisdom of how to flow harmoniously each day.
No one is to blame here. It’s a natural side effect of technological and societal progress.
Most of you are living in comfortable homes, commuting on well established roadways or railways or airways, purchasing food and clothing from big box stores, and having anything delivered (quickly) to your door. Electric lights, 9-5 work days, 24 hour connectivity, news accessible at your fingertips, and a polluted environment has disconnected you from nature and the natural rhythms.
All of this has you moving fast. Perhaps thinking fast. Feeling fast. Eating fast. Relating fast. Getting bored fast.
The requirements of living, working, playing, and achieving as fast paced humans leaves little time for noticing Life’s natural rhythms.
Let along moving in sync with them.
When you move at a fast pace or spend your slow times recovering with social media or streaming shows, you don’t perceive the information the Cosmos is offering you.
You miss the clues and invitations that support the cultivation of a vital life imbued with meaning and joy.
Life holds all speeds and levels of intensity. You’ve experienced this continuum.
At times, you’re drinking out of a fire hose there is so much going on. Other times, you are floating down the lazy river without a care nor desire in the world. And all things in between.
When you’re consciously aware of the rhythm, you join in with awareness since you understand how to dance.
Yet, when you’re moving within the societal schedule of movement, production, and achievement (in every category of living), you’re typically out of sync with the natural rhythm. So times of intensity may be too stressful and slowness may leave you bored or uncomfortably feeling you should be doing something productive.
Imagine if you were so in tune with your own being as part of the Earthly and Cosmic ecosystem that you knew when to move or still.
You’d recognize when to dream in unison with your Soul, create from the fire in your belly, or slowly savor the beauty of everyday existence. You’d know when it is time to replenish a tired system, strengthen a personal relationship, or explore a new area of learning.
The clues or signposts Life always offers would be bright and easy to read so your path was clear, enjoyable, and, dare I say, magical.
How then do you return to noticing and living in sync with the Soulful intersection of your personal rhythm and that of Life? It requires deep nourishment, stepping off the mind numbing treadmill, and leaving the box of habitual living.
It begins with you and you can begin right now. One simple breath gets you through that doorway.
The Art of Nourishment (downloadable pdf) offers gentle guidance about how to reconnect with yourself, your Soul, and the rhythm of the natural world.
A practice of deep nourishment leads you back to yourself and the capacity to be present in the moment and in the environment you are residing in or moving through. With intent, youmay wee use the minutes, hours, days, or weekends to enhance your lived sense of realignment and rejuvenation.
Remember this important truth: you’re always wise, intuitive, and connected to the pulse of Life. You’re likely just too busy living a certain way to notice.
Society (and every expert) can always tell you how to behave and what is normal. Living that way is a rhythm buster for sure. Yet, what way of living is right for you? The wise one residing within knows this answer if you give her/him/them a chance to emerge.
Begin with 30 seconds or 1 minute. Practice building your nourishing attentiveness to yourself in the moment and environment you’re actually in. 5 minutes. 1 hour. 1 day. 1 weekend.
Imagine that. Small practices creatively applied throughout each day lead to a shedding mind numbing, body tiring, and Soul tightening habits. Awakening you to a spacious exploration of your interaction with self, other, time, place, dreams, and limits.
There is no set path, practice, or prescription that works magically for everyone.
A few key components such as slowing down, engaging curiosity, reconnecting with nature, inviting self enjoyment, communing with the Sacred, and exploring what feels good or right for you are important. Even these vary person by person or day by day for an individual.
Think of this as more of a game in the neighborhood than a goal oriented work task. Have fun. Explore something new.
Stepping out of habitual living and societal conditioning doesn’t mean you quit your job, miss your kid’s soccer games, or forget to feed your family.
Rather, it’s the embarking upon a free for all discovery of what brings you into a sense of vital aliveness, sense of wonder, deep peace, loving exchange, and enthusiasm for the moment however magical or mundane.
The Art of Nourishment (downloadable pdf) is a simple list of suggestions for when you have just a few moments or longer to explore where the practice of deep connection with self, others, nature, and Life Itself may lead you.
In time, you’ll begin to notice the synchronistic invitation to dance with what is meant for you.
As the song says, I hope you dance.
Peace be with you and with all. No exceptions.
HeartWarming
News
Your brain likes to meditate. Silent contemplation, or simply closing your eyes and breathing, activates neural pathways that support calm. These pathways underlie beneficial traits such as feeling present, grateful, and steady. With meditation you can deliberately stimulate that circuitry and bring such experience into awareness. Activating calm, steadfastness, and contentment within your body actually converts those experiences into lasting change in neural structure and function.