By Jamie Kirk
Every component of our life has a rhythm. Being successful has a rhythm. Our destiny has a rhythm. Being healthy has a rhythm. Being well-educated has a rhythm. Being talented with a trade has a rhythm. Anything that is going to work out for our good, has a certain flow, a certain rhythm, if you will. If you notice when things seem a little off-center or outta whack, it is because the timing or the process is not working. Those two things are synonymous with rhythm.
Our LOVE has a rhythm. Who, What, How, When and Where are all contributors to a pattern and flow. Not just people, but things. Our love of nature has a rhythm. Our love of travel has a rhythm. Our love of people has a rhythm.
When people have a love of nature and the outdoors, they have a need to be out in the open air, be it the mountains, the lake, the park, or just at the apartment complex swimming pool. People that love the outdoors think more clearly and have higher energy levels when they are out and about. The same goes for people. Have you ever noticed, at certain times of the year, if you are single, you meet more quality dates?
When we travel, there is a rhythm. The way we book the trip and the hotel. The time of year. These seem like preferences, but they are literally the rhythm of your travel. Notice how unsettled you become if the hotel of your choice is booked. Notice the anxiety when you can’t get on the return flight that gets you back into Atlanta before/after rush hour traffic.
That is all our unconscious rhythm. How we go about our day-to-day lives is a frequency that sometimes we don’t even know is happening.
The organic state of the rhythm of your life is individual unique to just you. Just because you and someone else have the same patterns or the same “likes” does not mean he/she is your soul mate. It is just means y’all like the same stuff. However, the rhythm of our lives will most certainly be completely different. There are times when we wake up and feel like we can’t function because something seems “off”. We blame the change of season, a relationship that has ended, et cetera as “the” reason. When in actuality, we could just be out of rhythm.
The unique component of our Life Rhythm is that we don’t pay attention to it, until we get out of rhythm and something commands our attention. When you get that feeling of failure or unsettling outcomes, it is likely due to your rhythm being off and out of sync with your path or your destiny. The rhythm of our life should help us navigate the rough waters, help us with difficult conversations and really be our guide to peace and contentment.
So, summing it up, our rhythm has to be aligned in every (okay, most) areas of our life. We have to have the rhythm of love, to help us toggle through our relationships, both romantic and platonic. We have to have rhythm in our family life to be able to sacrifice and be unselfish in our dealings with our loved ones. We have to have rhythm in our finances because when you have money woes and you are stressed about paying bills, you make bad decisions. The same is true when your rhythm is off regarding your fitness goals or health. When you are stressed out, tired, or overeager, you will undoubtedly make hasty decisions without facts to support your decision-making process. When your hobbies, like being an outdoorsy type person is being stifled, this will cause your rhythm to be discombobulated as well. If you need the sun, the moon and the stars, and you ain’t getting it, you could become mean and irritable because you are not feeding that area of your life that gives you joy.
We have to first acknowledge and accept that each of our lives has a rhythm. The next step is to surrender to the rhythm and not push back when our lives don’t feel “right”. In those moments we have to be still, get quiet and step back into what we know works for us. When our lives are working, when we feel productive, calm, valued and stress-free, then, and only then; can we say we are succumbing to the Rhythm of Our Life.