More on rhythms

Reading from Wednesday, August 28, 2013 yoga class

"I've spent almost every summer of my life on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan, in my late grandparents' cottage, perched right at the water's edge.  I'm lulled to sleep each night by the sound of the waves.  I always wake up rested--so rested, in fact, that it's often hard for me to part with such a deep slumber and enter the next day.  When I return home from my visit, I always have a hard time falling asleep for the first few nights.  I miss the waves.  Each year I'm reminded of this fact: rhythm is deeply restorative.  As babies we love to be rocked, and even as adults we're soothed by rocking chairs, porch swings, and slow dancing.  Conversely, the cacophony of leaf blowers, car horns, and jackhammers jars our nervous systems, scrambles our rhythms, and dispels our ease. 

Modern living has one tempo only--fast.  We're expected to exert ourselves in the same way, at the same time, five days a week and to take rest only on weekends and holidays.  This rhythm is in fact not a rhythm at all.  It's a monotone--that is until you crash.  A more organic tempo stirs in human bodies and souls and in the earth herself--one that needs time to ease into things, to go full throttle, and then to rest.  Moods and energy levels wax and wane like the moon, ebb and flow like the tides, flourish and decay like the seasons.  Living in harmony with these cycles strengthens us, makes us wiser, and heals us.  Denying them weakens our spirits, our bodies, and our connection to life herself."                   
                   From the book, "The way of the happy women" by Sara Avant Stover