Why You Should Pay Attention To Natural Rhythms
Abstract:
Did you know that before around the 14th century, it was nearly impossible to tell the exact time because there simply were no clocks? After that, there were church clocks that struck the hour, and that was it. It took a long time to invent our precise chronometers of today.
Isn’t it weird to think that back then, there was no such thing as being 10 minutes late? That school or work didn’t start on the clock? What do you think this meant for people?
Well, one thing it meant was that they lived closer to their natural rhythms. And we today don’t. But there’s more to it, of course.
Your mission today is to learn how to honour natural rhythms.
Join the community of wild spirits! You’ll get a weekly email (100% spam free!) with things like book recommendations and special offers I only share by email. Simply fill in the form:
Background: How life used to be
Most people used to live in the countryside – there were few cities, and they were much smaller than any modern city. In the countryside, people were farmers.
As such, they lived according to the ryhthms of nature. They sowed their crops in the spring, worked the fields through summer, and harvested in late summer or early autumn. The rest of the year was quieter, with work done sitting down in the house.
People also slept more because the nights were longer. Today we make almost no difference between summer and winter. Our bosses at work certainly don’t. What does that do to us?
Task: Get attuned to natural rhythms
It won’t go down well if you tell your boss you’ll only come in for a few hours in the winter from now on. But you can adjust your life in other ways.
Here are a few suggestions:
You probably already know if you’re a lark or a night owl. That’s your personal rhythm. Try to honour it as much as you can.
Check whether there are times in the year when you’re more tired than others. Don’t force yourself to stay awake if winter’s darkness makes you sleepy. It’s normal.
Try to get a few minutes of both sunshine and moonlight on most days. Our bodies react to the sunlight, it’s a mood enhancer and activates the vitamin D in our bodies. Some people are also sensitive to the moon.
You might be more inclined to pursue outdoors passions in the summer (unless your passion is skiing!) and indoor pursuits in the winter. Follow those inclinations.
Be patient. After suppressing the effect of nature’s rhythms for so long, it might take a while to feel them again.
Not only will your body thank you, your soul and moods will, too. And you’ll be more balanced and happier.
Transkript
This is the exact transcript of what’s being said in the video. You can also see this text as subtitles in the video itself (activate them in the bottom right corner).
Natural Rhythms
You can and should live closer to natural rhythms.
Hello, welcome to this week's Wild Spirits News. My name is Sibylle, and I help women between 40 and 60 to do lots of what they love and find their unique life purpose. And if that sounds interesting, go to my website wildspiritscoaching.com.
Today's subject is 'Why you should pay attention to natural rhythms'. Did you know that up to the 14th century, there were actually no clocks at all? And even then, there were a couple of church clocks, they started turning up, but at the beginning they only struck the full hour, so you couldn't see the minutes in between. It was a long way to our precise clocks that we have nowadays. We often don't realize to what extent our lives are dictated by clocks, so this might sound like a an interesting historical fact, but what does that actually mean? Think about it. Imagine a life where you can't be 10 minutes late because nobody knows how much 10 minutes are. You can't be late for work or for school. What would that have meant to the people? And the answer is, of course it meant that they lived a lot closer to the natural rhythms. But there is more to it than that, and so your mission today is to learn why it is a good idea, and how to live closer to the rhythms of nature.
Background: How life used to be
The background to this is titled 'How life used to be'. Most people historically lived in the countryside. There were fewer cities, and the cities that were there weren't as big as they are today, so the majority of people lived in the countryside and a lot of them were farmers. Obviously they lived closer to nature; even today, farmers still do, they sow in the spring, they work the fields through the summer, and then late summer, early autumn is harvest time. They were really intense weeks of 16h-hour days, and then in the winter, not that much happened and people did more the work that you can do sitting down in the house.
They also slept more because the days were shorter and people couldn't afford that much in terms of light, like candles or torches, because there was no electricity either. So naturally, people would sleep longer in the winter than they did in the summer. Nowadays, we hardly notice the difference between summer and winter anymore, and certainly our work hours don't change according to those. Have you ever thought of what that does to you, to your body, to your mood and to your overall well-being?
Task: Get attuned to natural rhythms
That brings me to the task, which is 'Get attuned to natural rhythms'. Now, your boss probably won't be delighted if you tell them that from now on, in the winter you're only going to come in for a couple of hours every day. So that's not going to fly. But you can attune yourself to your own, and because you're also part of nature, to your own rhythms and to the rhythms of nature and the seasons and the world around you in other ways. I've written down a couple of them, here are a few suggestions, right?
You probably already know whether you are a lark or a night owl, whether you're most awake in the morning or in the evening. Try to work with this as much as possible, rather than forcing yourself into the opposite rhythm. If you have any flexibility at work, if you're a night owl, maybe start a little later, or if you're a lark, start earlier - or the other way around, if your a lark, start later and in the morning do something that lights you up, a passion or something else. So try to adjust your life a little bit according to that, as much as you can.
Also check whether there are times in the year where you are more tired than at others. Maybe in the winter, you still feel like you want to sleep more. That is natural; don't fight it. Just go with it.
Try to get a few minutes at least of sunshine and also of moonlight most days, as often as you can, or daylight at least if there's no sunshine. It's really good for you, it stabilizes your mood, it's a mood enhancer, daylight especially is, and we've all learned in school that it's important for vitamin D to be out in the sun. And some people are also sensitive to the moon. Try this and see how it, what effect it has on you and on your moods.
You might also be more inclined to pursue outdoors activities in the summer and indoors passions in the winter - unless your passion is skiing, in which case ignore what I just said! But you know, you might have a passion that is a sport, an outdoor sport, and if you're not as inclined to do this in the winter, then don't fight it. Try and look for something else to stay fit over the winter. That's okay. You're just reacting to the natural, to what is there, what is out there, the weather.
And my last piece of advice would be to be patient. We've been brought up to ignore these signs all the time, and all the suggestions that I just made are designed to make you more sensitive or to make you, to pay attention to those nudges that you actually have, the tentative nudges of your body and your mood and your energy levels and all that. So pay attention to them again, but don't expect miracles. It's not going to happen overnight after a lifetime of ignoring them, right? What this will do to you is, your body will thank you and also your soul. You will just feel more in tune with your entire life. That might raise your energy levels and give you more, yeah, just more zest in life, and that also means more energy and space to do things that you love, which is, as you know, what I'm all about.
Let me know
So that brings me to my last question to you which is, what you think about this? Let me know. Leave me a comment below the video or reply to the email that you got the link to the video with. And like I said, if you're interested in a little more, then check out my website wildspiritscoaching.com. I wish you a wonderful week, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye!