I had known for many years that I had become a victim of time. I always felt that there was never enough time to meet all the deadlines that life and my profession demanded. ‘Tempus fugit’ and ‘time waits for no-one’ were haunting conceptual spectres which dominated my life and, in spite of being clever enough to work out some excellent time management strategies that were much commended by my colleagues, the truth my body revealed, indicated that I was exhausting myself with my breathless and compulsive ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence.
My body no longer resonated with the daily sleep/waking cycle and I could not sleep without medication. This was due to neither caffeine nor alcohol consumption because I disliked both. It was attributable solely to time and work pressures; pressures I responded to by pushing myself and by analysing everything with extreme levels of mental energy, always with an eye on the clock. I was living like the manic, breathless White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland as a complete victim of time.
This changed when I was introduced to the idea of living in and to a rhythm. Re-connecting with rhythm was like finding the most essential part of me that I had inexplicably completely lost until I began to make some very simple changes.
The first step in reclaiming my natural rhythm was to breathe a gentle breath and feel my own naturally gentle energy. This offered me a choice in stressful situations – I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm. This diminished the stress of work demands enormously and my ability to remain unperturbed was commented on by many colleagues.
I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.
I next learned that by adjusting the timing of my sleep/wake cycle, my body could re-connect with a more natural sleep pattern. Almost immediately I was able to quit the sleep medication I had been taking for over 10 years by simply having a non-stimulating wind-down routine in the evening and going to bed considerably earlier than had been my habit. I wake up much earlier also and with a gentle vitality I have never experienced previously. I found more often I could take my time to do things, and at a pace which was far more loving and supportive of myself and my body. For the first time in many years, I was able to take pleasure in living in my own body.
I was then delighted to be introduced to the menopausal rhythm which is governed by the cycles of the full moon. Just like its sister rhythm, the menstrual cycle, the full moon cycle has its rhythms of expression and discarding as well as a natural pattern of activity and rest. It is an ongoing joy to align and explore how these lymphatic rhythms feel in my body and relate to what is going on in my life on a monthly basis. Far from being a time to be consigned to the scrapheap, the menopausal rhythm reveals to me the myriad ways in which I can deepen my relationship to myself as a living, rhythmic being.
By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.
Living as a rhythmic being allows me now to observe how I am moment by moment, daily, monthly and yearly. I now see each year as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.
I still work in a very busy profession but I have learned to take moments to re-connect with my rhythms. No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures. Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.
I have a profound sense that there are yet more rhythms to unfold and cycles with which to engage.
It all feels so lovely; I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me. Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.
I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.
By Coleen
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
The more we deepen and dive into our inner universe the more time expands and the magic of space fills our day.
I love how reclaiming your natural rhythm by breathing a gentle breath, really supported reducing your stress of work demands, ‘I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm. This diminished the stress of work demands enormously’.
Living rhythmically is a very honouring way to live, respecting the cycles the body is a part of and also acknowledging we a part of the universe – which expands the focus from human life alone and it’s focus on time, which actually really reduces life, to the grander rhythms we are all impulsed by.
‘Living as a rhythmic being in a rhythmic world’, this reminds us we are made of energy living in a pool of energy and, even though we have convinced ourselves we are solid humans and that we live in a solid world, it is a reduction of our potential.
I have been a classic hamster on the wheel for the last few days, waking up in the morning with raciness in the body, getting off on the stimulation of busyness even when there is no deadline other than the self-created ones based on the notion that there will be more so let’s get it over with. This is a great reminder for me that there’s nothing that needs to be ‘managed’ if I connect and stay with the rhythm that is within myself and I am naturally a part of.
When we dance to the tryant of time, we are dancing to a tune that is not our truth.
To me it is very reassuring to know that there are rhythms within rhythms of life and that they overlap with one another that there is a great cycle that is the universe which adheres to a far greater pulse than anything we can imagine. Thank the stars that there is something more than this mess we are living in and whether we like it or not we are a part of the grand cycle of the universe and we will all make the return to where we come from.
‘Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.’ Very inspiring to read these lines as is your whole blog, I have the feeling there is so much more depth to explore for myself in regard to connecting to my natural rhythms and equal to the rhythms of the universe.
It’s interesting how and why we allow ourselves to become victims of time. No one makes us make this choice, but our relationship with it seems to depend on how much we value our connection with our bodies and what we can feel: how much we value being with ourselves and feeling our quality, over what we can do, achieve or accomplish within a set timeframe.
Yes but also it depends on how much we connect to our multidimensionality. If we reduce ourselves to the dimensions we can see and touch, we make ourselves victims of time because we have disconnected from the rhythm and flow of the world within and around us.
The more we realise that our present movement will affect and determine the quality of the next, the more we will value what we do, how we are, what we say and think in each moment knowing that the next is shaped from that.
Thank you Rachael, that surely is a template for moving in life.
We live in a reduced way if we ignore the truth about the cycles and how they affect us in our every day life, being open to this awareness makes a huge difference to the way we understand life and ourselves.
Beautiful Coleen.
I love this saying because it is what I feel ‘absolutely true’ and equally an experience of mine : ‘The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.’
Our bodies are not owned by time however our minds separated from our bodies are. When we live driven by the separated mind we live driven by time and in total disregard of our body and being. The truth is our bodies are governed by rhythmic cycles that are aligned to the pulse of the universe, and the more we live governed by this universal order the more we live the true potential of who we are in essence, the fullness of our Soulful light through the divine vehicle that is our body.
Soul is sharing. Thank you Carola Woods, this is very wise and intelligent to life.
Before my introduction to the wisdom teachings of Serge Benhayon the only part of life I consciously attributed a rhythm to was music, totally ignoring the fact that there was actually a rhythm to life and therefore it was possible to have a rhythm in my life. Nowadays, I am committed to building rhythms in my life, and by doing so life is definitely a lot more enjoyable to live as I can feel that I am held in whatever I do by a very loving and strong foundation.
‘For the first time in many years, I was able to take pleasure in living in my own body’ – this line I find very beautiful. Once we get to feel what it’s like to connect to our body and then live from the body (which is what I am learning to do) life takes on a whole new and different meaning; the seeking for recognition, striving and struggle very gently begin to disappear and each moment becomes about the quality of my being.
Very beautiful and inspiring Coleen. Thank you for the clarity on what living in a natural rhythm with self and the ripple effect and awareness living the cycles of the universe brings. My understanding is that every single one of us is living a rhythm but it is a question as to whether the rhythm is being breathed forward by our own breath or whether is it being breathed from a source that is outside of us and therefore not from whom we truly are.
We have such beautiful rhyyhms built into our bodies… and they bring space and harmony naturally.
I wonder what life would look like if we respected there was something greater than time, a quality in us, in our work and in everything we do that should never be lost, would we then allow time to govern our lives, or would we put that quality first and foremost?
Someone shared with a group of people some time ago about getting to appointments and meeting early this puts us into space and not time. And I love getting to the meeting I have set up in the space as it gives a completely different feeling to turning up on time this feels rushed and already on the back foot, whereas the space puts us on the front foot.
Beautiful what you’ve shared about there being a natural rhythm that we can surrender to, which is perfect for who we are and what we are here to bring and do, e.g. a time to wake up which supports our job, looking after ourselves and getting ready for our day.
It’s not hard to see that the majority of humanity live a “‘hamster on a wheel’ existence”, in fact there is probably not a lot of living going on just the struggle to survive. We live in a world where time is given so much importance but it does nothing but create a tension, a stress, as we have the pressure of needing to be ‘on time’ wherever we go, whatever we do. Coming back into relationship with ourselves and understanding the true meaning of time has the potential to change our lives – for the better.
We establish relationships with people and with intangible things as well. The key to life is the overall quality of every relationship we establish.
That is quite astounding – you start going to bed earlier, you wake up earlier and introduce a wind-down period in the evening and bingo, you don’t need your sleeping pills anymore! There’s another whole industry down the gurgler and good riddance.
It is amazing, to get off long term medication by ‘adjusting the timing of my sleep/wake cycle, my body could re-connect with a more natural sleep pattern, ‘ and by introducing a, ‘non-stimulating wind-down routine in the evening and going to bed considerably earlier than had been my habit’.
Living on the ‘hamster wheel’ of life is a living in a rhythm that is no way natural to our own natural rhythm, so no wonder such a huge percentage of humanity is living with exhaustion. To make the choice to step off this destructive wheel and to embrace my true rhythms has been testing at times, but oh so worth it.
I love this blog, it’s so inspiring. I can feel the rhythm in my own life confirmed and can see how space opens up when we allow ourselves this adherence to a way of being where we let go of time as being our master and the control we impose upon ourselves and our lives.
I agree with everything you say here, and I have experienced something very similar to what you describe here, but I do not live it at all times. Why? What comes to me is an overwhelm – thinking that I cannot possibly remember all these workings and intricacies of rhythms and cycles and anything multi-dimensional, that I am thinking this is something I have to own yet I know I cannot so there’s already a struggle even before applying it. And when I do apply it, it still has a bit of attachment to ownership that wants to see if I can do it therefore it becomes an achievement, rather than a simple surrender to and confirmation of how and what is already designed and ordered to be.
We don’t need to remember when we fully embody what we are living.Getting to that point is a process though and the more slowly we take it, the more grounded and foundational it is.
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’ So true Coleen, many people work against this truth and get caught up in time and feel pressured and overwhelmed, when we live in rhythm there is a simplicity and flow that supports us with everything in life.
We can connect to the cycles in nature to support us with our rhythms, ‘By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I’.
So very true that alongside sugar, alcohol and caffeine there are more potent substances like being constantly in our head mentally driving the body by pursuing ideals and beliefs and the stress this creates in our body. There is indeed a much warmer and lovelier and truly vitalising way of living from feeling our body and staying in connection to that feeling during everything we do.
An invisible tyrant that bestrides this world, controlling so much more than we consider. Or could this be a giant framework that supports us to remember that we are living in cycles and to bring us back time and again to the same point, to the beginning of a new day so we can reflect on how we are living and evolve if we so choose with a different way?
In my experience, the more we allow ourselves to feel how naturally gentle we are, the more our body gets used to this feeling, instead of the stress and overwhelm (or any other emotion) that we might have previously been living in. Gentleness starts to become our new normal, and anything that is not that really stands out, so that the choice between gentleness and hardness becomes more obvious and a more conscious decision.
Time management strategies can be very effective and make life much easier. But they are a management within the control, not a stepping out of that control.
I have to admit I struggle with time and still find myself all too often trying to squeeze too much in – which in turn brings much unnecessary tension and stress to not only my own body but everyone else around me.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” I love these words Coleen they feel so true in my body when I am connected, I can quite often get caught with focusing on the time and feel the stress and tension that it brings.
I have always been someone who has been on time. You could rely on me. But I often did this at the expense of myself. I would rush to meet a deadline and the rush would start a long time before the deadline – it would start when I focused on it being a deadline. Things have changed over the past few years as I’ve not been prepared to put my body into tension to meet what I always saw as a deadline. It was big to let go of my ideal of not being late. What I’ve found is that if I’m in rhythm and flow with myself, I’m not late. There is no late when I’m that way as everything flows as it should, but I’m also not actually late.
Living with a gentle and loving rhythm brings an awareness of living in rhythm with nature and the Universe.
Nature and the Universe are full of rhythms, ‘By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I’.
Only when you are ahead of (your) time, you stop running behind it.
I love how you’ve explored establishing a new relationship with time, whereby you’re not a victim of a ticking clock, but just see it for what it is: markers that define our position in space, that are laid over the top of the natural and enormous rhythms of the universe.
I hear about time constantly at work, usually about there not being enough and ‘I can’t believe the time!’. I know for myself and observing others, that when we are stuck in doing and allowing time to run us, our bodies are ravaged by time. It is like time is moving our bodies instead of our bodies being rhythmically moved.
There is an endless supply of support offered by our universe if we are willing to connect and feel.
In essence, we are certainly not defined by time, as it is only in separation to the timelessness of our Soul, who we are, that we seek an identity through time. However, as you have very beautifully shared, we are far more and when we embrace and live in connection to our Soul, we live in harmony with the universal rhythms that we are part of, in which time graciously offers us a marker as to the degree in which we live in surrender to all that we are and are here to live.
I find what you share about the sleep meditation huge with regard to the fact that a simple wind down rhythm was an essential ingredient in your life to no longer need the medication. Makes me wonder if the drug companies would ever want such truth expressed to the world as they must be making so much from sleeping pills.
The invisible tyrant within us can only be healed by truly learning to love ourselves.
When we love ourselves we know we are precious. From that preciousness, the invisible tyrant simply can’t get in and it’s just not compatible with how we hold and move our bodies.
This is a beautiful article Coleen and I am sure many can relate with parts of what you share, what a turn around bringing a rhythm and the gentle breath into your life. ‘The first step in reclaiming my natural rhythm was to breathe a gentle breath and feel my own naturally gentle energy.’ We are in a rhythmic relationship with rhythm’s that are much larger than us.
‘No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures’. Love this Colleen, when we take responsibility for how we’re living, we find the tyrant we face is inside, not outside ourselves. When we take back the reins, establish rhythms for ourselves aligned to natural cycles and continually refine them, life becomes a playground not battlefield.
Finding one’s rhythm and continually refining it supports the change from a mere driven existence to a full and vibrant life.
I think the more we develop the quality in the way we live in between the moments when we really think time matters more or need to be more on-the-ball so to speak then when we get to those moments we have a momentum that supports us to respond to them in a harmonious way.
Coleen, your use of the word rhythm and rhythmic throughout this blog has a rhythm that has brought the rhythm of the universe back into my conscious awareness, my body, after a day of feeling disconnected from it. So simple. So exquisite. Thank you.
This is amazing, what a powerful asset, ‘This offered me a choice in stressful situations – I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm. This diminished the stress of work demands enormously and my ability to remain unperturbed was commented on by many colleagues.’
Living in conscious connection with our breath and holding this focus as we breathe keeps us in our body as we go about the practical living of life. I have noticed that is supports me not to get lost in thinking about ‘yesterday’ and being absorbed into the ‘future’ which is what is exhausting – everything still gets done and there is energy still left at the end of each day.
At work we have just moved into a new building. There was the potential for grumpiness, and arguments amongst us since we were doing things that we don’t normally do during our working day like, lifting, cleaning, unpacking, and getting a bit grubby etc. I found it very supportive to keep coming back to breathing my own rhythm. The whole process went smoothly and it goes to show how I can make loving choices that help me avoid getting into unnecessary emotions.
When we look at life everything moves in cycles, and there are cycles within cycles. Connecting and honouring the cycles within our bodies brings us in harmony with the cycles we live within.
Taking a moment to pause and breath a gentle breath is a simple and lovely way to bring us back to the body and our natural rhythm.
Connecting to and living from our natural rhythms is to live in harmony with the natural flow of the Universe.
“The first step in reclaiming my natural rhythm was to breathe a gentle breath and feel my own naturally gentle energy.” Such a simple act but such a profound and transformational one.
“By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.” There is no compliment, no jewel, no flower that is greater than the enhoused confirmation that comes with activating our Universal rhythms.
The importance of rhythm in our life cannot be over emphasized, it can be the bedrock of us being able to tune in to the natural and wonderful flow that is all around us.
It made me smile reading the title of this blog. I too used to be at the mercy of the invisible tyrant : ) Well done to you for being able to come off sleep medication. When I changed my sleeping/waking time to something that felt more natural to my body, I was surprised at how much time and space I started to have in my days. Choosing to breath my own rhythm rather than the stressful rhythms of situations, has also had me feeling more in control and not at time’s mercy.
The distinction between time and rhythm is huge and I am blown away by the simplicity of this wisdom. I am always complaining that I feel like a hamster on a wheel but often jump right back on as I tell myself that there’s no way to get off…. Your blog makes me see what a foolish game this is. The answers to the rat race are so simple to implement and this blog describes many practical examples of things I can do to honour the rhythmic being I am.
Beautiful Coleen, I could feel how when we live in rhythm we feel the multi-dimensionality of our being. It expands us to feel we are part of a much bigger whole.
Sleep and food issues are two ways our body lovingly communicate to us with it is time (pun intended) for us to bring more awareness and make a change to the way we are living. It is great to listen to our bodies and be open to change as what might have been ok for us a year ago may no longer be what supports us today.
Great blog Coleen, I loved how your changes have supported your body and your life, when we live in the flow of life understanding cycles and rhythm rather than being held hostage of time, we become more productive at work when we are in our own rhythm than when we time watch, because we are already stressed by the expectation of what is in front, rather than enjoying what we are doing.
It is remarkable how our whole thinking and perception changes according to the rhythm and flow we choose to breath and move in. This would be a great part of a true and empowering education from young.
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’
There is a rhythm to these very words that echoes what you have presented here Coleen. It’s evident not only in what you have so beautifully expressed but through the very tempo and cadence of your writing – a reflection of the beautiful energy with which you so clearly live.
Living to time has this perception that there is an end, a dead point that will be reached and never have again. The stress that comes with trying to live life fully until each ‘end of time’ or achieve by a certain time is a huge pressure. The more I have learnt about living in cycles, knowing everything comes back around relieves some of that pressure as I know it’ll come around again, to repeat a life lesson or deepen my understanding on an aspect of life. That doesn’t say I don’t work to required deadlines but they are never not repeatable if theres more to learn, and there always is.
A great way of looking at it Leigh.
We run around chasing the never ending deadline of things to do, only to go to sleep to wake and chase them again. Literally like the forever dog chasing it’s tail and yet we seem to only see others doing it and not what we are doing ourselves. I still get caught in the doing or needing to do of life which leads me to chase my tail around and around. It’s like a never ending cycle that consistently needs to be broken or become aware of. It is like because I have done this so many times for so long in so many ways each of those ways needs to be re done or unwound. It’s like an unfolding way back that needs constant care so as not to jump or move again to start chasing the tail. You know when you travel a path so many times you wear a track and then each time you step out of that track if you not looking you may slide back into the old way, consistency is the key.
Thankyou Coleen, I had not realised just how much I am living rhythmically now as opposed to living with the linear concept of time and feeling like I am always hurtling towards something – often in great stress! I agree, rhythmical living is “so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.” I feel that each day is more a circular motion for me, not going ahead in time but coming back to the same place to explore evolution again as a fresh new beginning, and to support me to return to who I truly am – divine and universal in essence.
Being a rhythmic person and living in a rhythmic world is certainly a far cry from a hamster on a wheel. Thank you Colleen for presenting this powerful analogy and for the inspiration to live our natural rhythm.
Just the blog I needed to read Coleen, a beautiful reminder of how supportive rhythms are and that they are forever on offer if we tap into them.
Just like there’s in-breath and out-breath, even in being ‘consistent’ there are different phases. We are a rhythmic being and not a robot.
Thank you Fumiyo, your comment helped me to realise how important rhythms are to nurturing – so much is changing daily for the body depending on the rhythm we are in, so too then do our needs and what may be nurturing and supportive.
“It was attributable solely to time and work pressures; pressures I responded to by pushing myself and by analysing everything with extreme levels of mental energy, always with an eye on the clock.” This is something so many of us seem to be living from, a certain stress level that brings us through the day and then we add sugar and other stimulants and this keeps us going as long as we have to and want to. It is a blessing to come back to our natural rhythm as you describe, that allows us to truly enjoy ourselves in our bodies throughout the day. It is quite a different way of living and it never ceases to stop and is deepening with every self-loving choice we make.
Time is in fact just a creation of men as it only keeps us locked into the idea that we have to battle time from getting things done in time, to be on time or to fight our ageing over time. It actually all makes no sense as we only do belong to space, the space that surrounds us and is in us and when we live in accordance with that we can use time just as a marker to clock our evolution and nothing else.
When you read things like this you are woken up at different points, like this, “I next learned that by adjusting the timing of my sleep/wake cycle, my body could re-connect with a more natural sleep pattern. Almost immediately I was able to quit the sleep medication I had been taking for over 10 years by simply having a non-stimulating wind-down routine in the evening and going to bed considerably earlier than had been my habit”. 10 years of medication to let go of but just doing something so simple? It begs the question what else can we do. Many people I have seen turn many things around by opening up to the possibilities presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine including me. The pressure we place on ourselves that then allows the world to impact us is considered normal and yet it’s actually far far removed of where we should be. It’s great to read an article where people are returning to a way of living that actually supports us all and doesn’t run us all down the same rabbit hole.
My concept of time is changing constantly. When I am not ruled by time there is a space, a stillness and a clarity. When I leave this rhthym, the pressure and stress of time is there waiting. Instantly the feeling in my body changes.
Establishing a relation with time that does not exhaust us is the key to have a nice relationship with it.
Surrendering to the natural cycles we are a part of and not being driven by time allows us to feel when to do things instead of trying to get things done from a listed mentality. In other words, there is a natural order and flow to life and our obsession with time can rupture that connection.
Understanding about our cycles after menopause helps us to pay attention to and understand what’s going on in our bodies, so that we can be with that awareness every day.
There is a kind of chaos inherent in a pressured life and bringing a gentle breath and a sense of rhythm to this feels so much more spacious and restful. There is a feeling of settlement in the body that creates a foundation from which to work and although we may have a heavy workload when there is this feeling of spaciousness we know everything will be done in its own true time.
‘Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.’ I love this Coleen, to use time as an instrument for a greater purpose, the rhythms governed by the universe. And yes to claiming the cycles for ourselves, such a support to feel we are part of a grander whole and held by its wisdom.
It is great discovering that there is a harmonious way to live that works. When we or things feel out of order or out of synch it is usually a pointer to us being out of rhythm and needing to bring awareness to some aspect of our life – our body is a great indicator of this.
I was introduced to the cycles of nature and the universe at a very early age but not to the fact that I am a part of these cycles, they just appeared to be something that existed outside of me; no wonder I seemed to always be at the mercy of time. Finally coming to understand the cycles of my life, and the cycles I live in and am inextricably part of, has changed my life immeasurably and time is no longer the enemy – well most of the time!
It is a blessing to live to the rhythms and cycles that naturally impulse us, then time becomes a companion and not the deadline or moment to catch.
Hi Coleen, how exquisitely simple. Three steps and your life changed and the reflection to all those around was felt. The Gentle Breath, Sleep/wake Cycle and the Rhythms of the Moon – this is something anyone can simply make the choice to follow and already the body express vitality and openness.
I love how you compared yourself to the breathless whilte rabbit out of Alice in Wonderland for it if we’re honest most people live like this… consumed and controlled by immaterial points in time we give importance all the while denying the body that takes you to them. It is deeply empowering to have tools as you have described, that support you to remember what is important and learn to remain unperturbed within your own rhythm and therefore responsive instead of reactive to life without losing yourself to these outside forces.
The hamster on the wheel existence is a mentality that brings no quality or supportive rhythm to our lives. It also totally underestimates the power of the cycles that governs our bodies, daily lives and the world around us that if we honor and live in accordance with nourishes us from within.
Isn’t it amazing how stepping away from being a victim and or manager of time has allowed ‘For the first time in many years, I was able to take pleasure in living in my own body.’ I too have experienced this pleasure in living in my own body again, like a child naturally does, and the feeling of joy that is returning as a result of living in the rhythm of my own body is quite simply, awesome.
” I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm.” So empowering Coleen. What do we choose?
Slowly but surely, my awareness of the relationship between my body and the harmony in the natural rhythms and cycles of the universe is deepening. As Serge Benhayon presents in his workshops (and I now recognise from personal experience), we are going nowhere, as in the illusion of a straight line from A to B, but simply around and around in circles, repeating the same things over and over again, until we chose to align to these cycles and live in accordance with them.
“I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.” So many of us struggle with deadlines and feel time is against us. But when we stay present in the moment it is amazing how time opens up and we can complete all we have to do.
Like giving up any habit it is difficult to give up if you are giving it up for nothing to substitute its position.
Without proper appreciation, trust and honestly renouncing time for the cycles we live in will be a very hard sell.
I too had felt that I was ruled by time, that life was a race against time, in a straight line. However, through the Ageless Wisdom Teaching as presented and lived by Serge Benahyon, I have re-discovered how time supports me to explore the rhythm of the cycles that we are part of, and how this is an eternal guide as to the quality of love that I to live with from moment to moment, day to day, year to year through honoring, embracing living in rhythm with these cycles that we are intrinsically part of. I realise now that time is a friend reminding me that every moment is a cycle of returning, offering the opportunity to deepen our relationship with the light of our Soul (who we are).
Changing my relationship with time is still ‘work in progress’. Some days everything feels effortless from being in conscious presence with my body and other times, more challenging as I have allowed my head to be ruling without connection to the body……..the day is rarely smooth and harmonious then.
I can feel the pressure I put on myself to constantly be doing things, or giving myself a hard time mentally, self bashing if I am not. There is a very clear battle between my head and my body. My body is saying I am enough. Sometimes I find it very hard to live from my body, as I have lived from my head for so long.
Beautiful Colleen, living to the rhythm of your own breath has got to beat racing against time hands down.
Interestingly, as I read the last words about being a rhythmic being living in a rhythmic world I could feel the ebb and flow of being in water, how it makes me aware of all being from and in the same space. It reminds me of a feeling I get when I snorkel, of all living in the same water-like environment and the stillness and order of that as reflected by fish. Then lifting my head out of the water and feeling the detachment, hearing the noise and feeling the coldness of being separated from that steady ebb and flow of an order naturally coming from stillness.
Time can be our tyrant or can be used it as a marker to evolve back to where we come from. Time does not bring us anywhere as it is only an indicator of where we are in our evolving back to Soul. Using time in this way is a wise thing to do otherwise it will live us and keeps us moving against our natural flow.
Time exists to show us how out of sync we live to the Universal rhythm we are held by, but do not live to. When this is mastered, there is only space with enough time allocated in which to complete the task at hand. When we say we want ‘more time’, want we really are saying is that we want more space, because there is a part of us that knows how constrictive and discordant it is to move against this universal harmony and not with it.
Thank you Liane! That explanation of time truly resonators with me. I have been working on my rhythms and it has reduced my stress level and body tension like nothing else.
I understand that everything happens for a reason, I just need to be open what the message is.
It is not time, but rhythm that governs us in our waking and sleep moments, and our body naturally knows what rhythm would be the best supportive for us.
This is beautiful to read and know the depth of importance of rythmns in life and the huge restricitions time and pressures effect us in our lives if we don’t live with our knowing cycles of life. Your changes and choices are very inspiring and the whole concept of time changes everything ” I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me. Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence.” The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.”
Love that you have found that you are a rhythmic being. It makes so much sense as we are living in a world and universe that is impulsed by rhythms and cycles and we are simply part of it.
Your blog Coleen, reminds me that there is so much more behind time, that time actually withholds me from living with the cycles we are under. When I let go the factor time in my life, which for 99.99% is in fact causing all the stress I experience, I enter space, a realm in life where my body feels at ease and in that I can feel a joy, harmony and rhythm that is so natural to my being and I now can say I is a realm where I belong.
Can’t beat the book “Time Space and all of us” by Serge Benhayon for a totally revelatory understanding about what time is and is not. I read and absolutely loved that book – changed my life in a great way: http://www.unimedliving.com/books-ebooks/unimed-publishing-books/time-space-and-all-of-us/time-space-and-all-of-us-book1-time.html
A hamster on a wheel existence, it feels like so many of us live in this way, and yet at our fingertips, our breath is a simple Gentle Breath Meditation as taught by Serge Benhayon that can slow life down and make us feel more at ease in our bodies. It is unlike any other meditation I have experienced in that it checks us more into life, doesn’t take us away from it.
The concept that time governs us is a completely untrue perception, like you explain so well, nothing can actually govern or touch the natural rhythm inside us. Learning to live connected and tapping into our own rhythm changes how we experience time, it no longer becomes a governing factor, but something we can easily navigate while remaining true to ourselves.
It is amazing how time feels like it expands when we allow it. Getting off the hamster wheel is a choice we can make at any time but unpicking what makes us choose to be controlled by time has, for me, been something I have needed to revisit on an regular basis. In this I have found having the support of others and the Our Cycles app has been enormously helpful in reconfiguring this relationship and reminding me that I am responsible for my choices and empowering me to choose differently.
Changing my relationship with the invisible tyrant of time has been gradual but the more I re-connect to me and my innate knowing of what activity feels true to undertake next, the more I loosen the shackles of constant clock watching and feel ruled by it.
When we choose to give ourselves space to live in our natural rhythm we are no longer confined by the restrictions of time.
I still occasionally get caught up in chaos and being busy. Thank you for the reminder of how simple it is to come back to our breath and the natural rhythms patterns and cycles.
Hello Coleen and this, “Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.” Time is a funny thing and how I relate to it is even more amusing, well sometimes not so amusing. I hold out time to be how I measure myself, on time, tick and not on time, cross and so the gauge of a ‘good’ day is closely related to how ‘on time’ I am. As you are saying and the more I am aware, time isn’t the real deal I have made it out to be. It’s important for obvious reasons but shouldn’t be the guide on how you live. Time needs to be used as an equal part of the overall and not stuck out the front as the most important. My relationship with this is constantly changing and here we are again at a point of change, thank you Coleen.
Thank you Coleen, I love your expression, how you play with the words.
I am currently part of a group who share how they use the Our Cycles App http://www.ourcyclesapp.com support their awareness of their cycles…”I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I” Sharing my experience and listening to others share theirs has allowed me to reach a deeper appreciation of who we all have apart of large cycles the occur it the universe. It has been a confirmation that we are part of something much grander than we often allow ourselves to feel.
Sometimes when I get caught in should do’s I can now reflect more on how I am actually feeling, and my breathing. Observing how I am breathing has allowed me to feel space and spaciousness around and within me. I am less beholden to time and the stress and reactions I had around the concept of it.
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’ Beautiful words and choosing to align to the rhythms of the world enables us to let go of feeling a victim of time. Letting go of the victim mentality which has caused me so much stress in the past allows me to bring so much more of me to whatever activity I am undertaking.
I have trapped myself in the ‘victim’ idea and feeling imposed upon by the concept of time brought a lot of reaction into my life. I agree beautiful words, honouring how we feel rather than acting from our head, allows the natural rhythms and cycles that are there to be felt and observed and so honoured.
I love your appreciation of living in cycles and how as we choose to do this, we connect to something far greater and grander, more universal than anything we could ever imagine when stuck on the ‘hamster-wheel’ of time.
‘I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.’ Just this one line in a whole blog of gems has given me a far deeper understanding and appreciation for the importance and power of a healthy and natural relationship with time.
Wow Coleen, well done for being able to quit the sleeping medication you had been taking for 10 years. I am aware that sleep issues are a big problem for many people and your blog is an inspiring example of the power we have when we make simple loving changes to the way we live.
Coleen, I really appreciate what you are sharing about not being assigned to the scrap heap because of menopause but instead appreciating how much deeper we can go with our rhythms at this very beautiful age by connecting to and understanding the cycles of the moon.
Time presents us with a conundrum, it is extremely important for we live in a world where time is a measure, but it is also an illusion that seemingly controls us. To see time through attention to how our body feels, and whether we are connected to who we really are provides a window into the illusion, and seems to magically change our day to day experiences.
Beautiful to read feel and claim Coleen, I am a rhythmic being living in a rhythmic world.
Living with the rhythms of the universe is indeed expansive and involves us understanding that everything we do plays a part in the whole of the universe, it all effects the all.
It is crucial that we do allow ourselves to feel the benefits of adjusting our rhythms and thereby redefining our relationship with time. I am so glad I am learning there is another way.
This is beautiful to read and know Coleen the way you share your relationship with time and rhythms is very inspiring and full of wisdom . “Living as a rhythmic being allows me now to observe how I am moment by moment, daily, monthly and yearly. I now see each year as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.” Living one’s own breath and the rhythms of the Universe is so much bigger than us and so humbling, magical and expansive to be part of this ever evolving cycle, instead of fighting it through ignorance and not knowing what is really going on.
I can so relate to living a “breathless’ existence, always rushing, planning ahead, priding myself on my time management skills, and then being brought to a grinding halt by a body that couldn’t keep on going, but left me wondering why. The why has been answered by the wonderful shared wisdom of Serge Benhayon and my willingness to stop and take a long and honest look at my life, and as a result lots of new choices have been made, with the love and care of my body now my first priority. My relationship with time is now more of a rhythm than a routine, and the breathless way of living is slowly being replaced with the choice to breathe in a way that supports me to live my life to the fullest. And as you remind us of so beautifully Coleen, “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”; words of wisdom to take into each and every day.
Moving in our own rhythm could be one of the healthiest lifestyle choices we will ever make.
Yes agree Deborah, to live in rhythm with our natural cycles your health and well being would improve enormously.
It is a great feeling to be able to feel what our body truly is saying about the rhythm we live by. We know that we have an internal ‘clock’, but what is that clock other than a rhythm which our body knows and imparts to us the impulses to be active or rest, eat or drink, etc. The body is such a vast science that we are the expert researchers of.
The Hamster Wheel effect is a deadly road to be on, as when we are racing around the hamster wheel the full effect on our bodies isn’t apparent.
It is only when we step off the hamster wheel do we feel the pressure we have put ourselves, or until we fall of the Hamster Wheel from excess motion and injury ourselves.
Sometimes it is very easy for me to get caught in this time trap and the only way out for me is to stopp. Coleen I found it very inspiring how you dealt with it!
Reading this Coleen gave me the opportunity to stop and appreciate the rhythm I have developed for myself over the years and how it supports me beautifully everyday. If I lose my rhythm I feel all over the place and not as clear, I agree with all you share here especially this gorgeous reminder ‘ The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.’
Our relationship with time has a massive impact on the quality of our life and the way in which we do things. It is in my experience very valuable to pay more attention to how we react or respond to time and to develop more living from our true inner rhythm.
This is a huge statement… rather than being tricked into the lineal trap of time, rhythms reconnect you back to the circular nature of things. We always return to the same spot!
Incredible that something so simple as respecting your cycle of sleep. you now no longer need the medication. This is so inspiring.
Wow Coleen, by changing your evening routine to including a non stimulating wind down you managed to stop taking sleeping medication. Sleep medication you had taken for over 10 years…. how amazing is that!
A simply stunning blog that brings a whole new dimension to our perspective on time and sheds light on our relationship with the much broader natural rhythms of life, its ebb and flow and our natural state of being. I love what you say about being ‘in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.’
What enormous changes occurred in your life colleen simply by breathing your own breath and choosing to not go into the disturbance of life that usually governs our state of wellbeing. In this disturbance, it is impossible to be aware of the rhythms and cycles that govern our lives and as you say, develop ourselves in accord with loving rhythms.
Very true Brendan. I also find it supports me to feel the rhythms and flow around me too – a constant reference point.
When we get distracted by and stuck in what has already passed and preoccupied with what is yet to come by living ahead of ourselves, time indeed becomes an invisible tyrant that robs us of the quality of the moment we are in.
And vice versa it is a wonderful realisation that when we appreciate the simplicity of life this also allows us to reconnect back to our rhythm.
Its so true Brendan when we honor ourselves and our own rhythm it allows us to be in a much better flow and more harmonious with the world around us.
The relationship between our cycles and constellations at times presents itself as if magic, but really, it’s so simple as they are all co-responding to the same one source, and that is the way it has always been. When we choose to honour and align to our own rhythm therefore cycle, we begin to become aware and appreciate the beauty and the grandness of it.
Having had the very big fact pointed out (that life is made of cycles that repeat themselves) has changed my life but also highlighted how damaging it is to live as if we have to go from point A to B – start of day, end of day etc. Everything repeats and everything comes back around to us, when we take this into consideration it makes our choices in how we live far more important to be aware of what quality we are choosing because it is going to come back around to us. Whereas the A to B life would have us believe that the quality of the journey doesn’t matter as long as we get to the end point.
Yes, agreed Leigh – I experienced a different way from this wake up call by the presentations of Serge Benhayon.
Moving and living from cycles instead of the accepted ‘normal way’ that everything has a beginning and an end as we go from ‘A to B right through to Z’ (day to day, year to year,birth to death etc) – life can appear to be very narrow, humdrum and stressful along a timeline and needing to achieve more to get away from the perceived drudgery of life. Whereas cycles bring a fullness and joy with a sense of expansion with no expectations of things being other than they truly are.
” Everything repeats and everything comes back around to us, when we take this into consideration it makes our choices in how we live far more important to be aware of what quality we are choosing”
It also cuts that stress of deadlines dead (pun intended) That pressure that everything must be complete by this time and that there is no other time to complete it is massive and I reckon this is on the rise if not already sky high. Knowing that everything comes back around allows us the space to appreciate what has been chosen, reflect on what could be changed and provides the space for that to happen rather than trying to fit everything into a single moment.
I too have found that learning to live in a rhythm is the key to defeating time. What a gift that Serge Benhayon has presented to the world, a key to unlock the pressures of time which so many of us have fallen victim to.
Yes Donna, time is an illusion which is easily exposed with presence
I love that you claim these cycles as your own Colleen. It makes me realise that we are all grander than we know. All that is needed is to live in connection to that grandness.
Thank you Coleen for a great blog, I love these words “By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.”
“The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.” – this is certainly my own experience too Coleen. Awesome blog
I’ve been feeling recently the impact of the ‘tick tick tick’ in the background of my life. I used to always be one or two minutes late out the door in the mornings; forever rushing breakfast, packing my bag and getting dressed for the day. Although this does happen sometimes still, I’m usually a bit more on time and less stressed. However, what may be worse than the obvious rushing and stubbing my toe, is how many times I look at the clock to check that my activities (particularly in the morning) are done in a very routined amount of time. I do writing for 25-30 minutes and exercise always lasts 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minute walk, which needs to be completed by 7.25 or 7.30 at the very least in order to be ready in time. My makeup can only take 10 minutes and my hair a further 5-10. You can probably see where I’m going with this! What this does to my body is it puts it into constant stress and tension – I’ll be mid way through an exercise and will stop to look at the clock, and breakfast is always eaten facing the clock so I can watch for the minutes. I’m beginning to get a sense of just how much this affects me, and love what you’ve shared about remaining in your natural rhythm even when time is tight or things around you become stressful. I would like to experiment living in a way that isn’t governed by the time and minutes on the clock, rather how I feel and what needs to be done. Even writing this comment I feel the smallest bit stressed as it’s so long, and took up 10 minutes rather than 5 haha!
Great to read your comment here Susie – I love how the body reminds us so clearly, in a myriad of ways that we are far away from our natural rhythm, out of presence with ourselves and in too much rush or anxiousness – stubbing a toe, catching the body on a door handle, tripping over something, knocking something over, dropping things etc is something to be appreciated, as it offers the opportunity to stop and feel how out of balance we are with ourselves in that moment and make a different choice in our way of being in that moment.
Absolutely Stephanie. I often get little bruises on my shins when I’m rushing or not looking after myself, from even just the slightest bumps on table legs or edges. The other morning I was getting ready in a rush and dropped a shoe with a hard heel on my foot – it throbbed and is still very tender; indeed it is amazing how instantly our body reacts and responds to us not looking after it.
I love your sentence “It all feels so lovely; I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me. ” It is really about sending love and able to receive love. Wonderful. When we are connected to our natural rhythm, we are also connected to the world around us and then we can the beauty in this world – in nature and in people.
”No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures”, this is such a beautiful statement Colleen, wonderful to feel that you appreciate and understand the rhythm and flow of time. What a great support for you in your work and in life.
This is beautiful to read Coleen – simple and deeply inspiring especially for anyone who feels time is an issue or has trouble sleeping and how the Gentle Breath Meditation can support with this in so many ways.
I often find myself constantly glancing at the clock, planning my next move or waiting for it to give me permission to do something, like eat a meal, or go home from work. To detach from that, and allow myself to feel within me the impulses that are there from my body to do what comes next for it, is such a powerful part of life to connect to.
I never tire of re-reading this blog Coleen, it is a beautiful reminder of returning to simply ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’ and having to get somewhere in life. Appreciating spaciousness we can live in every day, the day is far more preferable than constantly rushing and pushing and being totally exhausted, thus reduced to purely functioning in life.
Coleen, I loved reading this blog. It rang so many bells with how I used to try and beat time… never successfully achieving more time. Through the presentations by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I have learnt a totally new way of looking at time, and have found the more connected I am to myself, the more space I am able to create.
That’s a beautiful reminder Sally, that it is possible to experience space through connection to ourselves and letting go of time controlling and dictating our movements.
” No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures” – this is great statement and realization. So many people’s lives in our modern world are controlled by time. There is a constant living to deadlines and this creates an enormous tension in the body. I too have found that when I re-connected to my body that a lot of old pressures around time fell away because I was simply focusing on what I was doing and not running away with my thoughts which is a huge waste of time.
A joy to read, Colleen and so affirming for my everyday living as I again appreciate the beauty and power of rhythms.
What a great blog to re-visit Coleen. My rhythm got a little out of balance during the Christmas season and this blog is a beautiful reminder to get everything back in balance and not be at the mercy of the ‘time master’.
“The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.” I love this sentence Colleen, it has been my experience when I have felt challenged by a situation in life to just come back and focus on my rhythm as this supports me on so many levels and creates a flow in life.
I loved reading this again Coleen, I have very much been a victim of time always trying to get more and more done in a given amount of time, with anxiety of time running out. When I am with my gentle breath and in my rhythm there is a beautiful flow to life and an enjoyment of doing in the moment, with no anxiety of what to do next.
I love re-visiting this blog Coleen. There is a constant pull to re-define my rhythms, which is sometimes easy and other times some resistance comes in. I agree with you – there is an innate knowing that there are far grander rhythms and cycles for me/us to align to and flow with.
“I have a profound sense that there are yet more rhythms to unfold and cycles with which to engage”.
After reading Time, Space and all of us written by Serge Benhayon, I now have a totally new perspective on time and how connection to self greatly influences the time we have available.
I agree Joe Minnici – this amazing book ‘Time, Space and all of us’ is one of several of the beautiful purple books by Serge Benhayon. It has totally turned my understanding of time upside down inside out!
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’ I love this, and have put it as a reminder on my fridge. Reading it brings a pause, a moment to reconnect to my breath and where I am at.
First thing I thought,Tide and time waits for no man … It’s funny that we compare such a natural beauty as the tide to observe a constant steady rhythm that is unwavering, introduce time and it almost feels as if there a restriction or lessening of what we could really observe
“No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures. Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.” Thank you Coleen today I have been in the illusion of time, I have had a long drive and I found myself wishing the time away then when I was home and had lots to do I was wishing the time would go slower so I could get things done. I realise the antidote to both of these is presence, with presence time just flows.
The beautiful image to be breathed forth comes to me. We are in the rhythm of our breath. We can breathe our own rhythm, a naturally flowing, lymphatic rhythm or we can allow the world and its rush to affect how we breathe. There is the choice in each moment.
I love the naturalness and simplicity of this Amanda. My body instantly responded to your comment of being breathed forth with a feeling of everything flowing more effortlessly in a lovely rhythm. thank you!
It feels like there is a jarring when i’m out of my natural rhythm, I can feel edgey. Being in my natural rhythmic flow is true and feels timeless – when out of this, in a rush or sometimes if I find myself in someone’s else’s rhythm, which is equally jarring, then there is no time, it seems to run out. The whole universe supports us in every way to be part of it’s many rhythms which includes our own.
Harmony and balance can be seen as such “buzz words” , but the truth is that they are livable experiences and most definitely obtainable in this life.
I love this idea that we belong to the universe, that we are rhythmic beings in a rhythmic world. It just feels so beautiful to know this.
Time is a bigger topic for us than most given any credence to. It is something so ingrained in our lives that our very way of living is formed around giving our power away to it and feeling our lives are running to its tick. The fact remains though that this is not something that needs to be our reality and as I am experiencing more and more is that time is something that can actually feel very very spacious the more that we live to our own rhythm and not live to time.
In my life I used to always have a particular focus point in the future to get to, a goal to be reached and this always had something to do with escaping or correcting the past. Pondering this I became aware that very little of ‘Me’ was in the present moment. I was always exhausted and now I understand why. I was living ‘Time’ somewhere else, in at least two other time zones. Living in the present moment with specific rituals and rhythmic ways, focused on my breath and the present moment in my life has completely changed my relationship with time and freed up much of my energy resources which allows more space in my day. As you have said Coleen; ‘ Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence’, I too, have claimed more of me by living a rhythmic life in the present moment..
It can be so easy to forget ourselves in situation when the are time pressures or other outside demands. I have found that I can begin to feel the effects of stress when I start trying to control the outcome of multiple situations at work as the ‘manager’. What strikes me is that in becoming stressed we are not managing ourselves, the investments we make in outside circumstances are.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” Coleen these words flow like a glorious song. I can feel the rhythm expressed through your words.
I agree Kelly, these words flow like a glorious song – I have them pop onto my computer screen every few days as a reminder that we are so much more than a physical body and it always brings a smile from deep inside and a sense of lightness in my body.
We live so much with a focus on time, and therefore out of touch with our own natural rhythm, which causes the stress and burn-out rates going to the roof. If we would all re-connect to our bodies and live in accordance with what we all know inside is true, we would all be working with so much joy, without exhaustion and being able to work long hours without feeling drained at the end of the day.
I haven’t connected to my natural rhythm consistently, but when I do, things are easy and the flow is very lovely.
I agree with you Annie – isn’t it new-normal-amazing to have everything flowing so simply and harmoniously when in our natural rhythm. I certainly notice the difference in my day when out of it.
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’ I love this Coleen. I feel like putting it on my office wall as a reminder!
Yes I agree hartannne60 this is a great ‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’ I have it as a flash up message up on my computer every now and then during a week and it is a great reminder to see it there.
Living with a rhythm and working with the cycles allows life to flow.
It certainly does Deborah
I appreciate the inclusion and importance you placed Coleen on the simple rhythm put in place with breath. The gentle breath presented by Serge Benhayon, is forever a great first step towards connection. The quality we can feel in the flow of breath in and out, is simply a divine instruct and rhythm there for us any moment of every day. As you say Coleen, it brings us back to ourselves and prevents us taking on pressures in life.
I agree Simon, the Gentle Breath meditation presented by Serge Benhayon has allowed me to reconnect to my own divinity and to God.
And it is such a simple tool to come back to where we come from, getting the feeling how it is to just be this gentle in and out breath and that this can be enough, that alone stops all the doing force and brings a chance to feel lighter.
I agree Simon, The Gentle Breath Mediation is a simple key to experience the re-conneciotn to oneself which is vital to true wellbeing.
I remember a sign on the student’s dorm door at university that said ‘I love deadlines… and the whooshing noise they make when they go rushing by’. Many of us can feel that we have had to sell out and become the white rabbit to fit into ‘Their’ box. We had our rhythm but it never quite fitted into everyone else’s. Time to claim back who we truly are. It appears to me that the most amazing person is the one who has claimed who they truly are and become a reflection for everyone to see there is another way.
Thank you Coleen I really loved your blog, making me realise how very important our rhythms are, great words I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.
Thank you Coleen for an amazing blog on our relationship with time. It is not time itself but our relationship with time and our relationship with ourselves which make things tricky. When I am present with myself and feeling the divinity that I bring to activities then time is not an issue at all.
Lovely..’I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’. So true, the simple fact that the Universe is governed by cycles and rhythms and we are the beings that live within it, yet we constantly ignore this true science and live shackled to the clock, is crazy. This article is a great reminder Coleen of the importance of really listening and honouring our bodies natural rhythms. When I live in this way, curiously and oh so simply space opens up and time is no longer the enemy.
Coleen, I have read this blog before but this time I could not get past the paragraph about breathing a gentle breath. I had not connected breathing in my own rhythm could relate to my relationship with time or to be a starting place when feeling like I am working against the clock. I am familiar with how exquisite I feel when I stop to take the time to make my breathing rhythm my rhythm – if this were the only benefit of the gentle breath, which it is not, it is worth breathing this way just for this reason. It also makes some of the Yoga breathing exercises I once did seem silly, I never felt any benefit for it, at best I got a headache from the unnatural length and force of breath. Fancy that it was a more surrendered, gentle quality of breath that opened up the heavens the very first time I tried it and within just a few minutes. It also showed me the sense of sticking with what works, leaving behind what does not and that the elusive heights I was looking for in my Yoga breathing need not have been hard work and that connection is simple and actually no more than a few minutes a way- when I breath gently and return my breath to my rhythm.
Thank you for sharing this Deanne. I have recently experienced a deeper awareness of the natural rhythm of my own breath and how this is key for the quality of my rhythm during the day, how I move and a more harmonious relationship with time. This is bringing glimpses of a sense of being breathed by a far greater and grander breath of a universal rhythm.
Serge Benhayon has redefined for me what time is and my relationship with it is completely changing. I am now no longer looking at time in a linear manner, but rather seeing it for the cyclical nature that it is, recognising that time is there to help me evolve by seeing the lessons I have not yet learnt. So life keeps repeating itself until I see that there is more for me to learn, for me to evolve.
This is very beautiful as you put it Donna, life keeps repeating itself until I see that there is the next thing to learn and to evolve.
Simply and well stated Donna – changing our relationship with time from a linear view to its true cyclical nature, changes our view of everything and the lessons do keep on repeating for us to learn from and evolve.
This is such a beautiful and supportive blog Colleen — our relationship with time is so telling of the relationship we have with ourselves and with life. The quiet constant anxiety we’ve tuned out of that tends to be there when we check the clock. The constant race against time… As you share here, the answer is not to wrestle and adopt strategies and fixes but to reconnect back to rhythm, the divine order we are all a part of. Then we are with time. It’s something I’m still exploring but the more I let go of the notion that time is my enemy and let myself be in line with the natural rhythms you talk about here, the more I feel the space and expansiveness that opens up very very naturally.
A gorgeous confirmation of how we are all part of a greater whole that belongs to a universal order of rhythm and cycles. And when we live in honour of this very fact, how we can practically bring this quality to our everyday responsibilities.
Yes – the more we understand our true rhythms and then position ourselves within the divine cycles that are occurring all around us, the more we have the opportunity to both live and to realise how amazing we all are and the extent of the ginormous support by which we are surrounded every single day of our lives, I feel, Marcia. In the claiming of both, lays our true glory and our purpose as expansively evolving human beings….
Beautifully said Marcia and CoIeen – am feeling more awareness of the universal order of rhythm and cycles in my body now and it is making a huge difference in my own rhythm and wellbeing of my body.
Thank you. Reading your blog this morning had me contemplating more deeply on rhythm and what it look like in my own life and how I can see there are gaps where I go out of rhythm – and how having a more loving wind down time would support this a lot.
The perceived battle with time continues to mar some of my days – none more so than this past week when I made choice – felt – that there was not enough time to get it all done – I revved every cell of mine up and launched myself at the day. It was horrendous and the following days I could feel the pain and devastation I had in my body. It took me a day or two to pull out of this extreme behaviour and feel the effects on my being but it was an absolute lesson in choice and how time is not the enemy what I choose is essential.
Lee Green your sharing has just exposed the pattern in me! Here i am looking at the clock going into the anxiety of not enough time to do what I need to do. It’s a time for a stop, to reconnect back to my breath and feel from my body what needs to be done when. Overwhelm and anxiety with time comes from us being not connected to our bodies, but when we connect, we then feel the natural flow around us and let the wisdom of our bodies instruct what needs to be done next.
Simple really Katerina but very powerful and a message indeed that the body has a wonderful order and rhythm – no amount of pushing can make it work in a quicker way – all that happens is we incite the cells and make everything jump and fizz – no harmony can exist and the movement is out of whack and out of sync with divine rhythm.
That’s an awesome revelation, Lee: how just the thought of there not being “enough” time brings us to the point of manic behaviour, which then has a devastating effect on our body: it really does feel absolutely awful in the body: the complete antithesis of being consciously present with oneself, breathing gently and moving in one’s own natural rhythm. The feeling in the body of each type of experience indicates with outstanding clarity which is our natural, gentle and loving way to be. It still blows me away how just that thought of not enough stirs up such a frenzy – it is very intense programming!!
Absolutely Coleen24 Very Intense programming indeed – and yet we know how to switch a program off we just choose to take longer with some, more so than others.
I love the beautiful moment of accepting that there are in fact no coincidences – only the amazing and divine gift of reflections and messages in some form or another to confirm our inner connection or to expose where we have wondered off track from it. The more aware of this I choose to be, the complexity drops away and all becomes simple and flowing harmoniously in my day.
Thank you Lee, Katerina and Coleen24 – your comments popped up on the screen in front of me (apparently randomly -ha ha!) and they are the exact ‘reminder and exposure message’ required for me to read, thus reflecting where I had temporarily ‘left myself’ in choosing to be consumed with the thoughts of there not being enough time, and now really feeling the inner frenzy, anxiousness and hardness I created, distorting that which is true.
From reading this today I realise now just how much pushing there was to get things done yesterday – the truth is, very little actually got done, I felt incomplete, discombobulated and exhausted by the end of the day!
“The body has a wonderful order and rhythm – no amount of pushing can make it work in a quicker way – all that happens is we incite the cells and make everything jump and fizz – no harmony can exist and the movement is out of whack and out of sync with divine rhythm”.
Now, I am choosing to simply bring a stop to the self created raciness and pushing of yesterday, I am off to listen to a Gentle Breath audio with Serge Benhayon, supporting my return to inner stillness and restore the harmony and rhythm to my particles once more! http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/free/free-gentle-breath-meditations-an-introduction.html
With deep appreciation for the amazing support all these blogs, comments, audio’s and teachings of the Ancient Wisdom as presented by Serge Benhayon offer us to deepen the re-connection with all that we are in truth.
Coleen, great article about time. I have found by living in a natural rhythm with myself, that I can experience a greater sense of time, and find more space, when I am out of my rhythm time seems to evaporate!
I’ve grown up hearing ‘time is the enemy’ so it has always had an impending threat. Now I am aware there is no threat, it only is there if I give energy to it. I can choose to breath my own breath and stay in my rhythm as presented by Universal Medicine which doesn’t allow time to dictate.
Time has no control anymore over us, when we see though the game and taking our responsibility for the rhythm we choose to live in – it does not get to us.
That’s a great blog to read, especially when I have just gone into a moment of stress around an event, and the work to be completed between now and then. Up until now I haven’t felt that impending pressure so thank you for the reminder Coleen.
Incredible Coleen ‘I am rhythmic being and I life in a rhythmic world’. This is so true. I have to think of, so silly, the barbie song that stated: I am a Barbie girl, In a barbie world’. I prefer being in one that is real; a rhythmic one! SO cool. Let’s explore my true rhythm, I love what you shared on being part of a rhythm that is even grander than I am, which feels absolute as God’s rhythm.
That is gorgeous Danna — a business idea with a love-filled punch!
I know exactly what you are talking about Coleen. I considered myself also as a victim of time, always doing something, which obviously resulted in exhaustion. Thanks to Unimed I start to build a connection to myself, a true connection – means I listen to my body and give my body, what it needs at any given time. That is a wonderful journey and I can deepen my relationship with my body more and more.
The more I fight against time, the more time wins, yet when I live in my rhythm I have so much more time, so much space to do all that needs to be done. Time is not our enemy, but we are when we don’t honour our rhythm.
The understanding that we have our own unique rhythm is essential to our well-being as when we live in honouring of this we are not victims of time but move in our fullness from moment to moment. This builds an authority in our own lives rather than a continual ‘catch up’ or ‘trying’ which comes when we ‘battle’ time.
I love the claiming in your comment Sarah “This builds an authority in our own lives rather than a continual ‘catch up’ or ‘trying’ which comes when we ‘battle ‘ time.” It is reminding me to not go into battle and stay with the authority, the choice is very simple and clear.
I like this Sarah, thanks for sharing. Building a presence that we can trust in our body, and with that comes natural confidence and authority. I like that this is a rhythm and can be connected to. Anxiety can be felt straight away because it is the most unnatural thing when one has a rhythm that is holding and they move through moment to moment with that ‘fullness’.
And how pretty amazing are we all here – knowing that we don’t want this nervous tension anymore in our bodies and choosing to trust this foundation inside of our hearts.
Ah! Thank you Sarah – you have put in words a feeling I have been experiencing recently within my body, which now makes sense of this feeling of fullness –
…”when we live in honouring of this we are not victims of time but move in our fullness from moment to moment”.
A great blog Coleen. I recently started to appreciate more how much the rhythm I have built for myself over the last decade is supporting me and that it is important to keep investing into it. The more I support myself this way, the more space opens up for things to do in an easy, relaxed and enjoyable way.
Great point Judith. Developing and deepening our rhythm is such a worthwhile investment.
When I was younger I had a great relationship with time, I think being a master of time has a lot to do with our presence. When we are fully present, what is there to be anxious about?
Exactly Harry if we choose presence there is no anxiety.
So simple Harryjwhite and so true.
Absolutely Harrywhite, when I am present with myself and feel me in my fullness, there is nothing to be anxious about.
This is gold Harry- When we are fully present, there is nothing to be anxious about! If we trust deeply and letting time pressure just go, it allows the natural flow of the bigger rhythm of the all.
I hadn’t fully considered that breath is a part of my rhythm until I read this blog. I seem to find every excuse in the book to avoid connecting to my breath, the number one excuse seems to be ‘not enough time!’ but really it is all about a choice. Thank you Coleen. The way I breathe (and type) feels far more expansive and unhurried now I have read this blog.
Great point Leonne not having time to connect to our breath it is almost the ultimate excuse.
So true Nicole,it is an excuse isn’t it? Plus we don’t always have to stop what we are doing to connect to the breath, it helps, but we can turn a little attention to our breath and body in whatever we are doing.
To true sometimes we over look the one thing that really helps settle us
Great to read Coleen. Our relationship with time is a big part of our lives. I’ve found lately that doing things when I first feel to do them and being in rhythm with myself, so I don’t have to rush, also allows a lot of space in my times and I seem to have an even steadiness throughout the day. If I leave things to the last minute or delay some things, then I usually get really nervous and end up being late and feeling horrible. But for me it has been about accepting how amazing I would feel to be ahead of schedule so much. And its like now I don’t even plan ahead my days plan themselves.
It’s amazing how such simple choices have made such a difference in your life in relation to the effects of time. I love the focus and connection you have brought to understading and feeling rhythms in your life and those around you. Becoming aware of rhythm in living has been amazing for me too as it really shows what we do during the day that accumulates and continues to affect us later.
Coleen this blog came right in time for me as I too can be very easily be a victim of time. I love to read the following sentences: “I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.” That I found very inspiring. Thank you for sharing your experience that was absolutely helpful for me.
Yes I too have been a victim of time and I sometimes still fall into this category as I put pressure on myself to get things done in a certain way or try to get lots of things ticked off my list.This just creates pressure and drama and I am then completely sent into a spin. When we let go of perfection and connect to ourselves time does just flow and our rhythm is restored.
This is a gorgeous piece of writhing Coleen, with so much wisdom shared as you disintegrate the constructs we have about time, and time owning us. ‘I now see each year as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.’ – this is so beautifully said Coleen. As in each moment we have an opportunity to deepen our connection to our true selves within and express this in our lives. Time does indeed offer us the opportunity for this to happen, as every day the opportunity comes again. ‘Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.’ – love this. As in truth who we are within is timeless, and through time we can discover how to live this timeless quality of love in our daily lives.
For me time was also an enemy especially as a kid, I use to struggle in my early age to go to school on time also because I did not want to be there. But with time, I did manage to be more punctual and respectful of others but as you said it can be a permanent stress as we are constantly ruled by time. My dream was to be able to never have to go to bed and live a 48 hour day to make more space for myself, going to bed late to live life more fully. I have also realised with time that this didn’t work either, and on the contrary, it was very limiting and the quality of my day would be pretty awful. When I first went to a course presented by Serge Benhayon, I was explained the importance of the gentle breath meditation, going to bed before 9pm when I could, unless I was on a late shift for work of course, but should I have things to finish, eventually to do them in the early hours of the morning would help immensely. I have tried this for myself to see what it would be like, and this is when everything changed. The quality of my day was so much better with no comparison whatsoever. Strangely enough, friends and family didn’t like it, they would always try to persuade me to stay up late, it was very bizarre, almost like a coalition and all against me… With my strong will, I did manage to stick to my rule and have never regretted it ever since, but people are still challenging me, so my answer to them is to try it for themself and feel it 🙂
Reading your comment Alexandre I could feel some tension in my body arising. Due to sleeping so heavily in my teens, I was often late in leaving the house to get to the bus stop (which was a good 20 minutes walk) to catch the bus to school. The fear of being late (no bus for another 45 minutes) had me running in a clumsy way with a heavy school bag banging against my body or legs – my breath ragged and gasping for air. The stress on my body was huge and most of the day was dominated by anxiousness incase of being late for any lessons in various buildings scattered all around the school grounds.
I have just understood why there continued to be so much tension around arriving late at any event or place after leaving school.
So many people (would) testimony the same thing Alexandre re the benefits of going earlier to bed and adopting an honouring evening wind down period. And yes it is interesting – initially sometimes quite challenging for some – to feel, observe, be subject of the resistance from those around us. This is an awesome process in which we can claim more self-love and expression of our own truth. I am sure like you, these days for me I joyfully share that my early sleep and evening winding down is very sacred for me and that I totally and thoroughly cherish it. The same way I cherish it and share the importance of it with my daughter and husband, thus gently declining any late evening parties and rather suggesting an afternoon one. People who connect to what we live and our quality of being gradually gets it, and actually often gets quite inspired.
Thank you Coleen this is a beautiful reminder that we are not run by time. The beauty of life’s rhythm’s encapsulates us all differently but it brings us back to the same thing. The joy of connection to not only our bodies but everything around us.
It is interesting that from the time we are taught to tell time it becomes something that our lives are run by. Connecting back to our natural rhythms as you said Coleen, is to be in harmony with the natural flow of life and to create days that support us, not ones that are driven by time. Of course time still plays a factor and offers structure to our day, but the way we are with ourselves and the knowledge of what we need to get done opens up the space for it to be completed with stressfully watching the clock.
I’ve been caught up in the drama of time. I have begun studying again and I thought I had no time for anything else except for studying. Then my Sister asked me how many hours per week am I required to study and what does this break down to per day. I was shocked that it only amounted to 2 hours per day. I dropped the drama and I am now working with time rather than against it and it feels like I have created space for myself. Thank you Coleen for highlighting our rhythms as this is a friendly reminder for me to check in and see how I am going.
I love this sharing Linda. It is true, when we break things up and offer ourselves the truth of where we are really at we can cut the drama which is a mechanism that we have built to keep us disconnected and a slave to time.
What a Beautiful blog Coleen. And wow, what a changes you’ve made. The inner knowing and livingness of you and your rhythms are very clear and feelable from your blog. I am realising from it that I can be much more honouring towards myself. I’ve done a great job in regards to where I was, but in being ‘in lign’ with my natural rhythm – especially day / night there’s still space to feel and honour more of me in it. Thank you.
I love what you share here Coleen about time, especially this line ‘I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.’ – A beautiful reminder for us all and one I will enjoy building into my life everyday.
“…I simply began to be unaffected by them (deadlines, pressures)…” Time doesn’t exist for kids or animals. But from the moment kids are born, we are teaching them to run on a schedule according to the clock. My daughter likes being at school learning and playing with the other kids, but the fact that we have to turn up on time and each class is run on a timeclock, she hates that side of it. Given a choice, she would never learn how to tell the time! She will read Serge Benhayon’s book, Time, Space and All of Us as soon as she’s ready I’m sure 🙂
This is an interesting aspect you are sharing here about your daughter, Suzanne. As Collen shares in her blog we are rhythmical beings living in a rhythmical world and there is nothing lineal about our cyclical nature. I remember as a child I had no concept of time, the world was just a beautiful flow of occurrences. And I can relate to that again more and more as I accept that everything is a cycle and the more I built a supportive rhythm that actually brings me back to that feeling that I arrive exactly on time and that things constellate the way they need to be. We can claim back this beautiful flow of life from our childhood when we are willing to give us the space and build the rhythm that supports that.
So is it possible it’s not time per se that is the issue, then, Judith, but rather our slavish, just about fanatical, adherence to the constant measurement of it in a way that we victimise ourselves? This could actually be a rather devious way of avoiding true time and the purpose it serves. I love the way things constellate when I’m in the flow, too, and, yes, I always get there at precisely the right time when I’m not trying to control it by stressing, worrying, pushing, rushing etc It really is fascinating what we do with time and then we blame it….
I will remember these words when I rush myself ‘I fall out of love’. There is such wisdom in these few words, beautiful.
My work is one of constant deadlines and I haven’t mastered it yet, to let go of control and to leave it to the rhythms that are there for us. One day I am more in a flow than other days. Sometimes demands seem too much, I know this is not true because it is always the way I approach the factor of time and my ability to follow my rhythm knowing this is the way to be and go.
Im not sure where I read it Suzanne but I always remember your daughter sharing how when you rush her that she falls out of love. It was the simplicity and utter truth of her wisdom at such a young age that resonated with me. We are all so in tune with our natural rhythm it’s just that we over ride or dismiss our innate rhythm and timing to often enjoin in the demands outside of us. It is a delicate balance I have discovered of holding steady with my rhythm while meeting the practicalities of life, commitments and responsibilities.
This shows that kids are a great reflection that time doesn’t exist. And that we, adults, have been moulded from a young age into schedules, plannings, careers, plans etc. All focused on the future, on getting better, reaching something in a distant future. Whilst if we were to see life as a playground, where there is only play and joy, then we step out of the scheme of time.
I like Suzanne how your comment raises the awareness around not imposing on children an unhealthy, harmful and un-true relationship with time. Obviously this implies that we have a true relationship with time ourselves. Serge Benhayon presentations, and his latest book “Time, Space and All of Us” have certainly been key for me in that process.
I still find it easy to get caught up in life and forget we are all part of cycles going on constantly. Getting to know these rhythms, patterns and cycles is huge and an amazing insight into many things.
This feels really important, kevmchardy. We get caught in running after time so often instead of feeling into the natural rhythm and flow of things and just going with it.
I agree Kevinchardy and evamariafoertsch – it is easy to get caught up in time and complexity rather than being in conscious presence with ourselves and flowing more naturally with the ever present natural rhythm and cycles of the Universe – how much more simple life is when lived this way.
Joyful ‘work in progress’ though as I / we become more aware of these rhythms and cycles and the quality in which we choose to live.
I continue to be inspired by Serge Benhayon’s presentations to change my relationship with time.
It is our self made momentum that we get to feel when we are stressed. Everytime things don’t flow we are in a self created momentum against the natural flow.
The more we seem to get caught in this pattern of chasing time, the less time we seem to have… It makes so much sense to build a foundation of connecting to our bodies through our daily rhythms to arrest this behaviour.
This is also my experience Monika stress is a trick to sabotage the rhythm we can actually live in which would support us to be who we are.
Yes Kevmchardy the ever pressing time factor sometimes I too get caught up in it, but I find it is a great reminder for us all that we can change the urgency to flow by breathing our own breath. This is then breathing in our own rhythm and flow returns.
I get caught up in this too at times kevmchardy, and find this is when time totally gets away from me… however when I connect back to the natural rhythms and cycles of life and back to my own body, my experience of time is totally different. This offers us an amazing insight if we are willing to connect to this…
Yes Angela and the opportunity to stop and take stock of when we allowed the rush of time to take over the day and not trust that all that was needed to be done would be a priority.
The rhythm you talk about is crucial to finding a balanced way of living. Work can be intense as you say and I too have found that breathing my gentle breath to be a fantastic tool to support being stress free – ‘I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm. This diminished the stress of work demands enormously and my ability to remain unperturbed was commented on by many colleagues.’
So true, Brendan, that we appear to be the only species on Earth in disregard and ignorance of the rhythms which surround us and of which we, like all else, on our planet, are in alignment with, except in the defiance of “knowing better” or “knowing differently.”
I often contemplate the source of our arrogance, especially since choosing to re align with these rhythms which are so deeply supportive of all of us.
Time sure is one of those things that either you give your power over to or you claim yourself back within.
Natasha – wow! A lovely simplicity in this statement with another way to view time and be inspired by in our way of living –
“either you give your power over to (time) or you claim yourself back within”.
Yes I have been feeling how much I have been powerless to time and how much I have been dictated by time. Over the last few mornings I have been really working on how much I am me and time is all around me, infront of me, beside me, behind me, but I am me. And I am able to define myself by whatever my choices are and always being aware of time of course but working on not falling victim to time.
This morning I suddenly was aware of the feeling of the old habit of the pressure of time causing a tension in my chest area. Re-reading this blog has reminded me of that which I know well, but had forgotten to stop and be with the simplicity of returning to breathing my own breath through the Gentle Breath Meditation. Thank you Coleen – your blog continues to inspire and bring healing on many levels.
“The first step in reclaiming my natural rhythm was to breathe a gentle breath and feel my own naturally gentle energy. This offered me a choice in stressful situations – I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm”.
This is very useful and a great reminder, as I have recently taken on a new position at work and have found that there are so many deadlines to meet, which at first I felt like I was at the mercy of, but things are settling down a little now. Great comments, thank you.
‘The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.’ We are supported by everything around us without even noticing I should say. I have lived most of the time in my life on ‘my own’, always pushing and fulfilling demands never felt I was enough. Now I know I am more than enough and let myself feel who I am and my relationship with myself, time and life has changed so much. Sometimes I do fall for the demands from work and my body tells me immediately I was trying to do it on my own again. Connecting with me (and All) my rhythm and staying present with what I am doing brings me back to the joy I truly am.
Yes but are we truly victims of time……or victims of ourselves and our choices?
This is such a great question Rosemary Dunstan – it brings everything straight back to US and the responsibility of the choices we choose to make in the way we live.
“are we truly victims of time……or victims of ourselves and our choices?”
Great blog Coleen. “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world,” I love this statement, it reminds me of the simplicity of life. The more I come back to my gentle breath and my rhythms the more flow and ease is in my life.
Yes, Rosemary, we do all indeed have the daily choice of rhythm or perceived pressures of time deadlines. I say “perceived” after having recently read the Serge Benhayon book, “Time, Space and All of us,” where it is presented that we have been misnaming Time and have created a tissue of lies around its true meaning and significance for us. This for me confirmed that Time can be our greatest ally provided our relationship with it is based on the truth of what Time and its cycles are all about.
Ah! Yes Coleen, I can certainly relate to your comment – my perceived understanding of time has been turned inside-out and upside-down since reading the book ‘Time, Space and All of us’ by Serge Benhayon. How cool and wonderous to ponder upon and see things differently – time turning out to be our greatest ally rather than the tyrant we have enslaved ourselves to in the past. Wowza! Freedom from time in the old way feels worth celebrating.
Coleen, thank you for your blog – time is indeed a rare thing for most of us, but like you, I too have experienced the magic that comes from focusing on the quality of my breath and my being and this can literally buy so much time it is not funny. It is quite often that I still get caught up in the doing and then time takes over and I always feel rushed or hurried. I love that feeling of being and how everything constellates and there is a flow and everything that needs to get done gets done, whilst leaving me feeling complete and un-hurried. I treasure these times and know that this is because of a choice in how I am being at that moment.
Thank you Coleen – A timely reminder of the absolute importance in connecting with our own rhythm through breath.
I agree Rachael, reconnecting back to ourselves is as simple as reconnecting back to our breath and it is always lovely to be reminded of this fact.
Thank you Coleen – deeply so for expressing your complete turn around with time- just amazing and inspiration! (Especially in a time, at Uni, where it seems to be all about the pressures of time) it is so important to know there is a different way with time, and thank you for sharing what supported you there – it makes so much sense.
The tyrant you shared about has definitely made its way out the door Colleen your sharing has highlighted how harming it can be. I have noticed that the little niggles of perfection that I used to play ball with stops me from knowing that the deadlines and pressures will be met when I continue to fine tune the way I live and look after myself.
This has been very helpful Colleen, as my job has constant deadlines and the pressure can build up if I don’t watch it, which as we all know feels awful in the body.
It amazes me how we live our lives so out of rhythm. When you observe nature it all works in a beautiful rhythmic flow. The seasons,days,moon cycles all governed by an exquisite balanced order. It’s no wonder that we are so exhausted as we are fighting against the very laws of nature when we are not connected to a natural cycle and rhythm.
I love this summing up. It feels so full with the potential of a never ending unfolding and learning. ‘Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me’
Colleen I could feel the raciness in your words as you were describing the way you were which I could very much relate to being in that racy mode whether that was at home or at work. It was beautiful to read how you had changed and I could feel the stillness within you when you spoke about your rhythm. Amazing transformation and very inspiring.
Rhythm is everything for me too. Lovely how nothing can get you out of order, when you stay with your own rhythm and take your moments of reconnection whenever needed throughout your day. The world today asks you, and reflects, always to actually not live in a rhythm, so it is even more important to establish a loving rhythm within yourself that is the best support in life.
I love the words Coleen “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.”. So beautiful and confirming, thank you.
Dear Coleen, your blog is very needed for so many people to read. I used to run after time as well, and remember how it felt in my body. There was always this raciness and never was I able to stop this inner nervous tension. Since I am living from my inner stillness outwards I don’t allow time to rule over me. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I got to know this amazing wisdom that is ageless and there for everyone who is looking for truth.
Your blog Coleen feels to me like a healing session. The topic “not to be ruled by time” is still a big challenge for me. Thanks for sharing your experiences with time.
Yes, I agree 100% with you Alexander – the quality of the stillness (the opposite the the time master) in which Coleen writes brings the beautiful and profound healing session when reading it. Thank you Coleen for sharing your awareness and wisdom here.
I love the rhythm you have written in Coleen I could really feel that is what you live. Very inspirational that you could make such a significant change from needing sleep medication to get to sleep to not having to take that at all. Recently Serge said that sleep was a day job which cracked me up but what a revelation! Like you have shared this simple understanding would put drug companies out of work!
This is a huge topic that we are just starting to reconnect with.
It was inspiring to read how you totally changed your relationship with Time through developing a deeper connection with your body and it’s natural rhythms.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world,”
When I put myself under pressure I can feel how contracted I become and how limited my life then is. Your blog shows us that it is not what you do but how you do what you do that makes the difference and you share how, for example, the Gentle Breath Meditation so facilitates this change in quality and thus to all we bring. Aligning with our gentle breath and staying with it as it deepens, no matter what, creates that space that is so vital for our well being.
Living in rhythm gives us the opportunity to constantly refine and deepen the quality of how we bring ourselves to the World. This in itself brings meaning to life.
Just recently I got caught up in the action of ‘doing’ rather than just ‘being’ and the quality of my rhythm began to slip-slide into tension, push and drive of having to get things done for a few days. Even my sleep became disturbed as my body hardened from being held so tightly contained (contracted). I could feel the pull of the true foundations I have been building through deepening connection with my body since attending the presentations with Serge Benhayon and ongoing participation in Esoteric Yoga sessions and was able to bring a stop to this ‘doing’ and let myself feel the ill-choices I had made (an ‘ouch’ moment). Just being honest with where I was with myself and not bashing myself up about it changed everything and I could then feel that in every moment I actually have a choice to ‘be or do’.
The appreciation too of how invaluable the constant re-building and strengthening of the inner foundation is worth all the work it has taken to re-establish this.
What a joy to be able to actually feel the detrimental effects of they time tyrant in such a relatively short space of time and have tools available to bring this to a stop.
There is a harmonious flow in my day again, a feeling of spaciousness and quality of rhythm restored.
… I then could feel that in every moment I have a choice to DO or BE. A great simple question I will use to check in future where I am at! Thanks Stephanie*
What a lovely, insightful blog Coleen. I used to create time to vacuum my floors, but that used to stress me out, making me hate the job because I felt like I had no choice in when I cleaned. But like you, I committed to finding my own rhythm in when and how I live my everyday and how I vacuum naturally changed. I may be sitting quietly on the couch when I look down and notice for the first time that the floor needs vacuuming, so I get up there and then and do it. For that half an hour it takes me I’m actually enjoying it, seeing immediately the effect of a clean floor, more importantly feeling how nice it is to have 1. observed a job that needs doing 2. found time or rather the space to do the job 3. complete, at having had a purpose to clean and followed that impulse right the way through. To me this is rhythm and doing life this way doesn’t exhaust me or stress me out.
As you saySuzanne, the rhythm we live in allows us to create the space for doing the jobs we have to do without causing any stress because we are totally in rhythm with all that is around us and of which we are part of. From there we are fulfilled with the joy we feel from being part of the whole and not separated. It is really fun to live lik this.
I feel the ebb and flow of my rhythm when I am in a rhythm that is true to me. There is a pulse with something that is within me and around me, it is quite lovely to live in this way and very confirming when felt.
When I make it about time, I loose myself and I focus only on the task that is ahead and I and my body suffer. I was so used to do it in that way, I could not imagine there was another way. Just like you Coleen was the Gentle Breath Meditation the start to become aware of the other and true way. It always comes back to my breath I have experienced. Do I breath my own breath? In other words am I connected to myself or not. Rhythm is something I am exploring and I am amazed about the power of living in rhythm. I know what you say to be true ‘The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.’
In the past I was also a slave of time, running around, trying to meet all the deadlines… I’m so glad that – thanks to all your amazing reflections – there is another way. I get more and more a feeling of space within me and around me. And that is feeling awesome.
So cool alexander1207 – it’s like once we realise there IS another way to live our day then space opens up to prove the fluidity of time. We have room to expand and be more of who we are.
“I was able to take pleasure in living in my own body”. Yes Coleen since becoming a student of Universal Medicine I don’t just exist, waking up day after day and getting on the treadmill of business. I plan my day, take time to ponder and care for this wonderful body which is taking me through life and its natural rhythms.
Thank you Coleen, your words ‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’ means that it is all about rhythm not time, and when we have a great rhythm going time looks after itself.
I find during increased stress, that getting back into my rhythm is about the best thing I can do for myself. I’m still spontaneous and fluid in my working and general life, but supporting myself with a strong foundation throughout each day has literally changed my life (for the best).
Thank you Coleen, so timely for me to deepen my relationship with my innate rhythms.
I too have previously been driven by time- believing that if I didn’t achieve many things in a day, I was lazy or not efficient and felt not good enough. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine this is changing.
Coleen, what an incredible story you have, by doing something as simple as changing the way and time you got to bed you have been able to quit medication that you had become dependant on to help you sleep. ‘Almost immediately I was able to quit the sleep medication I had been taking for over 10 years by simply having a non-stimulating wind-down routine in the evening and going to bed considerably earlier than had been my habit.’ That’s awesome.
Coleen, what an incredible story you have, by doing something as simple as changing the way and time you got to bed, you have been able to quit medication that you had become dependant on to help you sleep. ‘Almost immediately I was able to quit the sleep medication I had been taking for over 10 years by simply having a non-stimulating wind-down routine in the evening and going to bed considerably earlier than had been my habit.’ That’s awesome.
this is big Coleen. What you have introduced is massive I feel! that we have a relationship with cycles that are huge, and the rhythm that we live in and relate to the bigger rhythm of the full moon cycle is all part of it. this is so special. It makes me drop my jaw in awe of how much there really is to explore and be aware of in life. Where as when we reduce our awareness to what we can mentally control and work out, and to the pressures of time, we lose that expansive connection.
Indeed we lose that expansive connection which is there all around us. The more I realize that, the sillier this Hamster cycle we are in feels like. So small, so contracted. Moving to the Rhythms of Life seem far more natural and supporting our bodies.
Totally agree with you Coleen, the stronger the rhythm the easier everything flows during the day
reminds me of that quote by Natalie Benhayon… Your routine is what you do during the day and your rhythm is how you do it…
Thank you Joel for the powerful quote – plus the other great quote by Natalie Benhayon, “Rhythm is our relationship with the quality of how we feel within ourselves each and every day”.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” What an incredibly inspiring blog Coleen – you express exquisitely. Thank you for presenting this powerful teaching about rhythms – I will come back to read this often as a support to deepening my connection to my rhythm and the natural rhythms of the world I live in.
I too will come back to this blog to support myself in restoring my rhythm in line with all the rhythms that are influencing me. I can feel that my body knows and cannot else than response to the rhythms being set by the universe, only my mind is able to ignore this fact and to dictate another false or ill rhythm to my body.
I loved reading this again Coleen. I have been feeling like a hamster on a wheel lately and this perfectly timed blog has reminded me I need to get off the wheel and breathe my own breath.
Yes Leonne I read this also again because I know that it would help me to stopp being in this hamster on a wheel thing and it worked – wunderbar.
Your deep re-connection to, and appreciation of, being a rhythmic being is a beautiful reminder of the power of being within the natural flow of life and time and not being dominated by it.
Only when we are able to connect to something that is truly natural, something that we have not being able to connect for a long time and feel it how it feels we have a true feeling of being at home with ourselves again. And it is only then when all the non senses we have been living stand out for what they truly are: non senses.
Love this comment, thank you Eduardo.
Thank you Coleen. What is remarkable about your journey is that there was no alcohol or coffee, that all the stimulus you needed to keep the hamster wheel turning was coming from inside. This ‘mindset’ is what Universal Medicine brings attention to, and in the reconnection in such simplicity with ourselves facilitates the restoration of balance and harmony, and that this is available for everyone and anyone who chooses is indeed a blessing for humanity.
cjames2012, I agree it is very interesting that we do not need stimulants such as coffee to keep us awake. I spent years dependant on sugar, coffee and other stimulants to keep me going and it is only with these out of the way that I can feel that my way of being is so much more than the external fixes. That it is a choice within me to be in my head or in my body and when I choose to be in my body my natural sleep rhythm flows.
An inspiring article Coleen. I too was a self-inflicted victim of time always trying to catch up with the the ‘to dos’ that I imposed on myself. Listening to the words of wisdom from Serge Benhayon I now live in a gentle rhythm that allows space for all that I choose for the day. Accepting a rhythm of going to bed early I know this is something my body has always been asking for but I over-rode because it was not ‘what everyone else did’. I wake early, refreshed and ready for all that the day has to offer.
I read your blog again Coleen because I find it very inspiring to refocus on the practical clues to living a rhythmic life. Sometimes the spin of the world gets in and it’s good to refocus and consciously breathe my own rhythm again.
I love reading your words on rhythm Coleen, and to be reminded of the gentle breath as a marker of where I am with my rhythm. Such simple rhythms that you describe have made a profound difference to the way I also can “take pleasure in living in my own body” more consistently.
Love this blog Coleen … “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”. what a lovely reminder to feel how divine this truth feels in my body.
I love the confirmations and appreciations of that phrase that then allow a greater unfolding of that truth for us all in our daily lives. “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.”
” I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”. The more I feel into this phrase I feel the greater truth it presents. There is a definite rhythm that we can flow with or fight against.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” – This is a significant statement and one I am continually coming to grips with. the more I do the better life becomes.
Me too. The cycle of the planets is a rhythm that is constantly returning to its origin. The rhythm of the universe is constantly expanding. This is an allegory to be lived by: if we live in a rhythm that supports us to return to the truth of our innermost nature, our true origin, we will expand with the universe.
Well expressed Jinya. As I continue to develop the rhythms that support my natural way there is a deeper sense and acceptance of the universe being in constant expansion and how much part of this cycle I am /we all are, which feels totally amazing to be ‘held’ in this way.
“to return to the truth of our innermost nature, our true origin, we will expand with the universe.”
I love that statement too. It shows there is more to us and the world we are currently living.
I agree, ‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’ encapsulates the flow and energy that we can live life in joyously, rather than being driven by time itself.
Thank you Coleen and Joel. I agree, this statement struck me as it shows the natural cycles of the world, which when realised can show how un-natural human beings are living in complete oblivion to these obvious cycles.This is taking it to the next level of understanding- and to live more in-tune with ourselves, the world and all its natural rhythms.. what a joy- to use time and these rhythms as opportunities to return to living in relationship with ourselves more deeply, with life and with all others, instead of fighting time. With the flow, or against.
What you describe about your new rhythm feels like you have created a lot of spaciousness in your life rather than being dictated to by the demands of time.
Of late, I’ve been beginning each day, or rhythm with simple routines that start-me-off committed to being with myself (Esoteric Yoga and gentle breathing mainly). Time pressures are often the one thing that I allow to take myself away. With more caring scheduling and living more rhythmically, with the intention of being with myself and not being swept away for anyone or anything, I see the associated anxiety dropping away – just as this blog by Coleen describes.
What a powerful blog reminding us about the “dread mill and and hamster wheel” that society keeps running on. The more I take time to slow down the more I get done. It sounds odd, but I have trusted this and it’s working.
I had lived my life on tension and anxiety. I had fueled my chosen life with caffeine through the day and alcohol at night to shut down. You can only juggle and walk the tight wire with no net for so long till one day you fall hard. The body has always been able to give you a full stop when you ignore what is has been trying to tell you. If you drive for a real long time with out sleep you are just an accident waiting to happen…the invisible tyrant is no different. I have my rhythm now without the need for external things to pick me up or slow me down.
Thank you Coleen for inspiring me to deepen and develop my rhythm. What you have written makes me realise the huge impact rhythm has on our daily business and how we are with ourselves and how we relate to everyone. I certainly have benefited from building a rhythm around sleep times and absolutely know the more I deepen and develop it the more settled, rounded, more productive my day is.
I agree Lucia, I also have found that by “making the commitment to honour myself by winding down before bed time and being consistent with this, has made a huge difference to how I am with my day too.” The gentle breath taught by Serge Benhayon has also been paramount in reconnecting to my inner stillness and in silencing the mind’s inner dialogue.
I try to really go with my body and what it tells me, and some days I feel more tired than other days. Instead of overriding that, I take more moments of rest and not beat myself up for it. In the past I would just gulp down another coffee so I would be on my feet again with nervous energy. I learned to love to be ‘slow’, to take time for things and finish them, instead of ‘multitasking’ away….
As I read I can feel the strength you have built in your rhythm. Just making the commitment to honor myself by winding down before bed time and being consistent with this, has made a huge difference to how I am with my day too. I started a new job about 10 months ago and initially found the change in profession and the fast learning curve stressful. Through a commitment to honoring and developing my rhythm this has allowed me to not get so caught up in the drive and stress that is rife in my work place. Universal Medicine & Serge Benyahon have been paramount in bringing awareness and understanding to another way to live that is truly supportive. Thank you Coleen for more inspiration to go deeper with rhythm and cycles.
I love re-reading your blog Coleen, it brings everything back into perspective again when feeling I have gone a little’ off centre’ with my rhythm. As you say so beautifully – “The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me”.
Coleen, this is such a beautiful reminder about keeping my rhythm. I used to work all hours and wash it down with whiskey and coffee – stress big time. That all changed and I developed a beautiful rhythm. Then something happened about 3 months ago and I lost it and then all sorts of things have been going wrong and to be honest a lot of the stress has re-surfaced. So now the deal is to get that rhythm back into my life and you’ve given me some great markers – thank you.
A very honest sharing Michael. It feels like the healing of the stress is already in motion from your nomination and awareness to make different choices to bring the momentum to a stop, re-assess and simply en-joy the quality of you being with you again. This pull to go deeper with our re-connection back to the Love that we are in truth certainly seems to shake up all the unhealed ‘pockets’ within us – and this can sometimes bring up varying degrees of resistance – the tension this brings is very uncomfortable for sure.
Thanks Coleen, for your beautiful article and going deeper into the understanding of ourselves as an intrinsic part of deeper rhythms within life. I am only just beginning to understand that when we align to our natural rhythms, we can deepen our connection to ourselves, to our place in the world and in the universe – and that we can also free ourselves from the relentless pressure and stress of time.
I love it when you said ‘reclaiming your natural rhythm” Colleen, because that is what it is, and we have all learnt to dance to a very un-natural beat that just discombobulates us. And we humans don’t like that at all, we actually love the feeling of ease and grace, and yes, as Colleen says, it is accessible to us all.
It’s amazing when we are in our rhythm how time opens up for us and everything flows, it is truly beautiful the way everything flows into everything perfectly without any effort, and this is how all of life can be. If we consistently and constantly care for ourselves, developing our rhythms as we go, this spaciousness and flow just naturally opens before us.
Time, I always felt it was against me but I can see now that I was against my self – I was never going to win that one. Introducing a rhythm into my life has been the best thing ever – to feel the momentum of raciness slip away once connected back to yourself is wonderful. I am working on keeping the consistency of that rhythm in my day.
I too can relate to the hamster on the wheel existence, this being driven by mental energy and thoughts, which is completely draining and totally exhausting on the body, not like a tiredness from doing a days work, but this constant tension, nervous energy and almost manic angst. The feeling feels so awful and alien to my body now, that any time I start to slip in into mental thoughts, I stop and say no this is not how I want to be nor is it me. I know I come from a place of grace, stillness and steadiness within. Sometimes I will use the gentle breath meditation, others times it is enough to stop and say no, and simply not engage with those thoughts.
Amazing work Coleen. I feel so inspired by your commitment to deepening your relationship with your rhythm and yourself, to truly nurture, appreciate and enjoy yourself. What I found revelatory in this blog is when you said “By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I”. It brings us a great sense of responsibility. What is our relationship with those cycles and are they pulling us to evolve? If so, am I responding?
Thanks Colleen, how gorgeous to feel how you have now found space for you in your day. This changes our whole concept of time all-together!
This is something so many people are truly asking for, that is an understanding of how to live a true and healthy relationship with time and cycles. Your account here Coleen is gold. Learnings everyone is blessed to hear and take into their own lives.
Brilliant blog, and a healing for anyone who has been caught in the momentum of life. There is a way to live life where we commit in full to that which is required, but in a way that does not drain us, and that way starts with learning not to be identified by what we do, and thus learning not to judge our self worth by that which exists outside of us.
I notice when my rhythm is strong everything seems to fall into place during my day and I have ample time to complete what I have to do
True music to my ears Coleen thank you. The simple yet powerful knowing we are ‘a rhythmic being living in a rhythmic world’ keeps the beat in time!
A gorgeous ‘Ah Ha’ moment Giselle – “The simple yet powerful knowing we are ‘a rhythmic being living in a rhythmic world’ keeps the beat in time!”
The natural rhythm of the Universe, that we are part of (impossible not to be!), flowing through us when we stop to feel it, expanding our particles and experiencing the actual truth that there is no time only spaciousness to be in and with as a rhythmic being, as the choice to stop ‘rushing and doing’ drops away in our lives.
Wow, how you live rhythmically comes through very strongly Coleen, powerful. What you’ve so eloquently written about your relationship with time now being testimony to that, truly inspiring.
“Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim”.
My relationship with time is always a direct reflection of my relationship with myself. The moment I don’t think I have enough time is the moment I have to check in and say ‘where am I?”
Wonderful expressed Vicky – another great marker for me, when I have the feeling I don’t have time, it is a sign, that I have lost myself in the doing and it is time for me, to reconnect to my being and to space again.
This is a great marker to stop and check in with oneself Vicky – “The moment I don’t think I have enough time is the moment I have to check in and say ‘where am I?”
I hadn’t quite thought of it that way Vicky but its true, my relationship with time and any feelings that I don’t have enough of it is directly related to the quality of relationship I am having with myself of not being enough in that moment. Its an amazing realisation.
A great article and great description on your relationship with time.
Colleen, you speak for many when you say ‘re-connecting with rhythm was like finding the most essential part of me that I had inexplicably completely lost’. For most of my working life I also felt like a ‘victim of time’ and was ruled by the clock -‘start work on time,’ ‘get to your meeting on time, especially if you were the one running the meeting’, ‘don’t keep anyone waiting’ etc. etc. It was not until I met Serge Benhayon and started attending his presentations that I heard about living in rhythms and once heard, this felt like a known truth. I began to make simple changes and like you, ‘living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely’ and ‘the more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me’. Once begun it feels so natural and there is no other way.
You found your natural rhythm Coleen and it feels to me like you are making beautiful music with your life.
Thanks for sharing your experience Coleen. Time indeed can be our foe or friend. For most of my life, I too was running against the clock and I longed for the days of when I was a kid and time just didn’t seem to exist, or there seemed to be just so much of it. By applying rhythms as you have mentioned, my relationship with time has changed considerably. It is still very much a work in progress, but I can see that as I feel my way more through life, time takes on a different dimension. When I go into control, time seems scarce. When I let go into what I am doing in the moment, time seems to expand.
I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world. I love these words Coleen, as they remind me of who we all are in truth and that we are naturally aligned to a rhythm and actually have to choose to not be part of that rhythm, when we go into the stress of a moment.
It’s good to be reminded that we are rhythmic beings living in a rhythmic world and that time can be our friend if we choose it. Thanks Colleen this is a blog I have read before and one I’ll definitely read again.
Exactly, this offers a totally different view on time. Usually time is something we lack, want to squeeze something into or are running out of. But there is indeed another side to it, if only we allow ourselves to see it. Time as something that is just there. If we let got of the pressures and of trying to control everything in our lives and connect to our natural rhythm, suddenly there is more time than we would ever have imagined there could be, because we are not giving so much of our power away to planning, calculating, fear and similar distractions.
Yes Kevin, we are rhythmic beings. Being in my natural rhythm is amazing, I just have to learn to be consistent in my choices. It is an ongoing unfoldment for me.
The word victim popped out of this blog for me. To feel like the victim allows us all to sit in that heavy and dull way of thinking. Thanks for showing us another way.
Yes, as a victim, we cannot be the ones who are responsible for what is going on, maybe that is why feeling like the victim is a strategy that is so easy to adopt?
Good call nb and Michael Kremer – this really shows how easy it is to be irresponsible in our lives by using -“the victim is a strategy that is so easy to adopt”.
Playing the victim role brings in blame and resentment – just another way to continually be unaware of our part in things – including choosing to be taken over by time.
Great observation. But what are we victims of? Our own choices?
When you talk about the breathless and compulsive hamster on a wheel existence Colleen, it is a very true and revealing statement. What Universal Medicine is so simple, and yet it is a doorway to literally getting off the wheel. How reconnecting with gentleness in ones breath will allay anxiousness is a daily miracle that we can observe continually, as more and more people realize that this simple key does work.
Yes indeed – What a huge, glorious, magnificent and yet simple Key Universal Medicine has presented to me over the past 6 years – inspiring me to STOP running around on this “breathless and compulsive hamster on a wheel existence” and open up to the feeling of spaciousness in my body by being present with it.
Awesome account of your relationship with your rhythm, and the the ways rhythm supports you. Thank you Coleen.
Coleen it is a great feeling to be in Rhythm with one’s body, although at times one can waste a lot of energy. When back in Rhythm what a feeling.
Coleen, that’s great that you love your rhythm, and fantastic that your rhythm loves you back, it means you are in the flow.
Thanks Coleen, I love what you have shared. I am developing and deepening these rhythms, and I know when I am not with them, there is never time, and everything is in chaos and little gets done.. as the rhythm deepens time loses its tyranny. Your blog has given me a much greater appreciation though for how integral rhythm is to our being.
I agree with you Annie C regarding rhythms – “I know when I am not with them, there is never time, and everything is in chaos and little gets done.. as the rhythm deepens time loses its tyranny.”
Re-reading this blog always inspires me to go deeper and accept the natural rhythms within.
Coleen, I love this blog, I feel I will read this again and again as I can feel the rhythm in your writing and find this very supportive to me. Our connection to our rhythm is a constantly evolving relationship. Thank you for this beautiful piece of writing.
” I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”.
Thank you Coleen I will remember this line.
I love this line too. Its awesome, thank you Coleen for this great blog that shows how we are rhythmic beings and that we do not need to control time but just create space and time will be always there.
I do too, It feels like the title of a song
It’s interesting how I still continue to develop my relationship with time. It’s not stationary at all, the rhythms continue to deepen, as I let go of my agenda with time.
Yes, gillrandall, I agree. What I love about my relationship with time is that it is not static at all, the more I learn and understand about myself the deeper my rhythms develop and the more spaciousness there is in all that I do.
I also have to let go of my agenda with time – sometimes I’m still caught in the doing and I’m ruled by time. It is a pretty deep pattern, which I have lived for a long time. It is really time to let go.
Thank you Johanna, this made me wonder how much energy I waste by letting myself become affected by a stressful situation. If I stay with my own breath and don’t get carried into the stressful moment then it makes sense to me that time will slow down and I will not lose myself and waste energy worrying about something unnecessarily.
It truly doesn’t take so much energy not to stress; however in some cases people use this as a fuel source.
Coleen, reading your article is very timely! Yes, whenever I lose my rhythm stress and overwhelm take over, but when I am in rhythm time opens up and there is flow. Thank you for the reminder.
Really appreciated the article Coleen. My time cup was always full to overflowing, I would say ‘yes’ to almost everything asked of me, and became exhausted. Over the past 8 years I have learned to say ‘no’ even to things I ask of myself. So now, most of the time that exhaustion doesn’t affect me, but it is still there, and if I do not keep to my 9pm bed time, or lose my rhythm I am reminded strongly of the need to rest and self care. And the reminder is always strongest at full moon.
It was a great pleasure to read your blog for a second time Coleen and to gather a deeper understanding of the teachings about time, rhythm and cycles.
I have in the past and still do mostly give my power away to the concept of time watching the clock and governing my day by what time it shows.
When I feel more connected to myself I feel an inner rhythm and almost like a pulse, which sets its own time that constellates my day with a divine rhythm and time seems to fall into place with that, and things happen in their own perfect timing.
Love your sharing Coleen on bringing yourself back into rhythm and with the flow. So often we see life as a rush against time when in fact it can be an easy flow.
Hi Coleen, I’m sure there is a song in there “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”. I can still sometimes feel that underlying pressure when work gets too busy but am learning to breath and let it go, in the past I would have been totally swept up by it. I loved reading the blog and could really feel my body expanding as I read the truth in your words about living a rhythmic cycle.
When you explained about your sleep rhythm and how it improved, it goes to show that the body actually knows exactly what it needs to do, all we need to do is listen to it.
Having read your blog several times I am always amazed at how I learn something new about myself and time. It all gets done when I take the time to do it!
Beautiful and powerful, what you are sharing here Coleen!
I am still struggling with time issues and of feeling pressure, but know also the powerful free feeling of the flow, when my body’s rhythm and “the” rhythm is playing together, taking me everywhere in the right time, where I have to be, revealing a depth beyond every mental plan I could ever make. Thank you for reminding me so powerfully, that rhythm is the key to developing a consistency in it! Comes at exactly the right time.
I too relate Stefanie to the continuing development of my relationship with time by connecting to my body’s natural rhythm. What stand’s out louder than anything else is the quality of all the thing’s I do in my day that leads to a greater flow and spaciousness where I do not feel so pressured by time.
That our body has an inherent natural rhythm of gentle breath, and that this can be tuned into is profound. That all we have to do is to make a choice, and then to continue to choose is so simple that it is confounding.
That this changes our relationship with time and the world around us, is a given, and that it is a doorway to an inner world that shines so brightly that the temporal world fades into shades of grey is indeed a blessing that is with us every day.
Yes indeed, a beautiful article Coleen, and doesn’t it feel amazing Thomas, when we do reconnect back to our glorious selves and our own naturally loving rhythms within life’s rhythms. There is a feeling of such spaciousness and freedom within all of that. Simply lovely.
Thank you Coleen, I have enjoyed reading your blog again and once again received value from your expression.
So true Ariana. And when we step back we get to see too that we are part of greater rhythms. ‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’ Lovely.
Sounds like we have a song title there…
Colleen, this is a gentle and beautiful reminder of the consequences of allowing outside pressures to overwhelm us. You’ve shown the power of taking back control by making simple steps and building solid foundations within. I particularly related to your sharing of how using the gentle breath helps us connect to our natural inner rhythm and that how choosing to connect to the gentle breath rather than what is going on outside is a way of reclaiming ourselves.. You put it so well when you say: ‘I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them’.
Thank you for sharing your experience of rhythms and how this differs to time Colleen. I too am becoming more aware of the rhythms in my day, week, month and year – it feels like there is a right time for everything if done in a rhythm rather than stressing and calculating how much time there is.
Someone very wise explained the other day that our difficulty with time is because we don’t bring ‘quality’ to each moment… it seemed very simple. Like a lack of confidence is due to a lack of presence. I am sitting with what was shared and realise I just need make the commitment to stay connected in stillness and time will expand. That’s huge, but simple in its simplicity!
I too have laid myself at the mercy of time, always running a little behind the clock in varying degrees ranging from a light to mad rush. I too was inspired by Serge and Natalie Benhayon to explore and adjust my rhythm and I am so much less the victim of time since doing so. However I too have felt there is more and your blog Colleen, has inspired me to go deeper into my rhythm.
Coleen, it’s great to re-visit this blog as my understanding of time and space deepens. What stands out is that we have got the completely wrong concept of time. We are using time in the wrong way – trying to cram in as much as we can to be “productive,” yet in that lose the true rhythm that would allow plenty of space for everything that is needed to be done. It’s something that has been great to reflect on – when we look at companies and governments always under strict time pressures yet often never achieving what is really needed. Perhaps as a society (and with self-responsibility) we need to re-examine why we are so caught up in time. I understand the aim of being productive and the importance of that – its a leap to take when we put less focus on time as many, myself included, are worried about not getting everything done. But how amazing would it be if companies, governments and global organisations put the focus on a working rhythm rather than working to a clock? Perhaps we would find out we are far more productive as a team than we had considered was even possible. It’s a balance I am looking forward to exploring.
Gosh rhythms are really everything and are constantly around us.
A beautiful article on time and Rhythms, thank you Coleen.
It feels amazing when I reconnect to myself and my own Rhythms within the bigger Rhythms. Time and punctuality fall into place and I no longer feel a victim to time being something outside of me.
Being ‘out of rhythm’ puts strain on our body and depending on the motion we have introduced into the body, it will eventually give you an ache, pain or something much more serious. It makes such sense. Any man made machine will very quickly stop working and break if it is not kept in rhythm with the design. We have made these machines for decades, yet fail to recognise that the human body requires its own rhythm and the reflection is in nature everything that we have ever made.
I really needed to read this again today as a reminder about how rhythms can support me in my day and how the Gentle Breath is such a necessary part of that rhythm. When I am not in this rhythm time becomes the dictator of my day, the spaciousness disappears and I can so feel the stress in my body.
Thank you Coleen for this timely reminder!
I am also more and more focused on my gentle breath and then time becomes a practical tool, to make appointments and set a date, but within that, there seems no such thing as time, because when I am with me and my breath, there is this moment and I just do what needs to be done and then I move to the next moment.
One’s own natural rhythm is so important and reading your blog again I connected with your statement – “I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.” – Although I work from home, I also used to feel the time pressure and dead lines and demands, However, since actually exploring my rhythm and lifestyle choices, and making profound changes over time, I am also finding I can take things much more in my stride without letting them effect me the way they used to. It feels so much nicer to be in the flow of my natural rhythm.
This is so timely to have re-read this again – it feels just the support I am requiring in this moment. “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world” is such a beautiful statement.
I feel the harmony that is there when I am living in cycles that are greater than me, and I am part of the play. To feel the rhythm and to accept them is so natural aligning to that what we can call divine. We are all a part in this rhythm- when we make it part of our life we can be more relaxed about time pressure. When I can allow my rhythm time does not exist.
Reading your blog Coleen, I have a sense of timelessness, of rhythm and how important it is that we stay connected to our own self otherwise we do become slaves of time as I’ve found out again recently. Great reminder for me of how key it is that I build in moments in my day to connect to me, and feel how I am, otherwise I can easily get lost in that task list and feel the pressure of time.
With the beginning of a new school year and its frenetic energy it is good to be reminded to live our own rhythm and own breath. The chaotic energy I used to live with is nearly a thing of the past.
I so love being in my rhythm and feeling how life flows when I forget sticking to time. I don’t get distracted or sidetracked and there is always plenty of time. It does feel harmonious for sure.
Coleen, this is a great story with many practical tips for all us hamsters….. that wheel makes you a little dizzy after a while.
Ah this blog is music to my ears – and a hugely ‘timely’ read as my last few days closely resemble the first paragraphs of ‘running to stand still’ and squeeze it all in – so frazzling.
The feeling of the rhythmic cycle of a gentle in and out breath, and that same rhythm through the moon cycle – or menstrual cycle is something I have reflected on and felt – but not brought so fully into my days to provide a certain space that you have so gorgeously and helpfully shared Coleen. I have also felt this same rhythm through the seasons of the year, and each day. All cycles that go around, with still pauses at the top and bottom. The pause at the top of the in breath reminds me of summer solstice (and ovulation) and the pause at the bottom of the gentle outbreath reminds me of the winter solstice (and having my period) – still deep space filled with no pressure and held by heaven.
So now I can feel this and your blog – I can feel how differently my days can ‘run’, that there is a rhythm and space I bring with me, move in, and can honour – cycles in cycles that all flow around when felt and connected with – rather than pushing against the tide which as you so aptly state is very exhausting.
“I am a rhythmic being in a rhythmic world.” That makes a lot of sense Colleen. If you are in sync with the rhythm of yourself you are in the rhythm of the world and life is a flow. External pressures are always trying to push us out of our rhythm. If I do choose to get nudged out of my rhythm, I lose myself and once again become a victim of time. But you are right Colleen the gentle breath meditation brings me back.
Coleen I loved reading your words about rhythms and how we are rhythmic beings. You have shown me how to really tune in to my rhythms, the moon cycles, sleep rhythms, breathing rhythms – a very harmonious way to live. Time Is on our side when life is lived this way.
Hear Hear Ariana – there are a multitude of invisible tyrants! In my experience the step away from any of these controlling tyrants has been first a tentative one and then more confident – kind of like learning to ride a bike where the more you practice something, then the stronger your muscles get and the easier it is to do the ‘new’ thing. Then again sometimes I go back to riding in circles!
How musical, Coleen! The beautiful way you write about rhythm and time … I can literally feel ‘the swing’ in my body …
Thank you Colleen for this very timely piece – pardon the pun. But I am also developing at the moment listening to my body and living by its natural rhythms and discovering too that I have increased energy, less stress and nervous energy and as a result a magical increase in space and time develop in my day. Working like yourself in a job which is rigid to time constraints, I am developing less of a rush in my day and not as much a victim of time. Thank you for sharing your inspiring journey of your development with yourself – I love your unique expression.
This blog has triggered a new contemplation about time. It is interesting for me the whole concept of time – and in truth I would have to say that I don’t actually think about it much – yet of course I do have a relationship with time, think about it or not. Sometimes I see time as an inconvenience and I am struggling against it. In these circumstances, time is reminding me of my disconnection to myself. At other times, I feel at ease and unimpeded by time because I feel that I am with my body and with the rhythm that supports my body and my expression – so even if what I am doing is not by the clock, it is complete because I am being all of me. So I feel time can be a great support – a tap on the shoulder to remind me something is out of harmony – and other times, it reflects a weightlessness because I am already choosing grace and harmony.
This is great to return to and see how my relationship with time is changing. I’m not attached to the lists of ‘doing’ anymore; the lists are still there but aren’t running my life. Maybe next time I look at this, the lists will be gone too.
Gill I am having a similar experience I am no longer attached to this list of doing, they are still there but not taking over my life. They are definitely on the way out.
A timely reminder to read this blog again as I have recently fallen back into the pattern of being governed by time. Time to slow down and embrace my natural rhythm again.
“To breathe a gentle breath ” so simple and such a great tool to use.
Ever more watchful and aware of the socially entrenched catch phrases we use without thinking, ‘time is money’ popped up recently. What a shocker and what an insight into our relationship with time and our disregard for people.
There is no doubt that the more we allow ourselves to see, the more it becomes obvious that all of life follows a rhythm and much of life follows rhythms that are dictated by the moon- from red crabs on Christmas Island through to coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef. Perhaps it is not so great a jump in logic to consider that we too have a natural rhythm that is affected by the cycles of the moon.
How cool is that! We are all inline naturally with this rhythms – if we allow our body to take command!
Re-visiting this blog I can feel just how much more space I have in my day when I refuse to buy into the thoughts that used to rule me. I no longer allow all the things that I need to do in the day to continually run through my mind, causing delay and stress in my body. This stand has opened up an enormous space and ease, creating a flowing rhythm in my day. I can now look back and wonder what the heck was I thinking if I thought that was living! Thank you Universal Medicine for presenting just great, well… medicine.
I agree with you Kathleen, there is more space available and less pressure of getting through a ‘to do’ list when I am present in my body with whatever I am working with in that moment – there is more of a flow and rhythm in the day.
I wholeheartedly concur and deeply appreciate the presentations by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine that continue to bring me more awareness of a truly great everyday medicine which supports wellbeing – available to all, with some re-adjustments and new choices in lifestyle and way of living.
Well said Kathleen couldn’t agree more! Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm…is the key I have to keep remembering – it is something I hold in my own hand in every moment and choose it instead of any delay or allowing thoughts of what I need to do next to come before the rhythm of what I do them in.
I have resisted what I know to be true, rhythms are very supportive for us if we are supportive of them. For the last year I felt if I got up earlier and allowed more space and time to get ready in my morning it would take the rush out and therefore set my day better. Even though I knew this, it took a deeper commitment for me to allow myself to go to bed earlier and to wind down before going to bed which then allows me to wake up earlier. I am now able to do this with more consistency but only if I support my rhythm in full.
I agree Michelle, it’s the commitment that builds the rhythm which then leads to the consistency, and then the consistency brings in more commitment. What a great cycle to be in.
I love this blog Coleen. It has been the perfect timing for me to come to this blog. My body is calling for rhythm.
I so agree with you Heidi, the timing of Coleen’s article and my body yearning for rhythm is a great reminder of how I have drifted.
I love how we can change our relationships with things that are seen as a pressure. Your experience here of time does just that – and the way you live now is an inspiration to get off the hamster wheel 🙂
Thanks Colleen, your words have presented me a moment to reflect on my own relationship with ‘time’. Think about the expression ‘time is of the essence’. Really feel into these words. We have come to think about time as something lineal taking place outside of ourselves that we can become a ‘slave’ to, when in fact it has everything to do with our innermost. ‘True’ time has everything to do with our essence, our own inner clock of rhythms, cycles and the relationship we are in with ourselves in any one moment.
Although I have been caught up in a relationship with ‘clock’ time, constantly checking in throughout my day with the clock, I have also used it as my friend to support me to reconnect to a more self loving, self caring rhythm. At first it was what I had to work with as I scheduled in space and time for me to develop and deepen my relationship with me slowly slowing down the momentum of the treadmill I had been on for a long, long ‘time’. I still find I’m somewhat on the treadmill of doing the ‘slave to time’ routine, but time is no longer my master but my marker of how my rhythm is supporting me.
Elizabeth I love what you have written at the end of your comment. Being a time addict in the past and still getting caught up in the rush from time to time 🙂 I can so relate to time no longer being my master but a marker of where my rhythm is.
This is a lovely piece of writing and highlights my own feelings of running around like a victim of time ~ truly depleting all the natural effivecsence we have.
The ‘beating the clock’ mentality has held the whole world to ransom for so long. If we connect back with the natural rhythm and order of life this allows us all to still apply ourselves but without the ‘hamster wheel’ angst and drive that we often choose over ourselves.
So true Lee. That hamster is exhausted. I often remind myself that the world is just a place where time is merely a factor that records the moments when I make choices. The world is not bigger than me. And neither is time.
Yes, Jinya… that hamster is exhausted and burnt out! I love what you have expressed about the world not being bigger than you and neither is time. Yesterday, for a moment, I had a real sense of time being still, it not moving and the expansion that goes with it. Awesome to feel. To bring that to each and every moment would be spectacular.
Time definitely is a world wide mentality.
Thank you Coleen for this blog. It is very supportive for me as time has always been an issue for me. I am now also building a relationship with time and discovered that I have to connect and establish a rhythm. As you have written “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.”
To me this also means that if I do not live in my rhythm I am always resisting myself.
Diana, what you share is great. I have been challenged with time myself, but it’s a great reminder that I need to bring it back to my daily rhythm.
This is awesome Diana, I can feel how huge living in accordance to the rhythm means to me, too. I love the feeling of surrender to my rhythms – my body loves it too. Great experimenting with it, no perfection but constant choice, hey.
What you have shared here Coleen is so powerful. If we follow the natural rhythm’s of our bodies, it is amazing what unfolds.
I had a conversation with a new manager yesterday – and he said to me how he valued his daily patterns because they allowed him less stress and more time in his day. To me – that is exactly what my rhythm is – a support that is constant and if I deviate from that – I am in a race against time. It’s interesting to see how many people don’t live to a rhythm and really struggle with rushing and stress and drama. It certainly feels like how we live has so much to do with what comes our way…
What is great about looking at our relationship with time is that it is an everyday reminder of whether we are in our own driving seats or letting something outside of ourselves call the shots.
Great point Matilda I so agree, it is a great reminder each day. I have noticed how much I have not been in the drivers seat this week and have been using things I need to do and time to run me ragged.
So this afternoon while driving home, I really observed every time I felt myself go into a story of what I need to do or what my next project would be, my body would stiffen and I found I held my breath. It was a loving exercise in stopping and saying no to the story and feeling my body again. I then was so much more with me and more playful again when I got home.
Great observations of your body Aimee and when awareness is there, it can change through simple presence and put us ‘back in our own drivers seat’ – this really makes sense of what Serge Benhayon has been presenting – ‘the body is the marker of all truth’. For sure, it never lies or manipulates like the mind can do so well.
It’s strange but I used to feel that there is never enough time to get what I needed to get done be it getting lunches and kids off to school without rush or simply getting ready to go to work, I was rushing in some manner to make it in time at times.
Having a rhythm in my life, time is on my side. It’s not running away but expanding and I have more time and space. Yes, it was with small changes slowly like unwinding before bed time, going to bed early, naturally waking up without alarms feeling fresh, having time in morning for gentle exercise and then getting on with what I need to do in the day. With all these extra things I do now in my morning, I still have time to do all I did before without any need to stress (most times:)). It is still an ever expanding work in progress..
Thank you sharing your experiences with time, fantastic gentle reminder for me to not get lost in time but to focus and strengthen my natural rhythms in my life.
“….the truth my body revealed, indicated that I was exhausting myself with my breathless and compulsive ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence.” So many of us lead lives like this and consider it ‘normal’. My initial search for something different – ‘surely it doesn’t have to be like this?’ – finally led me to Universal Medicine, where I found the gold I was looking for. When I stay present with myself time seems to expand and I can accomplish what I need to, without the constant anxiety of ‘trying’ to get it all done in a certain time frame.
Our relationship with time can indeed have such a disastrous effect on our bodies. It is amazing to observe how stressed, contracted, all-over-the-place and tight my body can become when I am caught up in the illusion of time; and, on the contrary, how spacious, relaxed, joyful and productive I can be and feel when I make it about creating space and attending to whatever is needed, staying with myself, and letting go of any agenda. I love how you write: ” I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm “. I too have found it immensely supportive to deepen my rhythm and to work on the quality of my relationship with myself, so as not to be a “victim” of time – actually I know this is the key.
Alexandra, This has also been my experience. Having had a corporate business career all my life, I was ruled by time – getting to a meeting, catching a plane, working to a dead-line etc. It is only since meeting Serge Benhayon and making different, more self-loving choices that I too ‘have found it immensely supportive to deepen my rhythm and to work on the quality of my relationship with myself, so as not to be a “victim” of time – actually I know this is the key”.
Well said Alexandra. I too, have felt these same effects on my body from being so caught up with busy-ness and lack of presence with time. As I have developed more conscious presence, awareness and rhythm, time is not the master I used to allow it to be.
It is lovely to be able to observe and feel this – “It is amazing to observe how stressed, contracted, all-over-the-place and tight my body can become when I am caught up in the illusion of time; and, on the contrary, how spacious, relaxed, joyful and productive I can be and feel when I make it about creating space and attending to whatever is needed, staying with myself, and letting go of any agenda.”.
The more I develop my relationship with time and rhythm, the more I realise that time seems relative to the observer. What I mean by that is, when I was a young child, it felt like 5 minutes in time out was forever, and that a school day was enormous. As I aged, days and weeks seemed so much shorter and as I became busier with work, financial and family commitments, it never seemed like there was enough time to get everything done. However, the more I am able to stay present and allow time to come to me and develop a natural rhythm in sync with the world around me, the more time slows down, as if I were a child again.
Thank you Colleen, I am really feeling and understanding more and more the importance of honouring my rhythm. I too have had much to learn about time, and still do. I have been working on my rhythm for some years now and from reading your blog I can appreciate that it is time for me to really take it to a much deeper level. I have been allowing myself to be pulled out by external influences and am right now realising the enormity of the consequences from these little daily choices.
Understanding that ‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’ is the key to my overcoming the time restraints in my head. As soon as I go there, I can panic at having so much to do. But when I stay in my rhythm, and I do the things with that rhythm, it’s remarkable how SO much does get done.
This is a great reminder that it is possible to be a master of time.
I just love what you have written here Coleen.
With the changes you have made to the rhythm and flow of your life you have obviously benefitted and evolved enormously.
I can just imagine the amazing impact you have on the very fortunate students you teach and the collegues you work with.
Hi Coleen, I love this blog and all the amazing comments. I am amazed by the fact that these days I seem to do more as far as work and running a business, being a parent and volunteering for various projects but because I have a rhythm and honour that first and foremost I seem to have enough time to do all these things that I enjoy doing. In the past it was so different and I think it had a lot to do with not being present, and therefore running around not really knowing where I was or where I was going. Thanks to what I have learnt and the changes I have made since attending Universal Medicine events and the presentations by Serge Benhayon, my level of awareness and how I can be present in my daily moments has changed heaps, but is still a work in progress.
I remember the pointless and exhausting ‘headless chicken syndrome’ days Rosie – such a lack of conscious presence in the day, rushing around in circles, appearing hugely busy, but actually getting absolutely nowhere and feeling very uncomfortable and incomplete at the end of each day!
Bringing more conscious presence and awareness into my life through actually feeling within my body continues to bring a more natural rhythm and flow to every day.
Yes, I can relate with what you share Stephanie and Rosie, the old patterns of rushing around without presence, making it all about what you have to do, not enough time etc., how that felt, to how it feels when you are in your rhythm and flow is worlds apart. I too am choosing to be present, aware and with my rhythm as my way of being.
I agree Lorraine, rushing about, or being in presence, are ‘worlds apart’ in a way of living. There are times when that getting caught up in the old way of motion without presence is chosen by me and very soon after, my body feels really tired and mental clarity reduces to feeling heavy and foggy.
Thank you Coleen, a very important reminder of how living as a slave to time and ignoring the rhythmic pulse within and around us, sets us up to live as the “hampster on the wheel”, disconnected from experiencing ease and simplicity in our lives.
Sometimes when the imposter starts playing up, it can be hard to get back into being who we really are. That is then the time to take stock of why it is running me, and kick it out as fast as possible, so getting back to being the real me.
Well said Mike, these ‘imposters’ are to be watched carefully so that eventually they don’t even dare turning up anymore as there is nothing to ‘get’ when we are truly connected to ourselves again.
Colleen this is such a timely reminder for me. Working within time limits is so exhausting but I have found that allowing me to flow from one thing to another in my day is a far more harmonious way to be -there is more space and less rigidity. It is so easy to be pulled back into time restrictions by those around me- what a gift the gentle breath is for us to truly feel and appreciate.
I agree Anne, working within time limits, often set by myself, is rigid and exhausting but I am learning this doesn’t mean I can’t be organised and allow a more gentle flow to my day.
Very true Rachel, there are many things that are needed to be done each day so instead of panicking and trying to cram more into the time, by approaching things one at a time there always seems to be left over time. I also noticed taking time to stop and have a glass of water or say hello to a team member provides even more space in my day. The opposite is when I am in panic mode and rush to everything and achieve very little. As you say the having a flow to the day is very supportive.
The depth of the connection between the rhythm to which I align and the relationship with myself is something that I feel deeply these days.
My biggest obstacle is the old wish to be perfect, which brings in complication instead of seeing and appreciating the amazing steps I am taking every day.
It is funny in how far we are able to create a mountain out of a molehill and think that this homemade “Mount Everest” is the unsurpassable and inhospitable truth instead of seeing it as the small molehill it is. And a molehill by the way does not have to be a nuisance but is great sowing soil for the flowers of life.
It is so beautiful to feel that the choice is mine :o)
Michaelkremer2212 – Thank you!
I can certainly relate to – “My biggest obstacle is the old wish to be perfect, which brings in complication instead of seeing and appreciating the amazing steps I am taking every day”.
I am smiling at the the reference to the molehill being a homemade ‘Mount Everest’ and love the molehill being described as “great sowing soil for the flowers of life”.
Thanks for the reminder about appreciation Michael, and letting go of being perfect, and yes I have to make sure I don’t create a mountain from a molehill. I love your analogies.
I love the way you see everything as an opportunity to blossom, Michael.
I am not surprised that the other old tyrant of “being perfect” has been raised. Talk about a waste of time trying to be perfect when there is no such thing as being perfect. I certainly know that one.
I certainly find that having the ‘wind down time’ in the evening, as you discussed Coleen, is so supportive to my sleep rhythm and and helps me for the following day. I can have a really busy day and when I don’t focus or worry about the time tyrant (it takes up so much time to do that!!), the day flows beautifully.
I love this piece Colleen it is so true that our linear concept of time can pull us out of rhythm, and that if we focus on our rhythm time loses its hold on us, so beautifully said, thank you.
There is something about the way you refer to rhythm Coleen. What you say gives it a really musical sense. It’s like someone who has been singing from a hymn sheet and suddenly discovered that they actually know the song of life, off by heart. There’s a tap in your toe and a spring in the step.This blog has a great rhythm, and a sweet harmony too.
What a deeply moving analogy, Joseph; from “singing from a hymn sheet to the knowing the song of life, off by heart.” When I am in either rhythm, that is precisely how they feel. Your words brought tears to my eyes – tears of confirmation that that is exactly how it is. Thank you for the beauty of your insight and expression.
When time permits, take that time to go out, take a deep intake of fresh air and look at the beauty all around you. Amazing how you will feel invigorated, and back into who you truly are.
Colleen, you could bottle this up and put it on the stock market – this is gold. What’s more this is natural gold you speak of. It’s the rhythmic pulse that is within us and all around us. Thank you for this exquisite piece.
Thank you Colleen for highlighting the exhaustion in life many of us run with and the rush and lack of time. You show beautifully how there really is a different way to live and that we can create time and a spacesnousness in our life if we choose how we live and honouring ourselves with a dedication and commitment lovingly.
Isn’t it amazing how much can change with such big consequences from us changing our relationship with time? From allowing ourselves to feel we live in a rhythm, and making different choices, doing the gentle breath and focusing on 1 thing at a time a whole life is transformed. The medical costs can go down tremendously if we all do this. Less stress, burnout and sleeping pills. I am absolutely not perfect with this time topic yet, but the more I allow activities to come to me and stay present the more time I experience, like it slows down and expands.
Monika, your comment highlights the fact that there is a heavy-duty consciousness that deliberately imprisons us to remain bound up in time, creating more anxiousness, sleeplessness and existing in life, rather than being the expanded and beautiful beings we are in truth. A win-win situation for all once this begins to be unravelled – greed, drugs, flailing National Health Systems and the struggle for people to just get through life on a daily basis could be a thing of the past.
“From allowing ourselves to feel we live in a rhythm, and making different choices, doing the gentle breath and focusing on 1 thing at a time a whole life is transformed”.
Thank you Colleen, I like the ‘hamster on the wheel’ analogy. For me there were endless line of tread mills and I would try and keep all of them going at once. Thanks to the inspiration from Serge Benhayon, my life has become at least gentle, so I do not race from one thing to another.
Thank you Coleen for the reminder to connect into the Full Moon cycles this year. I don’t have paid work but I do have commitments that demand I am on time such as voluntary work on one day and baby sitting on another so I find that I do need to follow a rhythm and most days this works really well for me and I don’t feel as tired, just pleasantly tired after a full day of work.
Great Colleen! The way you describe connecting to something as simple as your breath feels so easy and yet is such a life changing thing. Thank you for inspiring me to be more aware of how profound it actually is.
Dear Coleen, Thank you for your sharing about your relationship with time and your journey back to balance. The Gentle Breath Meditation was also my stop to the old ways and the start of a deeper connection to me. This enabled me to keep on changing the things that don’t serve me and implement the things that do. Blessings
I have found when I am in my own rhythm I create the space to complete so much more than I could ever do if I was governed by a clock.
I have found when when I am in own rhythm it allows the space to be able to complete more than I ever could when I am just governed by a clock.
I love the marker of stillness, connection and gentleness in my breath, my presence and my body that the Gentle Breath Meditation connects me to.
The biggest time waster for me is worrying about not having enough time! Worrying really does consume a lot of time and energy.
I can totally relate to that, Elizabeth! A rather un-funny cosmic joke we play on ourselves, hey?
Yes I agree. Giving ourselves over to time is the simple choice that keeps us a slave of time. It is an illusion that can be made to feel very real in our daily lives if we let it.
When I am in the worry about not having enough time, I have squeezed everything into a ‘must rush’ framework, which goes completely against the natural spaciousness of letting things flow, holding myself still and doing whatever is next needed.
Yes – this is a reminder for me too, Elizabeth, Jane & Matilda – I am more aware now of this being at play – it is so true – spending time worrying or talking about how little time there is with others – it does take up huge amounts of time unnecessarily so!
That is so comical but also so true, Jane!
How long have I spent worrying about not having enough time – way too much. What a waste of time!
I just love your statement which is a turn around from having not time to having time on your side. “I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them.”
I am learning everyday that keeping my rhythm really supports me tremendously and also gives me more time and space. It’s amazing, it feels like the more I do, more I am able to do with keeping my rhythm. I’m also learning that when I haven’t been in my rhythm, then things don’t go a smoothly and I start running out of time!
So true Pinkylight I feel the same and can really relate to your comment although for me it is still something I am working on but when I am in Rhythm I certainly have more time and space.
What struck me was how simple the changes can be, yet have a positive impact in our daily lives or daily rhythm that truly support. Likewise I am also finding the menopausal rhythm deeply supportive in developing my relationship with self, with much being revealed…I am learning so much and discarding so much… and I am loving this divine space or cycle I am now in, and as you mentioned; ‘The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me’. So true. Awesome blog.
Yes this is amazing…with the potential to turn so many lives around – and so simply.
Colleen it never ceases to amaze me how elastic time can be. I get the feeling of the spaciousness in you, now that you live by natural rhythms rather then the rigidity of clocks; how now, what needs to done is in accord with you, not you fitting into an artificial structure … and yet all is still completed in a timely manner. These techniques would transform workplaces and lives!
I love that idea, Anne: the elasticity of time: that’s awesome. Thank you.
It is very interesting because my work day is full of appointments in a diary and times to keep to. I used to be constantly running over time and being late, and this can still happen sometimes. But what I realise now, when I start running late is that I have lost my rhythm of how I am in the day, how I am feeling in my body or getting racy. So it’s a great sign to see; stop: return to my rhythm, and then there’s plenty of time again.
“By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.” Thank you Coleen, I am connecting to the cycle of the full moon as well and I feel I am deepening my relationship with this cycle and my rhythm.
What an absolute miracle – being able to quit 10 years of sleep medication by practicing the Gentle Breath Meditation and introducing a wind down routine. Imagine the millions of dollars in health spending that could be saved by others adopting a similar approach with the openness that is shown here.
Yes, the benefits for all she works with are obvious and she provides an example that there is another way.
Well said Heather. Experiencing a very different quality of life through a change in daily rhythms (e.g. a wind down routine before sleep) and practicing the Gentle Breath Meditation simply confirms that there is another way.
I have a deep appreciation for the presentations by Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine who lives and truly walks this ‘other way’ known as The Way of the Livingness.
Thank you for your sharing Coleen. That´s awesome. I can very much relate to what you describe. In the past I felt like a victim of time, too – always driven by timelines and to do lists. Beside the gentle breath I was introduced to being consciously present with everything I do, and since then I am working with this – just focussing on the thing that I am doing in THAT moment, not thinking about the past or the future. It´s still work in progress and there is much more to deepen but the changes I observe are already astonishing! It seems that time is moving slower when you are consciously present. The more present I am the more I am connected to my body and to the rhythms it follows too, which follows what you said: “Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.“ Amazing.
It’s funny as today reading this blog and even the title I can feel how lovely time is, that it’s not a stress or a rush but actually something amazing, a blessing that offers us so much. We don’t need to stress or rush as what I am learning is that time comes to us.
I too have had a work life very dominated by time – deadlines, not enough hours in the day, delivery-by dates etc Working like this made for constant anxiety and a body that was running way too fast in a way that it was not built to run. I was without caffeine or alcohol however, I noticed that my sleep was very light and not at all refreshing. I woke up tired and exhausted before I even left the front door. But I didn’t question this because I thought I needed to LOOK like I was working hard, more than I had to work hard. So I needed to be tired, to be exhausted to look stressed, to never have enough time – it was a lie but I believed it. How beautiful Coleen when you say, ‘This changed when I was introduced to the idea of living in and to a rhythm.’ This was the antidote to the lie that had driven my behaviour all my work life….and when I heard it, I knew it to be true.
Coleen I really felt whilst reading the start of your article that time felt like a metallic straight jacket over your life and then as you introduced rhythm it felt like that structure lifted and your whole life was able to breath. I really loved the feeling of what you wrote.
Allowing ourselves off the hook with time is like allowing us to unshackle and release ourselves from aeon old ways of living – the new black is rhythm and deep honouring of all that represents.
Awesome blog Coleen, and one that I can really relate to. It is so lovely now to feel those times when I have become a victim of time and are in a rush, to lovingly remind myself, that is not my natural rhythm, and choose to come back to the loveliness of my own naturally tender rhythm.
How beautiful is it to be relating to the universal rhythms instead of against them, hamsters do get very tired, when in fact there is no need to be at all. What is interesting is how we use our heads to go against what our body naturally wants to do, crazy stuff really because I don’t imagine the sun and the moon are having arguments about when to get up or go to sleep!
Ha ha, so true Narelle, how silly is it that we go against our natural rhythm and end up as the hamster!
I am still laughing with you comment here Marcia – a cartoon picture sprung to mind of loads of people spinning around on their individual wheels, ignoring the pull of their natural rhythms and finally dropping off from exhaustion wearing ‘a hamster suit’ and wondering who on earth they are!
Narelle, this is so true and it put’s everything into perspective – “we use our heads to go against what our body naturally wants to do, crazy stuff really because I don’t imagine the sun and the moon are having arguments about when to get up or go to sleep”!
So great to read this today as a re-minder not to get caught on the master wheel.
And a lovely laugh at the sun and moon analogy – thank you.
I got a real sense, Coleen, of being breathless when you describe being like a hamster on a wheel. Ironic how the answer lies in the breath.
Coleen this is a great blog, and something I have not quite mastered as yet, I know my morning rhythm is something that needs work as I often end up clock watching or rushing through things or at the end, which feels awful and stressful in my body. I can feel how I and my body love more time to enjoy and playfully prepare for the day, in a pace and rhythm that feels true for me.
I keep coming back to this contribution about time, as the way you have put a stop to being a slave of time is so inspiring.
I agree Gabriele being a slave to time is what hurts more and leads to the exhaustion.
Working in a school, our whole day is framed around time, a time table – but the more I establish a rhythm and spaciousness in my life, the more naturally I can respond to the structure of the school day, letting the absolute stop and start moments be in our rhythm, rather than clammer in from outside. Thank you, Coleen, for the opportunity to expand this practise.
This feels lovely Matilda – I can feel the rhythm and spaciousness you bring to the school structure – what a difference this must make to the children you teach. This would be an interesting study at school to see and feel the cumulative effects on children (and staff) with regard to stress levels and learning capacity that this spaciousness offers.
Love this simple yet profound truth you share Coleen, …”or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm.”
This is such a great reminder and tool, our breath… it allows us to feel where we are at any moment, whether in or out of rhythm.
Universal Medicine presents a relationship with time like I had never heard before. For me now, the concept of busyness is just that – a concept! I can choose to stay with the task at hand and do one thing at a time, feeling at ease with time, or, I can choose to think about what I need to do next while I do my task and feel busy. I can even think about the 10 things I need to do next while I do my task and feel really busy and pressured for time. It’s all in a choice to stay with what is at hand, to trust the time will be there for each task as it comes.
‘Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time’ – I so relate to this, Coleen. I never used to have enough time in my day, I always underestimated how long it would take me to do things. The more I develop my rhythm, the more time I seem to have, and the more I seem to be able to do in the same amount of time!
Thank you Coleen for the timely reminder to be true to my own gentle rhythm and not be swept up with the racyness that the apperent ‘lack of time’ can impose.
Such a great blog, Coleen – “I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.” My relationship with time has changed dramatically, as I explore my own rhythms and see where I get caught up in having to ‘do’ before ‘be’-ing.
Coleen, there is something both simple and profound in what you’ve written, how when we allow our natural rhythm that we are part of a larger cycle and can truly claim our part in that cycle – we effectively come back to us, to our place in the wider rhythm of life. Otherwise we are slaves to ‘me’, not ‘us’ and not living how we truly can. Great to be reminded.
I remember Serge Benhayon presenting once to a group not to make time your enemy.
It resonated a lot with me as I always saw time as something to be defeated, so I would be able to control everything. I had very little knowledge about rhythms before, so, like you, I was in a hamster wheel. Now that I honour my body and the rhythm it has, my perception of time has totally changed.
Dear Coleen, thank you for reminding us about our cycles and rhythms. It is an ongoing relationship with them, which I forget at times, but actually the deepening and adjusting of that relationship guarantees a harmonious flow in my daily life.
I love how you have talked about the little things that are not so little that support the rhythm that you build every day – the way you are in the day, the non-prescription to the stress and pressures around you, the adjustment in your sleep cycle, the choosing of gentleness…Coleen you have shown and reminded us that those little things are key and play such an important role for us in letting go of playing the game of the hamster running the wheel and coming back to a far more loving way of living – one that still does all the things that are needed, whilst doing them in and with a rhythm that feeds itself back.
Rereading your words ‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’ gives me a deep sense of harmony and flow that comes from living in sync with both myself and the world around me. In the space that is then created there is no time as such, no straight lines ahead or backwards. Just a big sphere of everything and in it what is next can come from any direction.
Thank you Coleen for sharing your experience with time and how this relates to rhythms and cycles. I am too exploring the rhythms that we live in and how by honouring these rhythms I am able to be more steady in my daily life and with that the phenomena of not having enough time turns actually into having plenty of time. This is an absolute astonishing scientific revelation.
Esther I’ve also felt the same thing, there always seems much to do yet if I approach the day with what is needed to be done first and go from there – I always have plenty of time and get even more done. It surprises me therefore how much time I must “waste” by thinking and worrying that I have no time or trying to rush through things to get them done – only never to find enough time to complete them. So it’s very interesting to consider that it’s our relationship with time and space compared to actually “running out of time”.
Well said Esther – being more conscious of the rhythms I live in, is revealing to me how irrelevant time is as I bring more spaciousness into my daily way and how time can rule and bring exhaustion when not honouring these rhythms. Work in progress, with the pull to be more with presence with my body rather than the racy energy of the mind.
Yes! “This is an absolutely astonishing scientific revelation”.
I love rhythms too. Thank you for this inspiring blog, – very timely for me to read just now, because I will have to readjust my sleep/wake cycle to create more loving rhythms for myself in my days. I’ve also felt how being a victim of time has affected my body. It’s like my body has been ahead of me, and it has created some unexplainable pains in my shoulder area. I like the idea of living “in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms”. Rhythms create such a beautiful flow and consistency which I am now inspired to explore even deeper.
“Living as a rhythmic being” – great! This goes right next to my desktop…
Coleen- the whistleblower on Time the Tyrant!
When I first heard people speak about rhythms I was a little confused as I just wasn’t aware of mine.
Surprise- I am a rhythmic being and the more focussed on my quality, the deeper I adhere to them, the more amazing my life becomes.
Simple.
The tension between the inner harmonious and the temporal outer rhythms can be quite intense at times. It then comes to the choice to either perform and live up to the outer expectations or to lovingly tune in and trust one´s inbuilt rhythms. Knowing the difference brings to one´s awareness how much we as a society have distorted life.
Well said Alex – there is indeed a tension which I at times struggle with between feeling what flows and supports my inner harmonious rhythm to what is expected of me by others and the outside world. Yet what I find crazy is how it is usually me who puts the most pressure on myself and not actually the outside world – yet is is far easier to blame others than to look at why I have chosen to change who I am and what I am getting by fitting in with and appeasing others.
Wow Colleen – you hadn’t been able to sleep without sleep medication for ten years! “The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me”. What an amazing healing you must have experienced from this – I can feel how the anxiousness must have dropped away – just starting with a gentle breath – so simple!
Until I was presented with a whole new – to me – concept of time by Serge Benhayon, I like many of us, was always “running out of time”; something I now know to be just an illusion. Like you Coleen, I have loved being introduced to the many and varied rhythms of life that are always with us – rhythms that if we connect to and flow with, change the quality of our way of living. It is as if we are naturally going with the flow, instead of fighting to go in another direction, and causing the stress and strain in our lives that we have thought, until now, was normal. And when living in these rhythms our relationship with time naturally evolves and time is no longer the controller of life it has been. Your last line sums it up so beautifully for me: “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.”
Wow, it’s beautiful to feel how we are part of something much greater, and how this new rhythmic way of living can impact work life in a very positive way. Time pressure is a huge source of stress for many. I have loved reading your blog exploring rhythms and a new relationship to yourself and time, very inspiring, thankyou.
I so enjoyed reading your article Coleen – When I say the word rhythm it reminds me of my long time ago piano teacher she would say “keep in time with the rhythm” so here I am now feeling what rhythm do I bring in my every day – I’ve noticed there is a rhythm to the way I walk, the way I speak, the way my heart beats how it changes if I allow myself to get into any form of anxiousness and how after the gentle breath meditation feeling all of me – a gentle pulsing rhythm.
Since listening to the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine on cycles and rhythms I have been discovering that everything is a rhythm. All the activities or rituals of our day make up a rhythm so we have a morning rhythm for example or a work rhythm or a winding down rhythm at night. What is important is to identify if our rhythms are actually working for us or not.
Coleen, the hamster wheel has featured in my life too. I would be able to calculate in an instance the most time efficient way to squeeze everything into the day, even down to the minutest detail – like looking for the most efficient order to empty the dishwasher and put things away, or with errands which order of shops to visit/people to see would take me the least time!! It was the focus on time and the restriction that this form of control gave that I ended up in exhaustion
Thank you again, Coleen. The Invisibel Tyrant is again banging my door down today, and it’s good to re-read what you’ve written and come back to my stillness in an out-of-control perpetual motion world!
Diane, I too love re-reading this blog over and over to remind myself – “to come back to my stillness in an out-of-control perpetual motion world!” when that ‘Invisible Tyrant’ is banging against the door!
When the invisible tyrant bangs on your door, Stephanie and Diane, tell him you’re out!
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”
Wow Coleen…the whole world is constantly trying to escape or stay ahead of the time predator! So it is awesome to read your simple steps towards reclaiming yourself back from being a victim of time, back into the natural flow and rhythm of life. I bet there are plenty of people out there who would benefit from hearing your experience.
I have been feeling lately that if I simply find my own flow I do not worry about time. It’s something I am experimenting with as my days are busy but I notice everything feels so much simpler when I don’t think about how I am going to do something ‘on time’ but rather just knowing what needs to be done, find my flow and enjoy what I am doing.
I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me, absolutely awesome!
I love it – love the text and wording. I absolutely love the sense of humour that you have written this article from. The end sentence did blow me away: ‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’. It is so true ! We are rhythmic beings in a rhythmic world!
This sentence would actually be the best replacement for the misconception and lie of: “I am barbie girl in a barbie world”!
Thank you for your sharing this true relevationary story. I can take this with me in my life.
I love the barbie reference, Danna. I had also felt the words could well replace a song that went something like, ” We are living in a material world and I am a material girl.” 😉
I enjoyed your blog Coleen, it is a great reminder of how we can live as a hamster on wheels or choose to live our own natural rhythm – as you say it all feels so lovely.
I still have periods of being a victim of time and rushing towards deadlines. It causes worry and hurry, and becoming totally disconnected with the present moment and hard in my body. When I choose differently, as I have learned from the teachings and practice of Universal Medicine, time expands, my body is gentle, and I can feel the love available to me and so to others, and I am present with myself. So it is obvious to me that the Love is always there, but becoming worried and hurried stops us from feeling it.
I love your blog Coleen, I had forgotten how powerful awareness of our breath is ‘I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm. This diminished the stress of work demands enormously and my ability to remain unperturbed was commented on by many colleagues.’ this is a great reminder to me to connect to my breath in those moments of stress. Thank you
I love when you say ‘I am a rhythmic being’, life is actually rhythmic, day and night, etc, and it all happens in its time – not being controlled by time takes away a lot of the stress we place ourselves under to get everything done – its like we are robots just doing without presence – bringing presence allows us to enjoy our life more and this becomes a rhythm in itself.
Agree Karoline, bringing presence and quality to what we do is a release from the pressure of time as is connecting with and staying with my body. A constant learning.
I too had lived my life in finding there was never enough time, in constant overwhelm and in an often stressful way, but thanks to the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I too have found that there is another way, a beautiful way where time and space can stand still and allows for a feeling of a graceful flow and a fullness. This comes from a dedicated way of living with simplicity and love as is lived and inspired by Serge Benhayon, his family and Universal Medicine. Thank you for this great article and sharing this.
Thank you Coleen – this is a great stop blog for myself and I bet so many of us letting ourselves be hounded by the ticking of the clock. I felt such freedom reading this – there is a relief in re-connecting to our natural simple rhythms of living in a body, connected to all other bodies and nature too. In this way I have found more space in my day as I let go of the squeeze and pressure of time.
I love your statement ‘I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me.’ and not living like ‘hamsters on a wheels’ !
In the past I didn’t have any kind of consistent rhythm or even know of a concept of rhythms. Being introduced to that word in a completely new but an old way of knowing this already, has really supported me esp. with time, as now time is on my side and I’m no longer running as fast as I used to.
I know this hamster wheel you talk about too well. The more I step off it the more I see how much I was on it.
I agree Dean. Stepping back makes me feel the overwhelm I used to go into. When I take the time to work with a steady pace all gets done within time and with no fuss.
So true Dean – stepping back from the hamster wheel is the only way to really see what is going on – the stop and pause brings the awareness of breathing my own breath again, to be observing and not absorbing. Rather than breathing for others and situations, which just leads to disconnection and the too busy ‘doing syndrome’.
It’s also very healthy to step back and watch what’s going on… gives us time to see things as they really are.
Another amazing blog Coleen, I love what you share here about time and the relationship you have with yourself. I have discovered one of the most fundamental things we need in life to feel vital and well, is good sleep – at the right time of night, and not the length of sleep we might get necessarily. To achieve this as you say, through changing the way you approach an evening’s wind-down, I know works for me too, and have seen hundreds of people do the same thing through my clinical practise by applying the same simple approach. The turnaround in health, wellbeing, sense of self, productivity, ability to see things more clearly, depression and even anxiety has been nothing short of miraculous, given how long most people suffer the effects of poor sleep, and poor sleep patterns. You make the steps you took so clear and simple to apply… with obviously more to go as you keep deepening the relationship with yourself in this way.
Coleen. Love your blog. If we keep going round and round in circles, we eventually will meet ourselves on the way back. You have conquered all the pressures, and come home to the real you. Just keep that lovely rhythm going forward.
Reading this again Coleen, I can feel the absolute freedom rhythm gives you to be you and not trapped by a time or period. It is like life becomes a huge sphere to express you rather than feeling life is a line with bits of time to express here or there.
How cool is that, Coleen, calling yourself a “rhythmic being”, that’s wonderful. Your article has reiterated that fact to me that we are ALL rhythmic beings living together in a rhythmic world. Imagine what the world would look like if every human being was living in their true rhythm, that truly would be magic. I have also been aware that when I am more connected to my body and I allow myself to be in my own rhythm, time seems to s-t-r-e-t-c-h and I get more done without striving.
A world of rhythmic beings, Sandra. That would be awesome! And yet, it IS who we are. The incredulity should be around the fact that we avoid being that – why are we not being that?
What I am discovering by being more present with myself and time, is how much time I have previously wasted. I am finding myself more efficient and enjoying more that I do as I am feeling less like I am racing time.
Such a wonder to behold the more present I am with me in the moment and what I am doing the more prepared I am for the future that is coming towards me. So much time worrying about not being prepared or having enough time for what is coming up before me. Living more in my own natural rhythm and with life’s natural cycles gets me off that wheel of motion!
Mmryan37 and Jenny your comments are a timely read for me, as I have noticed how recently I have been far from present and that the pressure of time has crept up on me, not enough time to do everything, I need an extra day, I have taken too much on whereas if I make it simple and bring it back to being present in everything I do the illusion of time starts to dissipate.
I have found the same, I have spend hours organising everything I needed to do, making my to do list, and then at the end of the afternoon finding I had not actually done anything. In learning to just be present with myself I can now just look at the next thing that is there instead of wasting time and energy on everything else.
Such a common comment, “I just don’t have enough time”, “I’ll get back to it when I have time” and “Everything will be OK when I just get a bit more time”. How has society become so dominated by time – rushing, pushing, never ending, the hamster on the wheel.
And then you show us it is when you slow down, re-connect to your body and the rhythms that support it, that time seems to slow down and we have all of the time we need.
Yes the relationship between holding a rhythm to all I do in my life, and time, is a very powerful one. Time certainly slows down and speeds up depending on where I am with myself. I find there are great examples of this in this article and it does highlight how there are rhythms we can connect with which allow us to feel how joy-filled life can be and even though I may fall out of that rhythm, it is always there to get back in flow with, when I choose.
This article brings such a great awareness of our relationship with time. Thank you Coleen – just by connecting with it I can feel how time can indeed expand and the ways in which I need to deepen my understanding of my rhythms.
What a timely blog, Coleen! I have been changing my relationship with time and it is an ongoing work of art. Time can be such a gift when we are present with ourselves and feel into our own natural rhythm. There is a feeling of time, rhythm and presence going hand in hand and taking on a life of their own as they invite me to flow and dance with them in those moments when I am living from my inner-most. It’s awesome and a true marker for me to return to again and again.
When we actually stop to consider what time actually is, it becomes a very interesting topic, for there are moments in my life where I feel I have all the time in the world and in this everything is bought to perspective, then there are other moments where I just feel like there is not enough time to do everything that needs to be done.
So true, it is the way we are with it..or more accurately the way we are with ourselves. This is how sometimes time just does not seem to move forward and sometimes seems to have slipped through our fingers …we actually are not subjects of time but it is the other way around.
So True Jane, it is our perception of what we think is going on that affects how we feel towards time. With less thinking and more being with myself I find time is on my side.
Abby I agree, time and our relationship with it is very revealing. I have found time can be very spacious when I stay connected with myself, and quite the opposite if I go into any drive or push at all. It is the reverse of how we might imagine it.
I agree Abby. It’s a big topic and one that still trips me up from time to time 🙂 It’s always when I’m pushing for time and trying to fit it in that I know I’m not in time/sync with my natural rhythm of gentleness and presence.
I love this Jane. Yes it’s always how I am with me that changes the perception or creates the tension that there isn’t enough time. I’m starting to wonder why I put myself under the illusion and pressure of there not being enough time, it’s almost like I don’t want to take responsibility or admit that in those moments i’m not living the real me.
Great point, Jane: how does something we are lead to believe in so solidly have multiple perceptions attached to it?
“Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence.” Colleen this is a fantastic quote to keep close by. Thank you also Colleen for linking living with rhythm and for your comment Mick about staying present with what you’re doing to overcome the pressures of time.
‘Time pressures’ is such a common catch-phrase in every profession these days, and the “‘hamster on a wheel’ existence” is one that many live. I too lived this way, especially at work, and would end my shift physically exhausted and emotionally drained.
However since attending Universal Medicine presentations and workshops, how I choose to live my life, the way I work and how I am at work has completely changed…no longer am I exhausted; people and events constellate, and there is so much more space and openness to what needs to be done – tasks naturally flow from one to the next. Time has become something that just clocks when events occurred and not something to fight against.
Paula, this sentence has really stood out for me this morning giving me another way to view time and events – no struggle required!
“Time has become something that just clocks when events occurred and not something to fight against”.
“Time has become something that just clocks when events occurred and not something to fight against.” I love that phrase, Stephanie and Paula.
Lovely story about reconnecting to our innate rhythms. I have used the analogy of “spinning wheels” in a car – there is lots of motion but no progress – this is how I felt before reconnecting to my rhythm. Thank you for sharing.
Lee, this has made me smile – the “spinning wheels” analogy is great to describe those days where one’s rhythm may be out of sync – ” lots of motion but no progress”. Thank you!
Brilliant, Lee. Wheels endlessly spinning, ever faster, with absolutely no forward motion! A powerful analogy indeed for our enslavement to time.
Yes that is spot on, Lee! Lots of motion but no progress. I can so relate to that feeling in my past, too, before I reconnected to my own rhythm.
I love what you have shared here Coleen, there is indeed a rhythm to life as you so beautifully expressed. “It all feels so lovely; I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me. Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.”. I look forward to becoming a master of my own rhythm.
Travelling to an event today, I had only allowed time for a straight journey from A to B and then got caught up in some unexpected road works. I just let go of any time pressure and just enjoyed the opportunity to be sitting with awareness of my body, breathing gently. There was no feeling of even wanting to look at the clock to see what the time was, just dropping deeper into my body. On arrival, I glanced at the clock – I had actually arrived 10 minutes early with no rush, no stress, just being and experiencing how time really can expand!
Now that is impressive, Stephanie! Awesome – how that would change traffic stress globally if we all did that…
Things would definitely change if everyone took this approach.
I followed your lead today, Stephanie, when I was held up by roadworks en route to work.. It was beautiful – bonus connect-with-myself-time. Thank you!
I love it when you write I love rhythm and rhythm loves me. When we develop a loving relationship with our bodies and live in accordance to the natural cycles and rhythms, this can change our relationship with time. We can feel a spaciousness whereas before we may have felt constricted, this pressure of time like a vice on our head. I see it everyday at my workplace, at the supermarket etc…. Being in connection with my body, honouring what it needs, and being in rhythm changes that dramatically, and it’s a beautiful way to live.
Coleen, I just love how you call yourself a “living, rhythmic being”. What a revelation for all! And a deepening for me in claiming that I too am a living, rhythmic being. Brilliant – thank you.
I can relate to the hamster on the wheel comment – I am developing a consistent rhythm in my life by where I can hold this rhythm no matter what I am doing. By not letting ‘I’ll just do this or that’ slip into the day I don’t feel like I have to catch up to complete what really needed to be done, and consequently blame time.
Thank you, Coleen, this is very inspiring. I have so far only discovered the rhythm of my breath in one day. That has already allowed me to not feel the pressure of all those things that need doing. I used to hope that when everything on the list is done, I can relax. But the list never ends, that was such an illusion. Now I enjoy doing what I do, knowing that I will never run out of things to do.
It is a revelation to come back to living a naturally harmonious way – in cycles and rhythms. Why have we made a world where life is seen as lineal? when all around us we see the cycles of nature, it’s weird to me.
So true Geraldine, when you allow yourself to be connected to the cycles of nature and the body viewing and living in the world in a lineal way feels very unnatural.
Coleen your past well sums up how so many of the working population live.. constantly feeling they’re at the mercy of time and in the perpetual anxiousness that comes from that. I love where you say “Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me”. Thank you.. this is so beautifully inspirational to those of us who are working on our relationship with time.
Thank you Coleen for this beautiful article on rhythm and the relationship with time.
As I read your words (loud to myself : )), I got the image of a public bus in the morning, full of people rushing from bed to work where someone would just read out loud your article.
I love that image, Stefanie: so playfull and fun!
Hi Coleen, thank you! The photo was taken during the recording of the “commander of light” Song and it was really a time of being playful and fun.
It is interesting to reflect on why it is that so many of us have lived and are living with this need to constantly achieve that drives us to live in a way that exhausts ourselves and without a doubt leads eventually to illness/disease. From the wisdom that Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine presents it is so wonderful to (re)discover that there is another way to approach living that makes just so much sense – and that my body absolutely loves me for when I listen to it. To stop and allow myself to feel and follow the natural rhythms that have always been there, but ignored in my arrogance, is bringing a true sense of harmony, purpose, strength, focus and “at-oneness” that displaces the drive of achievement. Thank you Coleen and thank you Serge Benhayon.
Hi Coleen, your experience with being able to come off sleep medication after 10 years, is a wonderful example of how establishing a rhythm can have hugely beneficial (miraculous) outcomes on the body.
Coleen what you share here is so inspiring. I have too been working on my own rhythm learning to stay with this rhythm through my breath and body and the gentle workings of it, and also learning to allow time to move around me, and others to be as they are around me in this rhythm. It is not perfect by any means, but I have certainly connected to how powerful this is.
Coleen – this blog feels very personal for me and is very timely! I have been struggling with time and can feel myself increasing in momentum when feeling the pressures of time. Recently I have at times felt that there is more space in my life rather than time and that has felt so freeing for me. I am now working on my daily rhythms, especially at work where I can feel I get pulled out of my rhythms very easily by others around me. A work in progress!
Beautiful article Coleen. I can feel your connection to your rhythm and I love the way you described your exploration of your rhythm within the larger cycles of life. Thank you.
It is amazing that when we start living the true rhythms and cycles that our body responds to, that time becomes a completely different experience. I find that when I am in a rhythm that I have established, and that works for me, time opens up into space – plenty of space to do all the things that need doing. No stress, just stay in my rhythm. An extraordinary change to the way I used to live my life as well Coleen.
I love this clarification Jo: when time becomes space, miracles happen. Thank you.
Amazing Coleen. I love the idea of the gentle breath, something so simple reconnecting you back to you, and all around you reestablishing a possibility back to a rhythm. When that connection is made all around you aligns, where a more informative decision can be made supporting You and the Rhythmic cycle. Your breath – Your rhythm !! Love it !!
This is so beautiful Coleen, when I read the words ‘living as a rhythmic being’ I feel touched by the pulse of life, by a rhythm that is here to support us all and I know this to is within me… calling me back to harmony. Thank you.
You have shared changes to your life that are no less than miraculous…how much sleep medication is being taken around the world simply because we are spinning through our days, unable to rest each night as the spin in our bodies continues. And then how much more pharmacology are we using in this disconnect with our bodies? Beyond the obvious health issues, to consider the economics of this is mind-blowing.
“The first step in reclaiming my natural rhythm was to breathe a gentle breath and feel my own naturally gentle energy. This offered me a choice in stressful situations – I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm”. Thank you for your wise and thoughtful words on rhythms Coleen, from the gentle breath moments to the daily, monthly and yearly rhythms we are part of. To remain aware that we are part of a much grander universal set of rhythms feels so expansive, and it really takes the pressure off our hamster habits!
Wow Coleen, what an incredible turnaround you are describing here. A fabulous reminder to us all to connect to our own natural rhythm.
I love what is offered in this blog, especially… “to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.” For me, this confirms that we are greater than our current existence and the fact that we don’t need to get caught up in it as much as we do. We can live here by way of feeling the grandness that is available to us all equally. As I have focused on feeling my body’s internal rhythm as being part of a much greater rhythm I have found there is now a flow to my days, where as if I am driven by time I feel a tension happen in my body and a push to get things done. And it is not to say that living in respect to these rhythms I do not adhere to time in any way. I do. I have appointments, times and schedules to keep but now understanding time in this way and knowing that there is an underlying rhythm to life I just continue on with what needs to be done and time flows effortlessly. I turn up to my appointments at the appropriate time and with more of a natural ease, therefore being more open to all those who I may meet along the way. It is a work in progress but the more I surrender to what is held deep within me the more my relationship with time changes.
“No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures. Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.” This is beautiful Coleen. Time expands for me when I am in my own true rhythm and conversely, when I lose the plot, I can end up in a rush and not have enough time.
Thank you, Coleen, for this lovely, rhythmic sharing, and the invitation and the inspiration to live in such a way that: “No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures. Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms…” and that we can live in daily, monthly, yearly and even grander rhythms, ever deepening our connection with ourselves and with the All.
Hi Colleen, if we could stop a moment.
That is pretty incredible.. being able to quit your sleep medication amongst immediately (after taking them for over 10 years) by simply changing your wind-down routine in the evening … Holy cow batman! That is a miracle … 10 years, that’s about 3650 sleeps…
Great point Dean, Holy cow batman, lets please stop a moment …. with anxiety and sleep related issues predicted to cripple the health industry, this is most possibly a game changer. Can it really be as simple as changing your sleeping patterns and living more in line with your natural rhythm? With a health industry under so much pressure and increasingly pushing for individuals to take greater responsibility for their self-care (and rightly so) could this be an answer? And its free too, as in the government does not have to fund a cent towards it, except perhaps support in promoting this healthy and responsible way of being. Makes sense to me.
It certainly is, “Holy cow, Batman!” And I so love sleep….I used to feel so abused when i “couldn’t do it.” So, by all means, stop and let it be known….
I love how you say “time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms”. We can often try and fight time and the apparent constraints that it brings, and you are showing just how easily we can use it to help support ourselves.
In the past I thought about rhythms as only in music but my understanding of it has changed completely and expanded with the presentations and workshops by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I now see rhythms in every aspect of my life, how I live my day, my sleep, my menstrual cycle and so much more. Living in rhythm with myself and all around me feels great.
Thank you for sharing that you are doing the same thing but in a different way. The approach is different and it is supporting your body. And yes rhythm, the holy grail than can prevent and at times cure today’s diseases! Timely Reminder!
Lovely expression on your relation with time and rhythm. I too was locked into this time concept, having to meet deadlines, to do lists, putting pressure on my body. With the Gentle Breath and creating rhythm in my life it is indeed quite a different story. Just like you, I can stay with me whilst still being ‘in time’.
I used to be super efficient and super exhausted. Now I am leading a more productive life than I could possibly have ever imagined when I was racing the clock. Something weird happens when you ‘ignore’ time, in that it expands.
What a beautiful blog Coleen. I love how you say that becoming a “rhythmic being has changed your relationship with time”. I am inspired.
Coleen, on re-reading your blog and in particular this line,
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”.
what was exposed for me which was recently shared by a friend is that, it’s not about my rhythm per say but about the quality I am in that makes my rhythm as my head was still seeing it as only from the point of view of focusing on changing my rhythm which feels more like a doing, with no focus on quality. I now get that the quality I am in, determines my rhythm and what I choose from that quality, not just a mind guided rhythm with no heart/quality in it.
Thank you, Trueconnections. I have been observing the interplay between quality and rhythm, also recently. And then there’s how we relate to the quality of the cycle e.g. the full moon cycle, that we are in. It’s an amazing unfolding, all of this.
Coleen, I know I’ll be re-reading your blog a lot. I am so inspired to really start honouring myself and my rhythms. reading, ‘Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim,’ opens up the possibility of there being so much more vitality and richness to life if I choose to live in this way. Thank you.
Dear Coleen, I have read your blog before, what really stands out for me is how definitely and innately you have claimed your rhythm and how open you are to expanding it. This is so very joyful and super inspiring.
I quite enjoyed reading your blog, funnily enough I read it in my lunch break. It brought a deeper appreciation to the pause I take in the middle of the day to adhere to my personal rhythm. It constantly amazes me how deep we can go with our rhythms and how much vitality it naturally brings us in return, when I am out of my rhythm I feel the effects immediately, I don’t feel myself and see how this impacts on the people around me too. Thank you for sharing your transformation – it’s inspiring.
Your expression is so beauty-full Coleen – I really appreciated your description of your personal strory around time and rhythms, and I can feel it is time for me to reflect more deeply on my own sense of where I am as a rhythmic being.
Oh Coleen! I love what you have so lovingly expressed thank you. I have to say it has been a gently yet powerful reminder for me to check in with my rythym and make the adjustments required.
Thank you for your blog Coleen….It has reminded me of how I can get caught up in believing there is not enough time to do all the things I ‘need’ to do, so much so that I often implode and go into time-wasting mode and in affect do nothing. How simple and liberating it is to connect to the rhythm of our breath, to bring us back to harmony, and time no longer becomes an issue.
I find myself drawn again to this piece Coleen as I deepen my awareness to the pressure I put myself under when doing anything that involves a time frame (which when I think about it, is pretty much everything)!
The anxiousness has been there for as far back as I can remember, whether it was catching the bus to school, going to the doctor’s, meeting a friend and oh my gosh the stress of getting to an airport on time could give me nightmares!
As I re-read your sharing I’ve confirmed how much of my life has been lived in perpetual anxiety as I ricocheted from one task to the next.
I’m now catching the raciness of anxiety at its onset and can feel that the more I commit to the deepening of my rhythms the quicker I feel my mind overriding what my body is saying, affording me the opportunity to stay with how my body’s actually feeling instead of spending my days in what feels completely mental, draining energy.
Thank you Coleen. To not be dominated by time is such a blessing. This is something I have not yet mastered, but I can feel how when I let go of time my quality and the quality of everything I do in my day is in flow with all and it is a joy to live this way.
It is a losing battle when you try to fight time. Yet what Coleen shares here isn’t that you give time the old one finger response and pretend it doesn’t exist either. What I am getting here from Colleen and what I have heard presented at Universal Medicine courses (and have somewhat brought into my life) is that time can either be experienced as a treadmill or ‘hamster wheel’ – OR – time can be something that fits into your own rhythm naturally so.
What Colleen is bringing to our attention is that our rhythm incorporates all of us (our whole being) and is something that has an intelligence greater than the linear concept of time. Therefore in the rhythmic way time is no longer our master anymore but it is but one consideration within the whole picture that our rhythm takes into account.
This I have absolutely experienced and it is these days that life seems to flow, the car park is there, the person I meet is exactly the right one and the day just flows. It is these days that I have been able to feel and be in my rhythm and allow the greater intelligence of the bigger picture that my rhythm is naturally constellating with work for me.
Spot on Rebecca – when we try to ‘fight’ time it is indeed a losing battle, but when we work with it and build a rhythm it can be a truly amazing ally.
‘Allow the greater intelligence of the bigger picture that my rhythm is naturally constellating with work for me.” That is exquisitely beautiful, Rebecca – and exquisitely true.
This is my experience too Rebecca. When we are in our rhythm everything seems to magically unfold. In ways I couldn’t have imagined but once experienced there is no doubt there is a much greater picture at play.
I can feel the freedom living in a rhythm brings for you Coleen. It feels inspiring. Thank you
A great read thanks Coleen. I still struggle with rhythms and cycles from time to time but when I connect with them life is amazing. It is almost like time stands still and everything that needs to happen with ease and I have time up my sleeve.
Thanks Coleen, very helpful tips on managing time
This has been my experience as well. The difference between living from one ‘must do’ to the next left me productive but exhausted and needing to supplement my energy in any way I could. Tuning into the fact that we all have natural rhythms of body cycles and working WITH these has unlocked a level of vitality that nothing else I have come across has been able to deliver.
I had always managed to be super ‘efficient’ with time – or so I thought but in actual fact all I was doing was getting stuff done; but done in the tension of seeing the minutes as a kind of currency, to be spent as wisely/economically as possible! I could then judge how well I had done by how productively I’d spent my minutes….I’m feeling exhausted at the thought of it! What you say Coleen is a great antidote to this – “Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence.”
That’s great Rosanna I can relate to using the minutes as a type of currency, and that I should spend it wisely. I was efficient and always busy but didn’t take into consideration that I had a body that had to do all these things and I was continually pushing against time and my body to get things done.
That’s so true, that we use minutes, hours, days, time sessions in classrooms as a form of currency and it certainly highlights how our relationship with time and money can be discoloured in precisely the same ways! It could be very revealing to evaluate one’s relationship to both and contemplate! Thank you, Rosanna!
I agree with Jeanette, this “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world” should be a song. It’s funny we think we have no time but if you take a step back and look at how you are being then you may be working against a natural rhythm that will support you. I have found you can ‘do’ a lot when you have a dedication to yourself and how you are feeling first and then working from there. A great blog thank you Coleen.
Well said Raymond: ‘I have found you can ‘do’ a lot when you have a dedication to yourself and how you are feeling first and then working from there.’ This is what I am learning as well, that I can do so much more if I first and foremost take deeply care of myself.
Thanks for sharing this Coleen. As someone who works in the building industry, time seems to hold such great importance – as the saying goes “time is money”. Which really means the longer this job takes, the more it will cost, and the less profit there is to be made. I too had to deal with my relationship with time and how living with time constraints was running me into the ground. Once I had learn to stay present with what I was doing instead of constantly checking the clock my whole work life changed. I still need to be aware of what time it may be but I don’t let time govern my existence. I too have found a rhythm that supports me and since finding that rhythm I can actually achieve more in a day that when I use to watch the clock.
Awesome to have it confirmed that this phenomenon occurs across multiple, if not all, industries, Mick. Thank you!
I suppose that time becomes the ongoing nemesis, particularly when your rhythm hasn’t found its own true way of impulsing you. Thank you for sharing (:
I loved reading this Coleen. For me being in the moment creates a spaciousness that is not filled with the complications of what has happened or thinking about a situation that the mind is playing out. I can focus on what is before me and therefore enjoy every part of it and then my sense of time appears to stretch. The more I’ve connected to myself the more space I seem to have and my sense of time has reverted to what I felt as a child; lovely long days, weeks and years to enjoy.
“…when your rhythm hasn’t found its own true way of impulsing you” – well said. Developing that deeper connection to ourselves feels key to developing our rhythms and ultimately our mastery of time. I hadn’t quite got that before, so thank you.
This blog is a great reminder for me to stay connected and stay in my rhythm. I work in community aged care where time management can be challenging but I notice that when I am connected to myself there seems to be more time, not less.
Very familiar ‘the hamster on a wheel’ existence, time is always there, and I am very much focused on it. I am now practicing and learning that there is another way. The overwhelm and too much to do in one day is still there sometimes, but on the other hand, I also have markers of when everything does go in a flow. For me, trusting myself is the key, and breathing my own breathe.
I feel the same Eleonora – trusting myself, and not breathing someone else’s breath – an imposed breath, rhythm or way of being – are key.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.”
Beautifully said Coleen. When we look around us in nature, the movement of the planet, the solar system, and our own bodies, everything is governed by rhythms and cycles.
Your blog draws attention to a way of honouring this – simply so – in our daily way of living. That you have transformed your life from not being able to sleep without medication, to the natural sleep cycles you now experience stands testament to how very possible – and simple – this can be for us all, if we but choose to honour the rhythms that work in sync with our bodies, and ourselves.
Awesome blog, thank-you.
I learned that my relationship with time is changing when my life and acting is about people first and then the project, work, what ever it is. If I make my life about people (starting with me) I have time for all what is needed in this moment.
Such a truth Sandra. Making it about people first (starting with ourselves, as you say) and allowing myself to be guided by my impulses rather than a list or schedule, has brought a totally different rhythm to my life and time is less and less a driving factor.
so great to reread this Coleen I am yet to master what you share here so it is great to be inspired! The quality of my breath is so important.
Thank you for sharing! I lived how you said ‘– I could choose to engage with the stress of a demanding situation or I could choose to breathe my own breath and remain in my natural rhythm.’ This is so important for us all, that every moment is a choice and a very simple one at that- to breath us or to breath the world.
it is a simple choice Johanna to breath my own breath, or breathe in the world, but yet I can find this one of the hardest things to do when I am in ‘doing mode’. But what is great is I know – as I have experienced it – that it is entirely possible and very simple should I commit to that being my choice.
This is a great reminder to breath my own breath, and not to be affected by what is happening outside of me. From there it is much easier to create that rhythm to live in. I have experienced the difference between being in a rhythm and having all the time I need, and being a victim of time, and I know which is preferable for sure.
Thanks for capturing the simplicity Johanna – to breath us or the world.
This is a great blog Coleen. I have a “thing” with time and love what you say about “The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.”
What an amazingly enlightening blog to read, thank you so much for sharing your evolution with rhythm. I too have struggled with time and despite looking to the outside world that I have it all together, I struggled silently with deep anxiety and depression and a view that if I didn’t work as hard as I did, I would lose it all. That’s a terrible double life to lead and one that as you so rightly expose, does catch up with you. Despite changing my lifestyle substantially for the better over 2 years ago by giving up alcohol and caffeine amongst many other things, I was still plagued by the feeling that I was missing something, there was a missing piece to my life puzzle. I found that rhythm was this missing piece and I am now in the early stages of discovering that connecting to this within myself and working from my own natural rhythm impulsed by the cycles of nature recognized by our forefathers throughout history, that all of a sudden there is a spaciousness to my day that I never felt possible. I feel that I have more time in the day (when of course I do not actually have more time) and I have an increased conscious presence. For me this has been life changing and I credit these learnings to Universal Medicine, Serge Benhayon and my friends in the Universal Medicine Student Body for reflecting so gentling and unimposingly that there very much is another way to live and this way is incredible.
Dear Coleen, I can relate to your story about your relationship with time and rhythm. When you follow the true way of life it brings balance, harmony and vitality. Life is a circle not a straight line.Thank you
I have spent my life being ‘busy’ & allowing myself to be totally ruled by the clock – nothing else mattered before time restraints were met. This is something I am still working on, but when I am in my rhythm & feeling my own breath I seem to have so much more time & am able to go from one task to the other, effortlessly without running out of time. Your blog is very inspirational, thank you.
This article reminds me to be in and with the flow of life and to respect its gentle rhythms and cycles, so that I become a reflection of those same rhythms and cycles. I then have the opportunity to experience the expansive nature of life, rather than feeling contracted with no time or space to move at all. Thanks Coleen.
It’s great reading your blog. It reminds me to be in my rhythm everyday and to make the loving choice to go deeper. I can really feel it when I go out of rhythm how it affects me and it take a few days to return to my loving rhythm again. Pressure from work, I find if I get caught up with the deadlines, go into panic feeling I have lack of time, I feel awful in every way. Once I am aware of these feelings I can choose to either work in panic and anxiety or choose to not. By me living in rhythm these feelings seem to naturally dissipate.
I too have felt governed by time and had the feeling life is living me, resulting in me feeling like a victim of time unable to break free of its grip and in much need of a holiday.
The real holiday I can feel however is not one of travel but when we choose to reconnect and live from our natural rhythm allowing ourselves to be pulled by impulse to whatever is required rather then feeling the pressure of living up to our ideals and beliefs or those around us.
Freedom then is not an absence of work but rather our ability to approach work through our natural rhythm and feel the rhythms around us allowing us to respond naturally from within rather then feeling driven and exhausted by a frantic attempt to achieve.
Thank you Coleen you have given me much to feel within myself.
It can be so simple and reading this article still reminds me to do these simple technique with more presence, again.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” That delighted me Colleen, sounds like a great song!!
I loved reading your blog which supported me to go deeper with what I am realizing about my own rhythm and cycles; the more they are noticed and subscribed to the more I can feel that there are deeper and deeper layers of cycles and rhythms to notice and explore and be part of consciously. After all they are still there offering us their graceful way even when we arent aware of them. To me it does feel like a grace when we do choose to stop and connect to them. Thank you.
Me too Coleen, there was never enough time in a day so I’d crank myself up to working faster and faster trying to ‘get it all done’. But no matter how fast I’d go I could never catch up. I began to think the physicists were not telling us something essential about time! Now, having done as you, and begun to work with my natural rhythms, time is becoming my helper not the ‘tyrant’. What’s also lovely is that the changes in me spill over to other things – I can prioritize with more clarity, I can drop things more easily that I was attached to that aren’t helping, I enjoy more of my work more of the time, no matter how mundane or how much I used to not like the task… Indeed the awareness that Serge Benhayon has helped me to increase within myself has had a multitude of positive benefits in my life, but my relationship with time is certainly a biggie!
This was a lovely blog and I can feel the key word for me today is rhythm!
I have certainly experienced the feeling of openness as though time expands to fit all of me in when I connect deeply to my own innate rhythm; i.e. On those days when I have taken the time to re-connect to my body through walking, exercising or meditating and I reflect back on the day, I am often surprised at how much I can fit in compared with those days when I have not chosen this for myself and the result has often been a feeling of overwhelm!
Great blog- very timely; I have found myself getting caught up in not having enough time-and as you have clearly shown it is a sign to look deeper at my rhythm and to go back to my gentle breathe when feeling stressed- so thank you!
I am really blown away by what you have presented here Coleen. I have always struggled with time, never feeling like I have enough to do all the things I need to do. It feels even worse than being a hamster on a wheel because I often forget that I can choose to get off that wheel at any time and I feel trapped with no way out and no end in sight.
When you described how you now enjoy being in your own body and the connection you have with the cycles and rhythms that govern life I felt very inspired. I know I want to connect to this too. I can feel that it is my choice, stay on the wheel and feel terrorised by time or get off the wheel, connect to the cycle and rhythm that is naturally there just waiting for me. Beautiful.
I like your distinction between time and rhythm. Time does feel like a trap, rhythm feels so freeing. Thanks for explaining these so clearly and from your own experience…
Coleen what a beautiful account of letting go of the behaviours of running on anxiousness and being fatigued to reconnecting to a rhythm which not only supports yourself but everyone else. What a great reminder when life gets stressful to come back to what feels right in the body.
Thanks Coleen, what a refreshingly and awakening reading for me this morning. I feel lighter already – much here for me to further explore and so great to have this inspiring reminder. A very good morning and thanks to you!
Coleen, I love how you say: “By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.” There is something here that I have often pondered on…that ‘time’ is not the substance we think it to be…that perhaps it is far more elastic than we have given it credit for in our ‘beat the clock’ attitude that has come to rule so many of our lives. After reading your words, I can now see how living in rhythm may well be the key to ‘opening up’ space and ‘stretching out’ time. We are part of a much bigger picture.
Time has always played a role in my anxiousness, I have to be early to events or I can become agitated in my body. I find the more connected I am, and in a rhythm that supports my connection, the more time just happens to flow in such an awesome way.
What has been introduced here by Colleen is pertinent to wellbeing of man as a whole race. Being aware that we are living in cycles is important for our health and psychological wellbeing and when we learn to live according to our natural rhythm, inline with natures cycle, we as a human race could begin living in a way that is more supportive of our natural state. I wonder what the impact this could have on our human race as a whole?
Yes good question Tanya, it would impact absolutely every aspect of our lives because rhythms are an un-seperable part of life, they are intrinsic to us – and so as a whole we would be living in total rhythm with each other. Very harmoniously so.
Thank you Coleen for revealing the simple relationship between rhythm and time. I always felt that I was ‘out of sync’ or had ‘no rhythm’. All that I required was to come from a simple foundation of a gentle rhythmic breath.
Thank you for taking me back to the beginning and reminding me of the gentle breath.
Rhythm in life is absolutely everything.
Coleen,
For me my rhythms instantly show me that I am out, or rather my lack of rhythms show me instantly that I’m out.
If I let things drop, I only have to look around the house and I can see clearly that something is going on.
This is a great marker for me as I am always with my rhythms if I am with me first.
Missspringclean, this sentence has really reminded me to connect to my rhythmic self ‘I am always with my rhythms if I am with me first’, everything feels rhythmic when we are present without selves, there is a flow that feels natural and totally enjoyable.
I love the sound of being a ‘rhythmic being’ rather than a hamster on a wheel. One is how I want to be in every day – the other is how I have lived. Side by side they even sound different and rhythmic being just makes me think of space in my body and life. Thank you Coleen!
How simple to change, when we become aware of what we are doing. Such a simple teaching, with such profound affects.
Thanks for sharing Coleen. This is a beautiful reminder to connect back to my rhythms and self and love from there rather than be owned by time
When I first heard that our bodies have rhythms that are affected by the moon, I was unsure. But since I heard this presented, I have taken particular note of how I am, especially around the lead up to the full moon. And what I have noticed is that often during this time, my body seems to go through adjustments. I may be moody, tired, don’t want to get out of bed, reactive, or have surface body pain. I have kept record of this for some time now, and there is certainly no coincidence as to the timing.
Of course, it should make sense however, when we observe how so many animals and plants live in a rhythm that is dictated by the moon – coral, crabs on Christmas Island, the blooming of certain flowers, to name but a few.
I have always loved the word rhythm – for me it has an encompassing resonance combined with the sense of steadiness and continual flow. I am also fascinated by time – which has a two-fold effect on me – a feeling of a limitless expansive space and at the same time a hint of dread as though it might run out. I have no doubt that the cycles of time and rhythms are very much connected.
Coleen what a great reminder as I head back to work. I have noticed that the more I connect to me and remember “that we are more important than time” my rhythm changes. It allows me to bring more to all that I do. This is incredible and shows the level of work we can bring to our workplace, family and community is endless.
I too have always felt a victim of Time. I agree that by connecting to myself through my Gentle Breath and or doing Connective Tissue movements, supports me to stay in the moment and then time is less of an “issue” for me. I then am so much more aware of when my mind does take over those moments and can choose what action I take. I can either stay in the mindless myriad of useless thoughts or go back to connecting to myself. I am learning to include Time as one of my friends – another moment or opportunity to return to who I am and then live who I am. I am also learning to not be hard on myself if I slip and forget momentarily of this truth. When I do forget I can use this as a learning rather than an opportunity to stay victim to Time.
I know that whenever I am feeling pushed for time, it is a signal to look at how I am living at the moment in regard to my natural rhythm. I have found that if I let myself get caught up in the “there’s not enough time” I get stressed and cranky, with myself and others, nothing flows and I definitely am not breathing my own gentle breath. If I take the time to stop and come back to my breath, then time seems to open up, and whatever is needed in that moment is very clear. Life is back in the flow again. I’m still very much working on refining my rhythm but am so appreciative to Universal Medicine for showing me there is a different way to live each day.
I love how this article so simply shares that ‘We are more important than time’. I feel this is what it truly comes down to. If we make our focus in any moment to be in deep relationship with ourselves and never ever compromise this, then time just becomes a secondary thing that happens, but can work with us if we stay connected. I too am deeply appreciative to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for sharing this possibility for everyone to connect to if they choose! I say Yes!
‘We are more important than time’, wow, I love that, and Danielle, I love how you have not just said this as a vague ideal, but have explained how it can be a practical reality.
Coleen I love your blog and it helped to remind me to take more responsibility for my way of living.
Thank you Coleen – I love the line “The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me” and the simplicity with which you have explained this process.
A beautiful blog to read of how you have re-claimed your natural rhythms more, thank you for sharing this Coleen. And also of how you have discovered you are deeply connected to the more expansive rhythms of the universe through the cycles of the moon, simply beautiful to feel.
Awesome blog Coleen, I loved the ‘Hamster on a wheel’ analogy and this also reminded me of the ‘the rat race’… both of which give me a real sense of that competitive push to beat something, anything… and yet getting nowhere. I find this blog really supportive in reminding me to breathe gently and to re-connect to my own rhythm. In this rhythm that is naturally me, I’ve found there is so much more space that I actually get more done, without even trying. The whole quality of the day in every way is higher too. “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world”… I love this, it is absolutely divine :)!
I loved reading this blog Coleen; it offers so much to me as I commit more deeply to my relationship with me and taking responsibility for everything that I do, think and feel. All is reflected in my body as you have so eloquently expressed. Thank you so much.
Breathing my own breath and taking pleasure in living in my body are for me too two things I deeply appreciate and wouldn’t want to miss anymore.
Living in cycles and knowing you live in cycles, changing the behaviour we live by. I’d never stop to think about it like this before. I always thought I was given a certain amount of time and I had the ‘choice’ to cram as much stuff in that given time as possible, which in turn drains you completely. Instead learning to live your daily life in sync with natural rhythms. If that be your cycle or nature’s, we learn how to live in a more harmonious way.
Absolutely. So often we think of life as a straight line and a series of episodes or segments that follow one after the other. But what if we saw it as a 24 hour cycle then we would understand more perhaps of how one part affects the rest. Someone said to me recently that they were learning how to live during the day to allow them to sleep well that night. I had never thought about that before – that we could be preparing for a good night’s sleep even as we go about our daily activities!
I agree lukeyokota, since becoming aware of rhythms and cycles rather than the ‘normal’ view of having only so much time to cram things into my day, it’s made a huge difference in my daily living. Still work in progress, with the joy of exhaustion becoming a thing of the past. Every day is beginning to feeling as if it is ‘magically expanding’ through bringing more presence with myself within these cycles.
I really love this blog, very close to home.. Realizing that my whole life has been a pattern of racing against the clock and has been so exhausting. I found through Universal Medicine and looking at creating a rhythym in my life, and listening to my body rhythym, as much as I remember to! has changed so much of my life.
Amazing sharing of how the way we live throughout the day affects our vitality through sleep and rhythms of action and rest. Everything in nature pulses to a rhythm and cycle, so it makes perfect sense that we do to. However the majority of us do not listen or live to these cycles. Instead we live on a continuous treadmill as this article beautifully presented. Like this article presented, I also find “wind down” time at night essential to maintaining my energy levels through the day. If I watch a movie, engage in a debate or argument, or even work too late into the night, I find my sleep is not rejuvenating and I wake up feeling heavy and tired. Winding down gently before bed helps me feel vital, full of energy, and ready to live. I really do “rise and shine” these days!
Hi Marshall. Thanks for pointing out how everything in nature has a rhythm, this is all too obvious, yet we as human beings, putting ourselves above everything else, tend to forget this. Your comment at the end has connotations of following the rhythm of the Sun, an often overlooked cycle for ‘modern’ man.
I can feel the joy of your discoveries Coleen. How liberating to No longer be a victim of time, but rather to work with its pulse and align to it with our own rhythm. Very inspiring, thank you.
Thank you Coleen for your writings. I also am delighted to have found the cycles of the full moon as it has taken me into a total different relationship with my body, the respect and caring for myself in a very gentle way. I was always aware of the full moon but now I can appreciate it more and more.
Thanks for writing on this Coleen. It is timely for me 🙂 I am currently taking another look at my rhythm as I have found myself starting to feel ‘pushed’ for time or ‘not enough’ time which is a signal to me that I need to go deeper and refine my rhythm.
Such a beautiful article. As I was reading it I felt my shoulders drop and release tension I hadn’t even realised I was holding! And that was at 6.30 in the morning!
Going back to work after a holiday, I’ve allowed myself to get so caught up in all that I ‘had’ to get done in preparation, that I became totally stressed out.
I’m aware of an extra ‘time’ pressure that I’ve placed upon myself so that I meet timeframes (other peoples and mine).
Yes, we live in a world that has time restraints (time we start work, appointments, etc.),
but I love what you’ve shared – Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.
Inspirational, as I understand with more awareness and commitment to how I’m feeling, I too can deepen my rhythm and release the pressures of time.
Thank you.
Fascinating, that time can feel long and short whilst it is the same!
I discover more and more how I can let things and time come to me instead of running after time, by keeping at best my own rhythm and being very tender in my body. this is a quite fascinating challenge!
‘I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me.’ Thank You Coleen. This blog is a delight to read and a powerful reminder for us all to honor the flow and cycles in our own bodies. When we re-connect with our own rhythm and rituals, then being a ‘slave to time’ simply doesn’t exist anymore. We are all ‘rhythmic beings’ and the harmony found in this way of being can bring us all much joy on a daily basis
Thank you Coleen for this great reminder and for proving how much a natural claimed rhythm can change your whole foundation. The interesting thing is, when you are in your flow, you can work much more effectively and it may take less time. Being aware, taking care of and building my own rhythm is an everyday exercise for me.
Thanks Colleen – I too find rhythm as well as ritual, key in helping me stay with me in the moment and not get lost in the apparently endless to-do list. If or when my focus becomes the to-do list, then the rhythm goes out the window and I lose my sense of how to go about things in a way that supports me. But if I stay with the rhythm and a certain ritual, it is like it is there to guide or support me in all that so needs to get done. Such a different way of being that is so valuable to me in my life these days.
Hello Colleen, thank you for speaking about your rhythm and how it supports you. It is the same for me and my connection to myself in my day or my rhythm as a ‘check in’ really supports me in the next thing I do. I love the connection you make to your rhythm and a rhythmic world. For me it shows the connection to our rhythm connects us with something greater. We are all connected in rhythms.
As I was reading your blog Coleen, I could feel the magic and grace of rhythm and how it literally turns our concepts of time and its constraints on its head. As you write so beautiful, we are rhythmical beings, and when we start to acknowledge this and truly listen to our body’s graceful rhythms, our days and relationship with time can change dramatically.
Rhythmic being is a beautiful term. I had not claimed that and your blog brought it to me so clearly. I seemed to have the idea that a daily rhythm was something I had to fit myself into but the truth is that I need to allow my own rhythm to unfold.
What an incredible presentation of changing what was once debilitating to space for you in your day. This work could transform the working life of many people were it to be applied with the loveliness which you describe. Thank you.
Let’s all be honest, who hasn’t been a victim of time and trapped on the hamster wheel?! And to know that underneath all that stress, anxiety and overwhelm we are simply a ‘rhythmic being who lives in a rhythmic world’. Just beautiful. Thankyou Coleen, I enjoyed reading what you shared.
Yes – it certainly is all about rhythm Coleen. I love how you refer to and claim yourself as a ‘rhythmic being’….And how truly powerful it is to honour ourselves to the depth that we appreciate even more so the beauty and place of the true timeliness of things, as opposed moving with a momentum that we can feel is not natural for us.
It’s so easy to lose ourselves and get swept up in the concept of time. The more we lose ourselves the less time we seem to have! I love how you wrote about rhythm, connecting to a flow that is within us and living, moving, eating, breathing in a way that supports the connection to that rhythm, just lovely. Thank you Coleen
Thank you Coleen, this is awesome it has totally inspired me to live more in rhythm with myself. “It all feels so lovely; I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me. Living as a rhythmic being has allowed me to change my relationship with time completely and to set aside my former ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.”
Thanks Coleen, reading your blog I could feel how supportive rhythm is for us. I am yet another who can get caught in the hamster wheel. This is a beautiful reminder to be aware of our rhythms and learn to move so time is on our side.
Thank you Coleen for a great blog. I love time! Especially when I allow it to come to me!
I am still very much experiencing/practising to be with time and not against it.I know and have sometimes felt how it is to be with time and how great that feels in my body, and I also know how it feels in my body when I go against the time – it feels awful. That is the awareness I have of the difference between them. So I am still practicing when things get busy how to be with time. I feel the word ‘trust’ coming up when I write this. Trusting myself to feel in the moment what is needed.
Coleen, what a lot to ponder on here! Not only on time (and the feeling at times that there is not enough of it and being caught on a hamster wheel!) but on how being more in connection with our own rhythms and the rhythms or cycles of life itself, brings with it the space and grace of (more) time…
The time monster is certainly true for me -but I am working on taming it! The comments ‘The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me’ is a part I will particularly take away with me.
Wow Coleen, thank you so much for I have and still have days where I am on the hamster wheel and to be reminded that I am a rhythmic being in a rhythmic world made my body tingle all over….as I am this, and then to expand that to the greater rhythms of the universe – so very beautiful and confirming of who we all truly are.
It is easy to get into the ‘just one more thing’ way of cramming activity into our lives, instead of working to a natural rhythm. For me the biggest distraction is emails – rather like picking strawberries – ‘just this one’ and like someone said earlier – five minutes becomes twenty and much time has been wasted. I like the idea of the evening wind down, but haven’t mastered it yet, because I’m still focused on doing and need to focus more on being. Bringing the evening to a sudden stop at 9pm doesn’t work – I crash into bed exhausted and wake feeling groggy.
I am with you on this one Carmel. I am still learning to consistently work in a surrendered quality after a certain time in the evening, so that the work is done, but in a quality that is very internally aware and still – and so that when I go to bed there is none of the nervous system jangle to contend with.
I sometimes nail it, and sometimes lie in bed agitated, so this still a work in development.
This is an interesting subject Coleen. As I was reading your blog I was considering how I am still struggling with time and then I went a little deeper and realised and appreciated the fact that I am now able to do more than ever in a day. Starting in the early hours of the morning and working until late evening, more than any time in my life. And that my struggle with time is simply telling me that my rhythm needs adjustment and constant refinement. Thank you for the reminder.
Great comment Kathleen, I came to the same realisation the other day – I am able to do more than ever in a day than before and as I am re-adjusting my rhythm and bringing more presence to my body awareness, there is now a different quality throughout more of my day.
It has been a complete revelation to discover for myself what life can be like to live in rhythms and cycles.
I love this blog Coleen, I actually went to read past it as I know I still have issues with time, even the word time makes me feel a little agghh, but I chose to come back as I knew, wait a minute there is something being offered to you here. So as I read I could relate to the stress and pressure, as I often feel this at work, then came the words… “to the idea of living in and to a rhythm. ” and my whole body melted as I took in a big breath, and smiled , I love the word rhythm and so does my body obviously 🙂 What I can feel reading your blog and also through what I have been working on recently, is building a rhythm is so loving and essential to support us to stay connected to our true joy, playfulness, gentleness, our breath and our rhythm throughout the day, no matter what is going on around us. I know I too love to have much more time and space to get ready in the mornings, if not my body feels tense and anxious then I can end up carrying this into the day ( and get lost in the stress or overwhelm at work). Whereas when I create a loving space honouring the rhythm I feel to move in etc I am much more gentle and able to observe the day, still doing all that needs to be done, but I don’t end up reacting to everything or getting involved in other peoples’ stuff. And as the night comes I come home feeling much more content and complete, able to wind down with my evening rhythm, and prepare myself for a deep loving sleep. I love rhythm and something I am definitely and joyfully working on.
Loved reading your blog Coleen . To feel our rhythm is a wonderful experience and in our rhythm we can constellate with the universal rhythm, truly magical.
This is a beautiful insight Paul. When live in accordance to our own rhythm, we start to feel the deeper rhythms; planetary and beyond, in ways that our mind struggles to grasp but our body understands, perfectly.
And the great thing is, that our interaction with time is always there to show us where we are at at any given moment. Are we running like crazy on a perpetual hamster wheel; or are we opening our eyes realising that we are powering this hamster wheel? This realisation enables us to step off and walk purposefully in life without the mania.
And we reclaim that power for ourselves.
So true Fiona…and I find when I am present and feeling my body, and not reacting to time ‘pressures’, space seems to open up in whatever I am doing and everything has its own natural order and flow, and so much more can be achieved.
What a wonderful article to share, that is so needed by everyone. We really have made time a tyrant that controls our every thought and action. From the moment we wake up we are often being run by time. When I fall into feeling time pressures my body tells me in no uncertain terms and I don’t feel like me anymore. The thing I have found that works for me to beat the drive created by time is connection with my body, feeling rather than racing ahead with whats next. This feeling of being present and full in my body creates a space and timelessness that allows me to keep doing what needs to be done, but it feels completely different.
I can definitely relate to what you have written here Coleen. As I approach my day today I am very aware of the stress that is running through my body. How will I achieve everything that needs to get done? I can feel the anxiousness building and the thoughts that are constantly feeding my worry about the future, and dragging me away from the presence of being with myself in the moment at hand. Your words are a blessing. A very beautiful and gentle reminder to let go and reconnect to a natural feeling of flow and rhythm that seems to slow time down, put it to a stop, and creates a feeling of spaciousness and ease to walk forward in. Thank you Coleen. You article has changed my day.
Yeah, what you said about the full moon, I have never experienced anything so beautiful as living in cycles e.g. like going to bed early or feeling the full moon and making sure I am very relaxed that day before taking myself quietly to bed. One of my favourite things is to sit on the back porch at the end of the day before bed and listen to the sound of the trees, not that they make a sound necessarily but they have a special feeling that makes me go ‘yeah, I feel snuggly and warm now and I want to climb into bed now’.
Thank-you for your article on time Coleen. I love getting up really early in the morning and I find I also have a lot more time when I stay with my daily rhythms and there is a flow to my day. However I still easily get out of my rhythm when I have people staying and this is still a work in progress for me.
Wow Coleen, this is just gorgeous – in fact it is an everyday miracle. To think that just 10 years ago you couldn’t fall asleep without medication and now you sleep naturally is amazing.
I too have found that it is very beautiful to develop a relationship with my body and live in a way that honours the fact that we live in a rhythm and cycle. I love how you express “Living as a rhythmic being allows me now to observe how I am moment by moment, daily, monthly and yearly. I now see each year as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.” Thank you this blog inspires me to continue deepening my rhythm.
It’s been hugely helpful to be able to remind myself that when I’m feeling the pressure of time, I can remind myself to focus on one thing at a time and simply move on when that current one is complete. It’s been a challenge to not do the multi-tasking that I used to do – I’d get a lot done but it was at my own expense (very exhausting) and the quality of what was done would not have been as it could be had I carried out each job with presence.
Thank you Coleen for this blog, What I get from it is don’t be dependent on time but follow your rhythm and time will become something that’s not that big of an issue. I also feel that a rhythm is something evolving, that will be different each day.
Interesting, the difference between routine and rhythm.
Very cool – I can also relate to feeling like a hamster on a wheel, going nowhere and being a puppet – and feeling like time is playing with you because in some instances you have lots of space and time and you feel guilty and don’t know what to do with it all, and other times where there is so little you are just in overwhelm…. and then there’s no balance.
I can feel how what you have shared with you in your rhythm is like you having space everywhere you go and everything you do so you are ‘you’ going through life, walking your own way instead of tumbling down the walk way as the carpet is pulled out from underneath you. You have built a solid foundation and your foundation is your rhythm, and when all is lost you can always come back to how you look after yourself, doing a loving act for yourself by going to sleep at an early time so you can rest more, eating supportive foods, and also honouring all that you feel.
I am continually refining my relationship with time. What I notice is the times I am totally present with myself the space opens and I have endless time and when I am ‘checked out’, I am squeezed for time.
Gorgeous article Colleen, Thank you. Such a valuable reminder and so beautifully expressed. Managing your time is all the go in nursing and you’re almost considered a ‘bad’ nurse if you can’t. I love playing with the rhythm and flow in my day. I can still get caught (occasionally) in the shift where I am running to catch up with myself mostly, but also the many things that I have left to do. It’s interesting though when I’m working in the flow of my own rhythm, no matter what kind of day that it is, nothing affects me or the day and things that I could get stressed about actually work themselves out. The really lovely thing is that I know there is much more to this, more to learn and discover.
Oh to be a master of time! It still seems to play tricks on me, especially in the morning when I think I’ll just stay in bed for another five minutes – and on looking at the time again in five minutes, twenty has somehow passed!
How inspiring, Coleen!
Finding a deeper rhythm within and moving along that path is something that I also experienced with Universal Medicine and Serge’s presentations. What you added to it, is the wisdom of your lived way in daily life – that is felt in your words and opened me up to feel deeper into the not-yet-known rhythms I am held in. Wow! Thanks. It gives me the sensation of a rhythm deeper than years and lifetimes. I can actually feel a rhythm that holds all of us equally in love. And it invites me to step into it. I have heard Serge Benhayon speaking about it, but till now haven’t felt it so physically. Very yummy!
I so relate Coleen, to feeling time pressured living by the clock and never really focusing on one thing because its nearly this ‘time’ or that ‘time’. I can see when I live like this how many moments I miss truly being with myself and also connecting with family and friends. At the end of the day, living like this I’m totally exhausted and wondering how am I going to do it all again the next day! But when I live by my rhythm, nothing is a big deal or exhausting and everything seems to get done without pushing and rushing. Thank you Coleen I’m inspired to look at my rhythms more.
When I remember to take responsibility for how I deal with a situation through breathing my own breath, when I feel challenged instead of reacting and getting angry or upset the more enjoyable my work days are and the more energy I have when I go home. It also means my colleagues get me and not my anger or frustration and that it is naturally a support to them if they are feeling stressed.
I must admit I’m still battling with the “time pressure”. Your blog is such a lovely reminder to keep coming back to me throughout the day, allowing for those “stop” moments to pause, to breathe gently. So simple but so easy to forget. It’s amazing that when we do just come back, that the “time issue” just disappears. It is only when we put energy towards the pressures of “time” that it has a hold over us. I can feel how by developing those full stop moments and to keep including them in my day whenever I feel held by time, can create space in my body and in my day – to see beyond the illusion that time has a hold over us.
Coleen, I absolute loved your blog. Your message here, it all feels so lovely; ‘I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me’, those words opened me up to the truth of rhythms and how if allowed, our body naturally follows in its own rhythm that flows and supports so there is no pushing or trying.
Gorgeous. I just love this article and all the comments Thank you so much.
Thanks Coleen, for sharing and reminding us of the universal cycles and rythyms at play and how when we align- life becomes a more gentle rhythmic flow rather than the separated man made struggle that the world and our lesser self tries to make us live life or abide to. Go the flow!
Thank you Coleen, this beautiful sharing is a great reminder to us all that within we have a pulse, a rhythm that may be unique to us but when we choose to align and live from this we align to and pulse with the great rhythm of the all.
I love what you have written Kate. When we honour and live according to our inner impulses we naturally “align to and pulse with the great rhythm of the all”. How glorious it would be if all of us chose to live in this way.
Love what you say ” we naturally align to the pulse with the great rhythm of the all”, when we live and honour our own inner impulses.
Love it, we “naturally align to the pulse with the great rhythm of the all, when we honour and live our inner impulses”. So Awesome.
…..and reading your blog, the beauty within which you are and live has washed over me. Your expansion in the world is being felt as you live and breathe – Thank you for the choices you are making of which we all are a part of.
What an amazing insight into the true nature of life and its rhythms and cycles, thank you Coleen.
I too was caught up on the hamster wheel of existing in the world, feeling exhausted all the time and suffering in my body until I was presented a more natural and loving way to find and live by my own natural rhythms by Universal Medicine.
I now have more energy, more clarity, am a lot healthier and, as a bonus, seem to have more time to do all the things that are precious to me.
I too have been a victim of time and have felt the unneccessary stress and strain it has caused in my body. I still have moments where I need to wind back my enthusiasm to fit another job in or take in another task while still completing the one I am on. Exposing the fact that we can only do one thing at a time has been part of this unfoldment back to realising I am a rhythmic being that responds naturally to the cycles of the day, month, year as nature does and not a person solely contained within our man made structure we call time. When the cycles of time itself are embraced it is easier to work within the contraints of our linear made made structures. If I only focus to time ticking away on the clock, all else is lost and then I really do become a victim of time instead of allowing it to work for me and others too.
for a long time I have been like you were Coleen, completely governed by time. I was always looking towards the next thing and still, at times I get fought up in the long to do list that is before me. But I have recently realised how much time I actually lose in thinking about everything that needs to be done and the pressure I allow to come in with that is actually slowing me down more then anything. When I feel it is all too much I tend to hide away and do nothing or many things that are not actually needed at this time. This means I am not in rhythm with myself and my own body. I am learning more and more to simply be very present with myself, allowing for my own rhythm to be and therefore just being with whatever is before me and let the next thing come to me naturally. Work in progress but I can already say….what a difference this makes! What used to be a burden can now be a joy…and what needed to be out of the way so I could have some ‘me’ time… now is ‘me’ time, just the same!
Thank you this is a really lovely reminder Carolien. It is the natural rhythm and gentle pulsing that I feel determines the space I’m in. If I use the tick tock of the clock I loose this and then time flies!
I can so relate to what you have said about the hamster on a wheel. I too use to be very busy and racy but I knew no different as everyone else around me was behaving the same way. I believed to get work done it had to be done in a fast way as this was more efficient. Even though now I live in a more rhythmic and harmonious way It is easy to get caught up in the doing especially at work.
Thank you Coleen for this beautiful sharing, I can totally relate to this deadline oriented way of living. Time seems to be ahead of you and you are never able to catch up. Rhythm and forever deepening self-care has brought me to a way of living where time is coming more and more towards me. We can choose our relationship with time and live joyfully with time and not against it.
Living as a rhythmic being, what a gorgeous and lovely description Coleen. I feel the rhythm in that description itself and I really enjoy the way you outline your process starting with the simplicity of returning to your own breath and it’s gentle quality. An inspiring read.
I am just beginning to learn that I might not always have time for everything and in accepting this, it opened up more time for me to do things as I wasn’t wasting time thinking, about how to do things.
Beautiful, Coleen, thank you for throwing a much needed light on this wrong concept of time that turns us into hamsters on a wheel, forever chasing our own tails. And just when you think you’ve got it, it gets away from you again. We cannot truly beat time, the answer is a rhythmic way of living as you quite rightly say and describe so well; the changes you have made are amazing and the results speak for themselves.
Hamster in the wheel – yep I can so relate to that. I was (and still do) think about my relationship with time and have often in the past wished that I had more of it, or wondered if I am I using as best as I can or should I be doing more with it etc….. But the more I choose to connect to myself – I am also a fan of the gentle breath meditation – and be steady with myself, the less I feel more hamster in the wheel and feel my relationship with time is slowly changing (and for for the better!).
Thank you. What a beautiful reminder. I overslept this morning and was already beginning to feel the overwhelm of my to-do-list of the day when I came across this blog. After the first few paragraphs, I noticed that my eyes were darting ahead of my breath trying to do just as much, so I had to stop, I re-connected back to my own breath, and went back and read from the start again. I Felt so blessed to be reminded of this option. Thank you.
Thanks Coleen for sharing your experience of daily rhythms and the inspiration that came from Serge Benhayon’s presentations. I too, have had trouble with sleeping and I know I am slow to change my old patterns of pushing myself, but I am now aware of the toll this has taken on my physiology. With the support I have been getting from the Universal Medicine practitioners I am now beginning to change some of my old behaviours and can start to see how my sleep patterns are starting to change as well.
Thank you Coleen for sharing. I feel that your metaphor “hamster on a wheel” is quite significant. When we look at it on a larger scale, could we say that “the whole of humanity is treading on the wheel of the world”?
I agree with you Ryoko… “the whole of humanity is treading on the wheel of the world”? We keep spinning going nowhere repeating and repeating our mistakes all in a rush, stress and bother. Before I found Universal Medicine I used to jokingly say to myself..”stop the world turning I want to get off the ride!” The first step for me to come off the spinning wheel was also to “reclaim my natural rhythm by breathing a gentle breath and feel my own naturally gentle energy.” From there all else was possible and whilst I haven’t mastered the invisible tyrant of time, my relationship with it is changing.
‘Rhythmic being’ is a concise description of our most powerful self. I find my own personal sense of rhythm in direct correlation to my commitment to life.
There have been many times in my life where I felt like a prisoner to time, it has only been the last 3 years, thank you to the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, that I have discovered the true power of working with my rhythms to support me in whatever situation I’m in. I can now do my job plus many other projects that I am involved with with ease and flow and feel energized and not a prisoner of time anymore.
I too have been a victim of time, rushing to get things done and ending up exhausted. I was continually running away from myself towards something that I thought would make me a better someone but never really getting anywhere. It was all about me and myself, even though it looked as though I was doing things for others and working efficiently. Now, being more aware of cycles and daily rhythms in my life, I am not running so much on nervous energy which means that I spend more time with me during the day and ironically I am less self-centred and have less need to do things for recognition because I am fulfilled by being me and enjoying doing whatever I do with me. Thanks to Natalie Benhayon for reminding us of rhythms and cycles.
This is inspirational as I was a teacher for three and a half years and gave it away knowing that I couldn’t maintain the pace that I was operating at and something had to give. For me it was the job. To be a teacher who is not running with the pace of the school day and the system is amazing. It was excepted amongst the staff where I worked for us all to be frazzled as the term when on. I thought to myself many times this is crazy and shared this with other staff and they just agreed.
lovely Coleen, I to was a helpless victim of time, I would not have thought living by a rhythm would make such a difference to my life but it has.
Thank you, Coleen, for this beautiful blog, which has brought me much awareness to this illusion we call ‘time’. I loved two comments in particular:
“I simply began to be unaffected by them.”
… because I immediately began to breathe more fully and deeply and be with myself more … and …
“I now see each year as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.”
… because I very much appreciate the longer term perspective which takes the ‘pressure’ off getting one’s rhythm sorted in a week or two!
Thank you again.
Thank you Coleen. The pressure I feel of time is a little more sneaky in its existence but it is there none the less. Your blog has exposed that for me and offered a way for me to work through it. I am keen to learn more about the rhythm as your blog has also exposed how I’m not sure of this rhythm and that there is a lot there for me to work with.
I remember meeting you years ago Colleen when you accepted the fact that you were an insomniac, it is no small thing to overcome this and develop loving rhythms that mean you have no need for medication…its huge so well done and I know how powerful and life changing the gentle breath meditation is presented by Serge Benhayon.
The pace and rhythm of your article allowed me to feel that rhythm you write about Coleen, and the connection to each other and the universe, very very beautiful thank you
Thanks for reminding me of how simple things are. And this is such an awesome example of how its never to late to make changes in out lives. 10 years of seeping pills! And you just changed your breath and your rhythm! How come the doctor that prescribed you the sleeping pills – or the pharmacist that sold them too you for TEN YEARS never asked if there was anything else that was possible for you to get off them!?
Really awesome blog, and I am sure so many can relate to the ‘hamster on the wheel’ lifestyle.
This offers a completely different perspective.
A perspective that allows us to connect to ourselves, and work with time from a completely different angle.
Your description of your self as a rhythmic being in a rhythmic world set me on fire Coleen. Such a beautiful way to express who we naturally are.
You have offered the practical, step by step guide to any person (woman or man) who would choose to feel their innate rhythm again. What is so beautiful is that we don’t have to go somewhere to get it. It is there inside us all the while, all it needs to flourish is for us to make gentle choices.
This is gold:
“By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.”
We are human and we are so much more. Your blog opens a door to the truth of that.
Rhythm is one of those words I never really understood, but if I look at how I live it makes sense… Looking up the definition it means a marked or measured flow. So how does my day flow? How does my relationship with myself flow? What quality is this flow? Sitting here pondering on these questions doesn’t feel pleasant, however it is great chance to stop and be honest.
Our relationship with time tells us so much about where we are at, how we are doing and whether we are running our own show or letting life run it for us.
Time is 100% relative, it expands seemingly and reduces. It is our relationship with ourselves that is reflected with our relationship with time.
Only yesterday I gained a deeper understanding of the word Momentum, that is, that the quality of one moment determines the quality of the next. So I guess if we watch the clock then we are always looking to the next moment, never catching up.
The visual I get with the hamster on the wheel is that we don’t actually get anywhere, we run a marathon and exhaust ourselves but never catch up or finish the race.
I do love this article so much and showing that one need no longer be a victim of time but instead be a manager of it is amazing for everyone to feel. With the ever increasing stress levels in the world living lovingly really does make a difference.
Great to feel here how it’s all about the rhythms and cycles of the body, not time. Then the pressures all fade away.
Yesterday I noticed something a little sneaky about how time plays its part in my life: whilst very aware of the pull into anxiety when I let time govern how I approach my day, there are still times when I find myself ‘holding my breath’ until something is over (a hangover from school maybe, watching the clock tick interminably round until break time). This feels awful as I try not to be wherever I am, therefore missing the opportunities in every moment to learn and evolve. Thank you, Coleen and all those who have commented, for providing this forum for honesty and change.
Thank you Coleen for reminding me of the rhythms and cycles that our bodies are designed to live in. It feels awful when I get ‘trapped in time’, trying finish my to do list and I am busy in my mind with the next point on the list while working on the current item. What I really enjoy about living in rhythms and cycles is the fact that every day, moon, year etc. provides me with the opportunity to deepen my relation with these rhythms and cycles and what they can bring me. What a grace to life they are and it is really joyful when I am fully connected living them.
‘It feels awful when I get ‘trapped in time’, trying finish my to do list and I am busy in my mind with the next point on the list while working on the current item.’ – Very well said, I can relate to this feeling a lot!
In the past couple of days, I have noticed that despite being quite busy, I have followed my rhythm and had plenty of time. Instead of focussing on all the ‘to do’ things, I focussed more on how I was feeling, and took time out to exercise and connect to me and there has felt much less strain on my body. Letting go of the time restraints and deadlines really works.
It’s amazing how time and work pressures creates such a strain on our bodies that it affects everything, how we are with ourselves, how we eat, how we are with others and our sleep.
I agree Susan, I know for one if I am stressed out or feeling the pressure, usually by not allowing myself the space and time to get things done in my own rhythm, I end up feeling exhausted and the quality of my presence, e.g how I speak, move, think, express is deeply affected, also I know there is the tendency to reach for foods that would keep me going rather than be deeply nutritious. I also find my sleep affected as I tend to take on more stuff, allowing myself to get affected by what’s going on around me when I’m stressed out.
‘I no longer felt a victim of time and deadlines or indeed, a manager of them. I simply began to be unaffected by them.’ I love this – letting go of the to do lists and the push to get everything done because, simply, there are always things to be done – we never finish. The key is to go to bed satisfied that that day is finished and to have a nourishing sleep that prepares us for whatever life brings the next day.
I agree Carmel, letting go of the ‘to do’ lists frees up so much energy and I have noticed that my sleep quality is improving the more complete my day is by my staying present with myself and what I am doing in that moment.
Ahhhhhh “nourishing sleep” is such a beautiful balm, Carmel.
All of nature lives in humble respect of its own rhythmic cycles. Perhaps by living outside of our natural cycles, we lose connection with the fact that we are a part of nature too and as such have a place amongst the greater rhythm of life.
What a lovely reflection Shami. Had a momentary smile to myself picturing animals wearing watches, looking at weather forecasts, and all the other paraphernalia which we, claiming ourselves to be the intelligent species, have developed whilst unlike animals, we have lost our own connection to nature and to ourselves.
I love this cartoon-like description of the – “…..animals wearing watches, looking at weather forecasts, and all the other paraphernalia……”. It certainly looks as if we have been ‘developing’ in the wrong direction far, far away from the truth of the connection to nature and to ourselves.
I agree Shami, it feels so amazing and so natural to be part of a bigger rhythm in life. I know for one if I am out of my my natural rhythm my body feels tense and stressed out, whereas when I am in my natural rhythm, there is a flow, an ease and a simplicity in all I do and how I feel.
So true, chasing and being a victim of time does not work at all and for everything that gets ticked off the ‘to do’ list there are at least two or three new things being added to it. It was in those moments that I got to feel that slavishly ticking things off the list was a purely mental satisfaction and to the detriment of how I feel- and contrary to how much I can actually do in a day. It was a never-ending cycle of exhaustion and slavish obedience to an unquestioned task master called time when rhythm, as Coleen and many others expand on it, is the real answer.
Yes, indeed Gabriele. At what cost to our bodies do we become slaves to time, and why do we not question how bad it makes us feel to be run by a never ending to do list?
Couldn’t agree more Janet, I have found that my ‘to do’ list has dropped away and that now if something that day is ‘a must’ that’s not in my usual order of things, I’ll jot it down and leave it next to my computer to remind myself.
So true, Gabriele, that the only satisfaction in ticking off the “to do ” list is a mental satisfaction and, most assuredly, many more then pop up to replace the one you have ticked!
‘Re-connecting with rhythm was like finding the most essential part of me’ I loved this sentence and could relate to it very much. If only this was taught in schools and workplaces – that being rhythmical beings is our natural way.
So no more spilling out of bed in the same panic and overwhelm that we take to bed the night before. No more ineffectual tail chasing whilst nothing actually gets done. Letting go of my attachment and over-focus on time has created an ever expansive spaciousness that is remarkable and liberating.
Beautifully expressed Matilda – my attachment to time is diminishing and the awareness of the ‘ever expansive spaciousness’ you mention is deepening within me every day.
That’s lovely, “a purposeful rhythm that supports us in our day”. I find that when I lose this and try to rush and force something, there is invariably something left not quite complete and I get to feel the consequence of it one way or another, later. But when I am in my rhythm and therefore with the overall rhythm, it all completes and there is greater space for the next and I am also more prepared and open for what is to come.
I know all about that hampster on a wheel existence which I also lived for many years, which only created a constant misery and struggle with life. I have also developed a rhythm that deeply supports me, especially the going to bed early rhythm which means I waken well before the alarm, have more energy, feel better in my skin and like you, it is now a pleasure to ‘live in’ my body.
I love this blog – I agree, time is such an illusion – shown in the fact that every day is the same (it ‘starts’ with a sunrise and ‘ends’ with a sunset, which is really just a cycle), it is us who changes what we do and the quality that we do it in each day.
I love this Jessica – the illusion of a day that – “‘starts’ with a sunrise and ‘ends’ with a sunset..” Time is less of a perceived tyrant as I give myself permission to feel this whole rhythm in the cycle of a day, every day.
Very true Jessica, the 24 hour cycle doesn’t change, it’s the same one that’s been going on for millennia, it’s our choices that lead us to believe that time is not on our side. As you say, it’s what we do and how we do it that makes all the difference.
I love this Tim: “it’s our choices that lead us to believe that time is not on our side”
This is very inspiring Coleen, thank you. I particularly love the simplicity of taking a gentle breath offering a different choice in stressful situations. I find myself using my breath more and more to stay ‘in rhythm’ and it works wonders – as you have expressed.
“….the truth my body revealed, indicated that I was exhausting myself with my breathless and compulsive ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence.” I for one can so relate to this form of existence – I couldn’t call it living. Nowadays, having made simple lifestyle changes, life is much more fun and if I choose to stay with me in all I do – with all that I am – then time no longer wins out. A natural rhythm makes much more sense than the continual anxiousness of there not being enough time to complete my tasks.
Great Rosanna – “No discord or nothing to compete against” – I have just realised how competitive being against time has been for me over the years – it was always the ‘winner’!
Awesome insight, Stephanie: yes, you’re right: it does feel like a competition between ourselves and time when we ‘take time on,’ so to speak. I had not considered it from that angle until now. So, in part, it’s all about that old consciousness of winning and losing…..again! It appears in so many guises that one.Thank you for the revelation.
Now with the new year almost starting, time is really a ‘thing’. Like we postpone everything for the new year, and these last days of this year don’t really count anymore and we can just do whatever we want. Because in the new year, then….But for me, time has become more a moment, cherishing this moment and knowing that I don’t have to wait for the almost ‘magical’ new year, but that every moment is important. I don’t have to wait for the first of January to start with, for instance to stop eating unhealthy things, because it feels like fooling myself. I can make that choice now, because this moment is just as important as all the moments that will follow.
So true Mariette – “I can make that choice now, because this moment is just as important as all the moments that will follow”. So simple, yet so utterly powerful.
“I still work in a very busy profession but I have learned to take moments to re-connect with my rhythms. No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures.”
A great reminder Colleen of the importance of taking those moments to re-connect. Thank you.
How often do we override, by looking at the time and saying it is too early despite the fact that we are exhausted and wanting to go to bed? How mad is it to override what we know because we have embedded ideals about right and wrong times to do things? I remember the moment that I stopped wearing a watch and the awe I still feel about how natural and effective our rhythm can be if we are not dictated to by an external barometer.
“Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.” This is really beautifully written, Coleen, and captures the essence of a way of living that to me feels extremely liberating.
Yes, I agree with youSusan. This feels like a solid foundation for the rhythms to be naturally lived – “It’s not about going slow either, more like a purposeful rhythm that supports us in our day”.
Love your comment about being in our rhythm not being about ‘going slow’
When we live in and from our natural, inner-most rhythm, time begins to work WITH us and no longer AGAINST us; and thus, we are given all of the time we require to get everything which we need to do, done.
Ah yes, to be in rhythm means there can be no discord, or nothing to compete against.
Rosanna and Connor it really is so simple when you share it like that . . . work in accordance to your own rhythm and in turn it will work in accordance with the universe, the natural rhythm of life. Connecting to the creating source of life which is what we are made of; you can’t deny the Oneness that pulses in and through us and time is inconsequential.
Conor I can relate to that too, I have been experiencing the same. I work in the hospitality industry and this time of the year is our busiest, however I have stayed with my rhythm and time has really worked with me.
It’s incredible to read that you were able to quit your sleep medication just by making a committed change to your rhythms of sleep. I wonder how many medications could be discarded and quality of life improved just by making choices that support us in this way. Medication can be a real support but it feels that in your example, this should never be at the expense of taking part in our own self care.
So true Stephen. Medications have their place for a healing support to the self nurturing and self care that can come first. A commitment to a change of rhythm can change so much in our lives.
Time’s hold on humanity is epidemic. Whilst many of us are hooked on life being about ever increasing speed, we are struggling even more to fit everything in. I too have found that being in a strong rhythm with my day and being present with every single task has really helped me cure that ill. To spend time on each task as the only one that is important in that moment brings a joy to what I am doing and I can feel time opens up to me, creating space which allows me to complete what is needed.
I was talking with a friend today and we were discussing how commitment to our life and work seemed to open up time. It occurs to me reading your comment here that the commitment to the things we do in life requires a presence – which in itself opens up space and time.
Great comment Rosanna. When I am in full presence doing a task I am often surprised at the end if I look at the clock to see how little time it has taken me. On the other hand, being in my head and doing things, I always seem to run out of time.
Well said, Rosanna. I also love how space opens up the more I commit to being present with each task, and not living in the past or the future.
It sure does Rosanna, and it really is extraordinary, with no magical tricks – even though at the time you are blown away by the simplicity of it. The more I bring focus to what I do (presence) and not get caught up in what I need to do, it is a lot more spacious and everything seems to flow.
What an awesome blog to start my week with and to be reminded that all I need to do is trust my rhythm and enjoy being with myself in everything that I do.
I love what you have shared Natalie, “all I need to do is trust my rhythm and enjoy being with myself in everything that I do.” so true and feels so joyful and complete.
What a glorious and simple way of putting it Natalie. It cuts out all the noise and clutter of trying to do this and that. Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, just trust my rhythm and enjoy being with myself – awesome.
Beautifully said, Natalie. It really can be as simple as this.
If I am chasing my tail trying to outwit time then I am not free and open to prioritise effectively through the day as things come up. I am locked in a race of to do lists with each new task coming in as a burden and stress exacerbator. This is nuts and perpetual. I have found that the way out of this pattern is to be prepared, develop a supportive rhythm in my day, and be super present with everything I do so that I am only doing what I am doing (not bouncing around in my head with all else there is to be done). When I come to the end of one thing I am ready to pick up the next. Life coming to me rather than me chasing around trying to grab at it.
I love your comments Matilda – they always say everything I would like to express too!
Certainly when not ‘bouncing around in my head’ and just being present with what is in front of me, my day takes on an almost magical quality of expansion where so much more is worked through without the chasing tail syndrome! Yes, I agree – Life coming to me rather than me chasing around trying to grab at it.
Stephanie, and Matilda, your comments allow me to feel the expansiveness of this. Rather than being constricted by time, all the time we create space to be fully present with each thing we do. Awesome!
I love your comment Matilda. Let life come to me instead of me chasing around trying to grab it. It makes sense. And its so true that chasing my tail rushing around makes me miss out on prioritising matters to be dealt with that may be more important than my list of things to do.
Thanks to your comments Matilda, Debra and Coleen regarding ‘tails’ and ‘hamsters’ – there is now an instant cartoon-like picture arising of ‘chasing my tail’ in ever decreasing circles or the ‘hamster on a wheel’ relentlessly pounding away, whenever I allow an energy of busyness and rushing around to come into my day. It makes me laugh and brings me to a stop and your shining faces are before me. What a beautiful reminder to return to being rather than doing. Thank you!
I love what you write here Matilda. I know when I stop ‘bouncing around in my head’ but stay ‘super present’ I’m often surprised at how little time has passed and how there’s space.
Ditto that for me too. Making a choice to be focused and present has made such a difference and allowed me to feel what else will support me – like turning off my email notifications on my computer and phone; an amazing difference. I then go to check my emails when it feels right to me, rather than always being in response which would then often lead to me reacting!
A powerful insight mmryan37 – “Making a choice to be focused and present has made such a difference and allowed me to feel what else will support me – like turning off my email notifications on my computer and phone; an amazing difference. I then go to check my emails when it feels right to me, rather than always being in response which would then often lead to me reacting!”
I realise I have given no attention to how these constant ‘sound signals’ during the day keep pulling me away from the present moment, a subtle distraction, even if for a few seconds, which can totally interrupt my rhythm and presence with what I am working with…..the sound beckons to satisfy a curiosity that my mind wants the answer to. Today, I will be following your example and turning off the notifications and really feel the difference this brings to my day! What a gift you bring – Thank you!
Beautiful, Matilda. This really turns the common way of dealing with a full life on its head. We are sold the version of life in which we must get out there and make things happen, chase down opportunities, multi-task etc. I read in an article recently that a recent study from Stanford University on multi-tasking showed that people who multi-task ended up doing things less well than they would have had they just done things one at a time. Not only that, but it showed that multi-tasking reduces our ability to filter out what is irrelevant and had an effect on IQ scores! So, basically, doing too many things at once, not developing a relationship with doing things at the time that they are to be done, means that we are not present with any of them, including ourselves!
Naren, thank you for sharing the recent study from Stanford University on multi-tasking – this is so true – when focussing on whatever I am with in the moment, rather than letting my mind be off seeking and looking for what it wants to stack up for me, to add to the list of what must-be-done attitudes, is such a joyful place to be with my body; without being exhausted by the end of the afternoon.
‘So, basically, doing too many things at once, not developing a relationship with doing things at the time that they are to be done, means that we are not present with any of them, including ourselves!”
Naren, interesting to hear about the article on Multi-tasking. In today’s world, Multi-tasking is glorified, celebrated. I have definitely fallen for the wonder-mum image, that is so readily admired by our driven society, only to feel exhausted and resentful. There is no joy, no ceremony, no appreciation in juggling 3/4 jobs at once. When a task is done with presence there is completion, freedom to begin the next without rush or complication.
I can really relate to that Matilda.
I thought time hated me. I wanted to do lots and get the most out of my days but with “everything bouncing around my head” I was stressed and not very productive; things I had done in a rush eventually needed to be done properly later causing more delay. The more I improve my rhythm the more I feel the priorities clearly and keep the stress at bay, and I am so much more productive – and so… I have more mastery over time.
I love what you have written here ‘life coming to me rather than me chasing around trying to grab at it’.
This is a great comment Matilda and gives us great insight into how we can keep things very simple and actually enjoy ourselves in each moment. Living in our heads and always thinking of the next issue, task and etc, stops us from just being ourselves.
It is good to be reminded of the ‘hamster in a wheel existence’ that was the daily pattern of my life, and to reflect on how much I have changed since embracing the Gentle Breath Meditation as part of my daily routine.
Time is a powerful concept and we can either allow it to rule our lives in a way that does not support us or those with whom we share this planet, or we can honour each moment we are given and allow time to support our way of living.
It’s great to honour each moment Susan. It is teaching me to appreciate the little things that contribute so much to the joy in my life, that I used to miss as I raced against time on that endless wheel.
I agree Susan – Bringing a ‘stop’ within my day to just breath in gentleness and be still for a few moments can completely de-base any rushing energy I may have got caught up in. Everything then feels ‘fresh and new’ by re-establishing a relationship with my rhythm and foundation within my body, ready to move with what is in front of me, rather than getting ahead of myself with further time pressures.
‘Reconnecting with rhythm was like finding the most essential part of me’. I completely agree Alison, this has been my experience too, my daily rhythm really supports me to feel well and vital.
Thank you Coleen, I have yet to feel the profound rhythms, but I sense that I will when I begin to master time.
This is a super supportive and revelatory piece of writing. Thank you. I have forever rushed through life trying to outwit time, only to find out that at this game, time is always one step ahead. I am ever more developing a relationship with life that is about rhythm, preparation and steadiness, that has me ready for anything, with a clarity about priorities, and open to what each day brings.
Well said Matilda – I relate totally to trying for years to outwit time. It just puts so much pressure in life, constantly on attempted ‘catchup’ which is impossible – rather like – how long is a piece of string?
This sentence has touched me deeply as it confirms that every step we take to honour our natural rhythms is key to debasing the hold time has over our lives: “I am ever more developing a relationship with life that is about rhythm, preparation and steadiness, that has me ready for anything, with a clarity about priorities, and open to what each day brings”.
I too have felt I was a slave to time wanting to cram as many tasks as I could in my day. Now my attitude to time has changed to an effect that my days feel more spacious as I refine again and again my relationship with time.
Very inspirational blog and a great reminder to me on the difference between time and rhythm. It feels like being a victim of time is like dancing to a tune that is outside of our bodies where as living in rhythm is like dancing to a tune within our bodies, a tune that comes from within ourselves.
I love this Andrew – the dance of time being outside of us and the flow of rhythm being within us.
Great comment, Andrew. I know which tune I prefer to dance to – responding to what is going on within our bodies keeps us in touch with what is true for us, but also we can then feel everything around us.
This is an inspiring comment Andrew. I like the idea of dancing to my own tune, which of course means dancing to my own inner rhythm and not one dictated from the outside.
I agree Andrew – this blog is certainly a “great reminder to me on the difference between time and rhythm”
“By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.” This is a wonderful statement – isn’t it amazing that we have these tiny concepts of time yet if we stop and feel how grand the universe is – we are a part of the ALL. The games that we play with time from the personal to the societal pressures we have – develop faster, sooner, quicker – it is obvious to see that we are quite literally chasing our tails to get somewhere when the universe has never asked of us more than to just be…
We all get locked in to the world today. Must get things done NOW. No we do not, we can think: is that important or can it wait? When we push ourselves too much, think what it is doing to the body. Take time to do the Gentle Breath meditation and clear the mind and then know you are ready for what is ahead.
Yes, well said Mike.
I love your blog, and all of the comments are really supportive as I make changes from being a victim to time, and become aware of my rhythms.
I too have loved re reading this and I am always surprised by how hard and complicated I make things instead of just taking care of the breath and how I am choosing to breathe!
So beautifully and simply expressed Vanessa, thank you for the timely reminder of this reflection –
“…how hard and complicated I make things instead of just taking care of the breath and how I am choosing to breathe!”
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It sounds so simple to just take a few minutes to stop and pay attention to breathing, particularly if time appear to be short, however I have experienced the huge difference those few minutes before I start the car for example can make…and it has never made me late.
Thanks for sharing this Vanessa. I too have chosen to use how I am breathing as a way to connect to myself and my own rhythm. It gives me a moment to stop and check in on how I am feeling. Its a great way to stop the rushing energy I can get stuck in.
Re-reading this has got me thinking about my own rhythms in life and what could I do to change the quality within said rhythms. Thank you, Coleen.
It was beautiful to reconnect with your blog again – in particular ‘By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.’ When I am not connected I now know that all I need to do is to come back to the gentle breath and then I can connect to all the love and wisdom that is offered to us by way of the cycles and rhythms of life. Life can be as simple as I choose it to be.
So true Susan, feeling my rhythm in line with the moon is starting to make sense to me. I can feel the build up to the full moon, even when I’ve forgotten when it is. Understanding the connection between cycles and rhythms of life are helping me maintain my connection with myself.
I am feeling this too Gill – “Understanding the connection between cycles and rhythms of life are helping me maintain my connection with myself.
The Full Moon cycle is a great example – and now I really feel the build up beforehand too.
Susan,how beautiful it is that we now know how to come back and connect to ourselves just by the simple gentle breath. This then allows us to connect to the love and wisdoms available to us all equally.
I love this Coleen thank you. I am loving and appreciating the rhythms in my life; their importance, the appreciation of time, its reflections and the space I feel when respecting this. Thank you for highlighting this as it brings such an appreciation for time, life and its cycles for us all.
I notice how I can pull myself out of presence and my rhythm by looking at the time and thinking “oh no I have to be there by that time”. Or thinking about how much I have to do “oh no look at how much I have to fit into a certain amount of time”. This is slowly changing and I am catching myself quicker and allowing myself to come back to my own natural beautiful rhythm.
Good call Natalie – This happens to me too – clock watching really narrows down the ‘timeline’ and being present expands the day. Sounds weird, but so true!
So True Kevin – I feel this too as I am bringing more presence to every moment, which is bringing change to my perceptions of time – “there is no bounds to what is there to discover with rhythms and cycles”.
Kevin, Stephanie – that’s a great way to look at it. As being a rhythmic being feels exactly like you are part of everything, either with the flow or against the flow and always affecting everything. I notice when I am in a supportive rhythm, there seems endless amounts of time to do what is needed.
Thanks Coleen, I love the idea of being a rhythmic being, it kind of makes you feel like your part of everything, which we are of course. I really like how you said that you have a profound sense that there are yet more rhythms to unfold and cycles with which to engage as it makes me feel there is no bounds to what is there to discover with rhythms and cycles.
I agree Kevin – by being in a rhythm, I feel much more connected to everything else.
Being stressed or time pressured completely takes me out of that – it is almost like time is what I know can keep me from my rhythm – It is great to understand this so it helps me take a step back before I get caught up!
Indeed Kevin, feeling that we are part of rhythms and cycles is very humbling. The self just melts and disappears.
Looking at time in the sense that we are time and that we move with it has changed the way I live, from playing ‘catch up’ throughout the day, to a more balanced day of activity and rest, motion and stillness. There is distinct rhythm to it.
The “invisible tyrant” you speak of no longer controls me.
I love that most of the time, I no longer need an alarm to wake up. It used to wake me from a deep sleep with a sudden noise that was so loud; if I had it quieter, I would sleep through it. Now, because I go to bed earlier when I am tired, I wake up naturally when my body is fully rested and it is so gentle and lovely. This allows me to feel into the day and not let time rule me, but to go with my rhythm.
Yes, Gill – the alarm clock used to feel like a tyrant too, with its loud sound jangling the nervous system, to awaken me. Years ago, when working with a team on shift work we all used to call it ‘alarm clock neurosis’ – especially when going from a very late to early shift, the precious hours of sleep were sabotaged by continually keeping an eye on the clock in case you overslept and were late in for the early shift, made worse by the lack of rhythm for preparation for sleep – so tired after the late shift and the drive home, necessary ablutions and falling into bed for a fitful sleep ready for the off early morning and that terrible feeling of overwhelm, rush and panic if having overslept with the ‘time tyrant’ crushing in on you!
I love having no alarm clock these days – my body just naturally awakening early and ready for the day.
I deeply appreciated the presentations from Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine, that I have attended over the past 6 years that have changed my awareness with regard to time (continually so!) and how different my approach to shift work would have been then – far more nurturing and respectful of the body and less misuse of my nervous system.
I used to feel that ‘spontaneous’ was the way to be…I imagined it took the magic out of life to have a routine or rhythm. This was reflected in my relationships, lifestyle, eating, work, you name it. I used to occasionally make longer term plans but made sure there was lots of flexibility for ‘spontaneous’ moments! However, I have been finding a new way to be which involves connecting with my body and its cycles and what is necessary to support me to feel well and vital. I am planning time for my self, with friends and my husband etc to ensure the time is of quality and not rushed. It feels good to experience this but I am still learning. It feels like my past lack of connection to my rhythm and cycles was to do with my lack of self worth and now that I am developing this I am aware how supportive rhythm can be for well being. Thank you for sharing.
I can resonate with what you share here Samantha about spontaneity and rhythms and agree fully with your sentence – ” It feels like my past lack of connection to my rhythm and cycles was to do with my lack of self worth and now that I am developing this I am aware how supportive rhythm can be for well being”. Thank you to everyone – there is so more expansion in my awareness from the blogs and all the comments.
Thank you for this blog, it is a great reminder to live rhythmically instead of fighting against the rhythm. It has been my experience that when I am fighting against it, I get anxious and make mistakes at work but when I am in the flow my work improves and things get done quicker and are easier.
Thank you Coleen, I loved reading this over again and reminding myself to appreciate my rhythms and their importance.There is a joy in this, and also of creating time by being with myself – and I am loving the feeling of this extra space and time that comes from this way of being too!
When I think of all the books I’ve read on time management, and the stressful ‘hamster-wheel’ existence I have had most of my life, there is a great big ‘aha’ as I realise we have all been trying to control time and that we are approaching our busy lives from a perspective that will never work. Instead, by living in and with a rhythm that respects and supports our body, we can create space where we can do more each day, and feel great.
Yes time is obviously a big issue in the world today, the number of books on how to make the most of time says it all. I’m exploring this and it feels like time is actually not something that is ticking away out there but is very much part of us, our presence and our rhythm.
Absolutely Carmel when you look at how the world is set up and the supporting techniques in the many books out there it is incredible. But when you look at the state of the worlds health and the increase in illness and disease could this all be connected in some way? I feel that it does have a part to play and it is refreshing to read this blog and comments that share how making a way of living that supports and honours your rhythm is awesome. I feel the responsibility of how I live is vital to my health and wellbeing, learning to observe my body and bring awareness to what it is telling me – I have come to feel what a difference it makes in the way I feel. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and the ageless wisdom that he presents I have had the opportunity and the support to make these changes, this I am deeply grateful for.
This is a very inspiring blog Coleen. I love the way you go to the “first step in reclaiming my natural rhythm was to breathe a gentle breath” – I agree, by noticing the qualities of the rhythm of our in-breath and out-breath, there is so much we can understand about how we are and our relationship with ourselves and to time.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” There is definitely a song in this! Thank you again Coleen for reminding us of this beautiful fact.
Thank you Coleen! I am finding this blog so great to read over again – a lovely reminder and a support when getting caught up in time issues to just bring myself back to conscious presence, to choose and enjoy the spaciousness that is always there.
The full moon cycle is such a great tool in measuring how things are going and I am finding out more and more how important daily rhythms are.
Exactly Kevin – especially this last one!
“Time is now my instrument” – It is beautiful how you have claimed yourself back from the mastery that time has had over you. It is also beautiful that by allowing yourself to become aware of the rythms in your body and in nature at large you have begun to accept that you are a part of these rythms naturally and can live them naturally. Undoing the habits and impositions we have put on ourselves to mask this and disconnect us from our true selves ironically seems to give us time not take time as we would normally assume.
“Time is now my instrument” – yes Elaine, I agree with you – it does feel ironic that mastering this brings us more spaciousness and there are less pressures of time! It is something I am slowly but surely changing in my daily living by choosing a deeper level of conscious presence with my body and more awareness with the natural rhythms that support the process.
Yes, there is a strange irony in how it works – we have all really been deluded by the mental concept of time.
I have really appreciated reading your article today Coleen. I was thinking about all the things I had to do in a certain amount of time instead of staying with my rhythm. Thank you for this reminder.
I have enjoyed re reading your article Coleen. It offers so much, I am inspired to be more aware of my rhythms and my relationship with time.
The rhythm you live can be felt in the rhythm of your writing Coleen. So still, so honouring, so sacred. A beautiful reflection which has come to me at the perfect moment and has been deeply supportive. Thank you.
I am honoured, Lucy. Thank you.
It was great to learn about the full moon cycle for men. I have always been aware and connected to the cycles of nature, having worked outside most of my life. Now I understand that they affect me on a much deeper level.
Yes this blog is very inspiring. It is a lovely reminder of how we can stay in our own rhythm no matter what challenges come our way. I am beginning to experience this as my commitment to myself deepens, and it feels amazing to deal with life without getting caught up in it.
What you have said Rebecca resonates with me too – a reminder to stay in my rhythm no matter what challenges come my way. Yes, It works when I remember to deal with life without getting caught up in it! As I work with my rhythms, my life is changing from ‘hamster in the wheel’ to being in the flow of life, one day at a time. Life is much simpler with this understanding.
What an awesome blog, and very much needed to be shared. The way I have lived like the ‘hamster in the wheel’ has a very deliberate outcome with stress and overwhelm being in the forefront. The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time – and the more I develop my relationship with me. It is absolutely the way forward to arrest the way I was choosing to run my life, and now I really allow my knowing and being to be in the forefront – and it is a completely different outcome.
A couple of unexpected ‘curve balls’ came my way yesterday and it I was able to remain in a rhythm and deal with them from the connection with my body rather than getting caught up in the old way of anxiousness and lack of time. I continue to be inspired by your blog Coleen!
What an inspiring blog – inspires me to be more connected to my body and really feel the rhythms that I am in.
I love re-reading your blog Coleen – so many beautiful reminders.
I have spent most of my life being dictated to by time and it is so exhausting fighting it!
Staying present with my body in whatever I am working with certainly has changed my perspective on time and there is more spaciousness within my day, which is now supporting and bringing more awareness of natural rhythms and cycles in my life.
Thank you, Stephanie.
My relationship with time feels like it is in its final throws and time is indignantly bleating about how well it has served me for so long – being efficient, organised, list orientated and so busy. But my body is saying, ‘Enough, this does not have to be a battle, just build a rhythm and relationship with me, and time ceases to exist. Prepared for every moment, by this rhythm, you are spacious as life comes to you’.
I love that ‘time is indignantly bleating’ for you, Matilda. An apt, yet playful description of what is occurring- it feels like fun.
Thanks Matilda, from your comment, I realise my relationship with time is also changing. A great reminder to confirm the changes that we experience to embody and then live them consistently.
“By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time”… I love this so much and living with rhythms, introduced to me by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, has transformed my life and added a real dimension and a feeling of deep contentment and allowing of life in all that happens. Thank you Coleen for this beautiful sharing.
Time has been my invisible tyrant too. Most of my life I have been playing “catch up” and trying to keep on top of things. Since attending presentations by Serge and Natalie Benhayon, I felt inspired to look at my relationship with time . Since introducing daily and monthly rhythms into my life, I now have a healthier relationship with time.
Oh Elizabeth, what a game ‘catch up’ was! I played it often, and needless to say, never won. Now, if something doesn’t get done, it says to me that it wasn’t the right time for it, and when it is the right time for it, it will happen naturally.
Thanks so much for this blog Colleen, the importance of rhythm in our lives is huge and you cover a lot in a short amount of time.
I love the phrase ‘a living, rhythmic being’. So often I’ve operated myself like a machine, forcing myself to stay awake, pushing to keep going when I should stop, truly ignoring my body’s clear messages and disregarding its real honesty. There’s something about reconnecting to our natural rhythm, those ‘cycles that are greater than me’ that enables everything to get done with ease and flow, without all the anticipation, anxiety and effort that accompanies our need to feel we’re in control of time. The key for me was to acknowledge I was part of a larger rhythm, one that’s natural and harmonious and not fight it with an arrogance that believed I was more or above it. Observe it, respect it and it works. Meddle within it or think you are exempt from it and you are in discordance. Simple and logical really. When you can live according to it, the freedom from the way life just flows is remarkable – and well worth the leap of faith.
So beautifully put Cathy ‘observe it, respect it and it works.Meddle with it or think you are exempt from it and you are in discordance’. I for one would choose harmony over discordance, and the number of times life has shown me how it all just flows when you do is testament to that.
Yes, that is an awesome observation, Catherine – ” think you are exempt from it” feels huge. Is that what is occurring generally in Society at large, I wonder?
Very well said Cathy.
Lovely comment, Cathy. I can really feel your surrender to being a part of grander rhythms, and the freedom from the narrow constricts of making life about me, myself and I. It is wonderful to read all the various comments about how supportive and joyful it is to live according to rhythms rather than in a linear drive.
Beautifully expressed Cathy. There is a natural flow and it’s so easy to push hard against it, think you’re not party to it, but in all this unawareness we create obstacles for ourselves and others, when in fact the path could be so smooth.
Indeed Cathy, I love the surrendering to a bigger rhythm and the trust it brings that all is in fact in order…..
Well expressed Cathy. Thank you!
Thank you Coleen for a very inspiring article. You show how making those small changes and listening to your body brought you to your rhythm and a flow to your life. I am developing this with my body and life and am finding the benefits it brings to me also has an effect on others. I have found the Gentle Breath meditation presented by Serge Benhayon very helpful and supportive with this.
That’s very cool, Mary.
There is a quote that states, “Many people accept time poverty as a necessary condition of employment”. Great that you have felt neither to accept that nor to leave your job, but redefine your relationship with time…and you.
Thank you Colleen for this beautiful blog on a topic relevant to so many people. You bring a whole new idea into all the time-management tips that are given to us by introducing us being part of a rhythm and living according to that.
Hi Monika & Ariana. The next question will most probably look like, ” WHY has time management never looked like this?” Hmmmmmm………
Agreed Ariana – Absenteeism would dwindle to very low percentages too.
I agree Monika, I love this blog because of the practical elements in there that make what is being shared easy to try and feel for myself how it works for me – especially with my exams at the moment, time management is a must.
I agree Ariana. I have found that it is the ‘stop’ moments that create more space in the day – and the rush and stress feelings rob you of time. Interesting but true.
Indeed, Ariana. This blog blows time management techniques out of the water. What a different workplace it would be if the focus was on working in a rhythm towards a common goal rather than stressful deadlines and competition.
Absolutely Ariana and imagine the fun and enjoyment work can be when we bring this approach not just to the work place but all area’s of life… letting go of the tick tock!
Yes, Jane, ‘time management’ is an extraordinarily common phrase within my profession and, indeed, in other jobs in which I worked prior to teaching. A common sharing among professionals is how to manage time more efficiently and proficiently and people experience great relief when there is a sharing of how to ‘save 5 minutes’ doing this or that task. Whilst these tips are most welcome in the heat of a stressful day or week, long term they keep our focus off the fact that we are all ignoring the truth of our rhythmical natures. Yet, as all here are sharing, once we find our rhythm, there is truly only one choice to be made for most of us…..
Thank you for highlighting this point for discussion, Jane.
Time management is a huge issue, a big business and the blog is great at debunking the whole thing. We choose to be victims but there is another way – and Coleen provides a great opportunity to see a different way altogether.
For me its been the re-introduction to the full moon cycle that has had a profound effect on my rhythms, because of the longer time period. As the moon grows each month I am paying attention, there is an expectancy that builds in the last couple of days before, and then a deep sensitivity I feel when its full… it presents an opportunity to go deeper inside myself and each time I find a little bit more of me. Other times, when I am over tired or stressed that sensitivity can be more demanding and I really get to feel how wiped out I am, but that too provides a healing, and correction back to a more natural rhythm.
I must admit that the full moon cycle is a favourite for me too, Simon. I love observing what comes up for expression in the 1st half of the cycle & then what arises to discard in the lead up to the full moon. I almost bathe in the full moon itself – I love it!
I agree with you Simon and Coleen, since becoming aware of the full moon cycle, I have noticed my body becoming a lot more responsive to its rhythm. Sometimes I forget its coming up and think when’s full moon? then realise it’s in a week or a few days. As you said Simon it ‘provides an opportunity to go deeper inside myself’, to reflect back on the way I have been living.
Simon I’ve also found an amazing reflection time in being more aware of the full moon cycle. Even without knowing the dates or times of when it is coming up I can certainly feel it – and am then confirmed with a reminder popping up on my phone. It starting to become a great point in the month to feel how I’ve been.
David, James, Simon- it’s so lovely to hear men speak about their affinity with the energy the full moon brings: thank you.
Simon, I have always felt an affinity to the full moon, and knew how I often did things differently, around full moon time, but I never went deeper into it. Now like you, it has become a marker for how I am. If I get over tired or ignore the coming fullness, it wipes me out, and for me that’s a great opportunity for healing – to reflect on how I have lived the last 4 weeks and re-connect with my own deep rhythms.
“Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms” – so often we feel that time dictates to us and it can feel like it is something we are always fighting against. To turn it around so beautifully as you have done, has shown that time can be used in a way that supports us through our rhythms and cycles. In this way our life can flow. Awesome – thank you for a wonderful sharing.
I love that line, Jane. We so often feel victims of time, instead of seeing it as what it truly is with all of its flexibility and elasticity. Feeling a victim of time is usually the result of not being connected with ourself, and not allowing ourselves to know through that connection when is the time to do the things that we all need to do. It is about the flow.
I find that many who are stressed and rush about saying they have no time to take care of themselves because they have way too much to do, are really avoiding feeling their choices and the consequences of them. I have noticed this tendency comes with a crippling lack of self worth and an inability to really appreciate the awesomeness of what they bring. There are so many completely gorgeous, big hearted people out there who have no idea where to start in loving and taking care of themselves. Simply taking a few minutes out of every day to sit still, close your eyes, feel your body and breathe gently is a great place to start. Whatever is in there to be felt, simply allow it to be there with no judgement in the knowing that you are so worth giving yourself some loving time.
I agree, Jane, this line is an absolute gem. Making a commitment to our natural rhythms stops us from giving power to what is outside of us. I am finding that this supports me in every aspect of daily life and helps me stay more connected to the grander cycles we are a part of.
‘Far from being a time to be consigned to the scrapheap, the menopausal rhythm reveals to me the myriad ways in which I can deepen my relationship to myself as a living, rhythmic being.’ – I totally agree Coleen, if only this was featured in some of the ‘how to survive the menopause’ books.
Yes – like you, Kathie, I feel like shouting from the rooftops the truth of what menopause is really about!
So true Ariana – ‘women (and men too) are reclaiming who they are at every age’.
Yes I too love this comment that the tide is turning, from women considering they are on the scrap heap because of menopause, to reclaiming themselves at all stages of life. I have seen many women embrace living with rhythms as Coleen and many commenters have described here, they have been looking more and more radiant, content with life and themselves, and their power and grace has been amazing.
It feels supportive to read your blog again – and I know that I have spent much time in my head throughout this life ‘analysing everything with extreme levels of mental energy’ and how I have allowed this to distract me from connecting to my natural rhythm or even acknowledging that I may have a ‘rhythm’. Having been presented with this concept of rhythm I now can feel how I have lived my life fighting the natural rhythm that comes when I connect to myself.
A great comment Susan Lee. Choosing to connect with our own natural rhythm is a huge support for our well being and great to notice when we stray from this. I know if my body gets out of sync it aches quite quickly and historically I would push on but now to notice and honour this as being very supportive on many levels.
Yes I can relate to this big time Beverley and Sue… especially the pushing on when my body is telling me what I have been choosing isn’t feeling great. Bring more awareness to my body and my rhythm has been awesome and when I go into old ways and feel things not to be in harmony with my rhythm I now stop and choose what feels more loving and supportive to be in harmony with my body and rhythm.
I know that one, Sue, about fighting my natural rhythm. As well as getting “heady”, when I take on more things without truly feeling into what and who it serves, I also find I lose touch with it.
Yes I have certainly fought my natural rhythm pretty much all of my life. Your comments and this blog inspires me to just re-connect with my body and honour my rhythms; to simply drop the pattern of going into my head and wasting energy thinking about what to do rather than just completing each task as they come to me.
I am finding the more focused and present I am with all that I do, time does not cause raciness in me. I even have a giggle to see how much more time I have creating space to do other things!
I love it when I ‘let go’ of trying to organise my time, and focus on the present. Thats when everything falls into place as the universe constellates to work it all out for me!
Thank you Catherine, a revelation from your comment for me of how much investment there can still be in ‘trying to’ be super efficient with time – and a deeper awareness of how ‘super simple’ changes everything – “I ‘let go’ of trying to organise my time, and focus on the present”.
‘Time and tide wait for no man’ are immutable but they have a rhythm and a cycle. When we find our rhythm we are like the tide and flow forward.
Dear Coleen. Thank you for sharing your experience with rhythms and time. I sometimes have shifts at work that requires me to stay until 9 or 10 pm. If my rhythm is not strong enough, I get really drained and tired. On the opposite, if I manage to go to bed before 9 pm and wake up 6 hours later with consistency I feel more energetic. If I have to catch up with sleep, then a nap during the day on my day off also helps.
If ever my head twitches up to look at a clock, I know I am magnifying a nervous energy of trying to beat time, to triumph over it’s forever marching. And in those moments I have a choice to let that happen (which leads to further head twitches becoming ever more frequent and frantic) or to create space by bringing awareness to my body and the quality of my breath. I can then commit to ever deepening and refining my daily rhythm to support everything I have to do with that spaciousness.
Yes Matilda I too love experiencing that spacious relationship with time, but just last week I looked a the clock to find that the hands had sped round and I only had 10 minutes left before I had to leave. I caught myself working out which of the jobs from the list I could leave to the evening, realising they all felt like they needed to be done.
Then I stopped and realised that I had 10 (probably 9 by then) precious minutes. I stayed with me and got everything completed, the traffic moved to one side, and as usual I got to my appointment just in time.
All reaffirming it’s not how long I have but how I relate to that time and to me.
I love your description of the ‘head twitches,’ Matilda- I’ll look out for that one!
Great blog Coleen. I let my go of my ‘hamster’ quite a while ago. Building a rhythm has helped, not only with the quality of my sleep, but also the rest of my life. Having this rhythm, I feel that I can deal with any issue that comes along, whereas before it always felt like things were harder to control and consequently was usually buried or ignored only for the issue to arise at a later time.
What I love about this blog on re-reading it is that Coleen you did not change jobs or work part time or take a career break which is the typical response when people become exhausted and stressed out by work i.e. you did not change anything on the outside but changed your relationship with work and time by changing your relationship with yourself. To be off sleeping pills after ten years of regular use is amazing!
Thank you for picking up on this, Andrew. It’s absolutely true. There were times I was tempted to quit when I wasn’t sleeping and was in stress. But now, in my rhythm, I would not be anywhere else at all. That in itself is quite incredible and the commitment I feel to my work is amazing.
What a great point Andrew. Usually we are all too quick to change/blame the outside circumstances instead of look a little deeper at how we are within those circumstances.
Coleen there are a few amazing sentences in this article but one that jumped out at me was ‘Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.’ I am most definitely enjoying the process of claiming my cycle as part of the whole universal cycles – I’m absolutely Loving the responsibility in this as well as getting a deeper understanding on how huge this is!
It’s truly beautiful, isn’t it, Natalie? The interconnection and the vastness and spaciousness of it.
‘I love dead lines… and the whooshing sound they make as they rush by.’ That was on a college dorm room and it still makes me smile. There is hidden truth in it when we stop letting time control us.
The gentle breath is such a simple tool to bring myself back into a gentle rhythm with my body. The Earth has steady rhythms of day and night, seasons and the ebb and flow of the tides that we all live with all the time. If I stay in rhythm with my body I am in rhythm with everything around me and time becomes part of this rhythm.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have any issue with time. I lived with a belief that I never had enough time!! It was a real scarcity mentality. But much like your experience, Colleen, I discovered that as I became aware of my own rhythm (and this took awhile to find it before I could live it), my high maintenance relationship with time began to wind down. I still haven’t managed to find any “spare” time, but at least I am no longer haunted by the shortage of enough time. I think the biggest step along the way was learning to go to bed by 9pm. Once I got into the rhythm of this, I naturally awoke and was ready to rise much earlier. I sometimes, of course, stay up later than 9pm and then ALWAYS have trouble falling asleep. My rhythm is early to bed, early to rise…….and then all the rest of the day seems to flow.
Rushing to meet deadlines and pushing to get things done or feeling a natural gentle rhythm to life – there’s such a huge difference between the two.
It’s true Susang12, they are polar opposites of each other.
How clearly put Susan, yes there is a huge difference between pushing to get things done, and feeling and connecting to the gentle rhythms of life.
Many thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for presenting this natural flow of life to us, and the how and why of it all. This enables us to make changes and listen to these rhythms for ourselves – and build a new and solid foundation of love. Very easy to relate to, and empowering to read, thank you.
“The first step in reclaiming my natural rhythm was to breathe a gentle breath and feel my own naturally gentle energy. This offered me a choice …..” I love this Coleen, acknowledging that we do have a choice – in every moment – as to how to be. This was something new to me when I was first introduced to Universal Medicine and the Gentle Breath meditation. Giving myself time to pause amidst the busyness of the day enables me to reconnect back to who I truly am – get off the hamster wheel – and choose anew, returning to my natural rhythm.
Great blog, thank you Coleen. It’s very inspiring how you have taken charge and turned your life and sleep issues around – just by re-connecting to your natural rhythms. The simplicity and love with which Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine shine the spotlight on all our human dilemmas – offering true and easily applied alternatives – is so beautifully described here.
What a beautifull blog Coleen. I love how you talk about rhythms, it makes me feel how we are indeed part of something so much bigger. Thank you for writing this.
Looking at life in terms of cycles and rhythms is the total opposite to the way we are educated yet makes so much sense. I found connecting to my own personal rhythm quite a challenge to begin with because it went against how my life was set up. It’s been a beautiful unfolding though and feels wonderful to connect with the different cycles and the ebb and flow of life. Thanks Coleen for this inspiring piece.
‘Looking at life in terms of cycles and rhythms is the total opposite to the way we are educated yet makes so much sense’ – very true Heather; the way we are educated as children is that life is totally linear, no mention of cycles or rhythms whatsoever.
Well expressed Jane – Coleen is certainly breaking the mould around time constructs in her life. It is so inspiring to read and feel the truth regarding cycles and rhythms and how possible another way to live is.
Awesome blog Coleen, so full of great examples where any one of them can make such a huge difference to someone’s life. Your experience of adjusting your sleep wake cycle to suit the natural rhythm of your body is ground breaking to share, and to hear you came off the sleep medication you’d been on for ten years is nothing short of a miracle!
I agree Rosanna, that really is a miracle and shows just how powerful living in line with our rhythm and cycles is.
Yes, Rosanna- it is just about miraculous. All the sleep medications I used, and I tried several, had side effects of one kind or another. Hence, not only was I out of my natural rhythm, I had a different quality of sleep and also my physiology had the additional job of processing something extra in my body that I had placed in there. Even with all of this, I was nonetheless grateful to get at least some sleep, even if the quality of it had changed.
An inspiring article Coleen and one I relate well to. “I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” Awesome sharing, thank you.
….’I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’….
Absolutely beautiful Coleen, thank you
I love this too Jacky; Coleen, it’s like a line from a song.
Yes, this shifts everything and to use the term… it is “a game changer!” Learning about living to rhythms is an alien concept and yet it is such a natural part of our inherent make up and is part of us. It’s a bit like using the right side of your body all through life not realising that the left side is there. I am almost in disbelief that we are not taught about rhythm from when we are little. The absolute power and strength from living to the rhythm of all things natural is undeniable and my awareness of it is just beginning to seep in… I am looking forward to deepening my relationship with rhythm and the connected laws of the universe!
Thank you Coleen this is so timely for me! I can so relate to the hamster-in-a-wheel feeling of there never being enough time to do everything. Learning the Gentle Breath Meditation and focusing on building a supportive rhythm in my life by, amongst other things, making time to wind down before going to bed when my body shows me it is ready, rather than overriding it and staying up late, has transformed my life from one of constant exhaustion to one where I have so much more vitality and achieve so much more. I have often had the experience of time expanding and having plenty of time to complete whatever I need to, but I can still choose to get overwhelmed and feel that I don’t have enough time – and as others have commented it is inspiring to feel the rhythm in your writing and connect to that and re-establish my own rhythm more strongly.
This was a great blog for me to read. I am sometimes a slave to time and am constantly looking at the clock, measuring and planning what I have to do and how long each task will take. It is exhausting. reading your blog has made me pause and consider how lovely it would be to get off the hamster wheel. The idea of living in rhythms and cycles sounds very harmonious.
It’s lovely, Debra. Enjoy experimenting and playing with it.
A beautiful and inspiring blog Coleen. Like you I became a slave to time and allowed it to rule my life in a way that left me always feeling behind, forever catching up. I can still become caught up in that rhythm but with the gentle breath meditation I now have the tools to change this self defeating way of living. Slowly, and with support I am able to reclaim my life and live a life that is more in rhythm with my inner heart. This allows me the time to explore a way of life that is fulfilling, self loving and expansive.
This is very inspiring Coleen and very true, allowing your own rhythm surface and truly listening to your body really changes your relationship with everything you do which makes a huge difference to how you deal with life in general. I can relate here with time and pressure and I have broken away from the intensity of this way and am now needing to take this to a deeper level as my rhythm is showing me – this is much fun getting to know your own body and your own way with life that ends up supporting everyone around us.
Colleen, thank you for your wonderful blog which I have read in due time! Just on the point of being overwhelmed by pressing situations, I too, have come to realise that time is not the problem – my relationship with it is. Yet when I return to the natural rhythm within me, time drops away and I’m with an expansive space that is allowing of all that needs to be done…in due time, of course. The phrase that leaps out at me most is, “Time is now my instrument…” and I felt such a sense of self-command with that and it empowers me to step up and remember it is I who is the master of time and not the other way around.
For so much of my life I have been a “time addict” not so much fighting it but constantly living in fear of it…being 30minutes early for things just in case…or clock watching….it always feels very stressful and sometimes leaves me feeling apologetic for being late even when I am early. It’s a great way to keep myself tense I have found. But like you said and I know this from experience that with a simple gentle breath I can get myself collected and approach a situation from a place of much more “stillness” and so often time just seems to either disappear entirely or slow right down. It’s amazing what torture our minds can impose on us.
Beautiful Phill, it is so true that time changes and spreads out when we stop and come back to stillness and the pressure and tension simply evaporates.
It’s funny reading this, because I too have done this and I see it in people around me all the time; victims of time, addicts of time… For a while a didn’t wear a watch and it was a very liberating experience. One I recommend to others, as it highlights this dependency on something outside of our bodies.
Same here Jenny…as I was just constantly checking my wrist, which was a bit weird. Letting go of time like that and learning to be gentle in each situation has been an interestingly difficult journey for me. But with Universal Medicine’s support it’s amazing what we can let go of…the little things we think make us up. Nowadays I wear my watch to finish off my suit and apply a level of presence that allows me to flow through my day harmoniously and enjoy always being on(top of) time.
‘Torture’ is a great word for it, too, Phil: that’s precisely what it is.
Thank you Coleen, I love this blog. There are so many great lines but my favourite is – “I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me.” How freeing to no longer be at the mercy of time, and be living in tune with the greater rhythms of life.
Thank you, Janet. It is so lovely to feel held by those rhythms, especially for me, the full moon rhythm: it’s almost tangible: so beautiful.
Coleen, I love how you write here, I can feel the rhythm in it as I read and what you write of is key, we can be slaves to time or connect to and feel rhythm in our bodies and how it can support us day by day as we live. There’s a quality of being in the right place, with the right rhythm as I read your blog, it feels lovely and I know the more I am in tune with my body, oddly enough the more I get done and the more ‘time’ I appear to have. This is something I dip in and out of right now, but as I explore it more I can feel how it supports me in how I live.
Yes, I’m a ‘dipper’ too Monica, but always very committed to my choice of being rhythmic and very aware when the rhythm is gone. Hence it becomes much easier to become in rhythm again.
That’s lovely Coleen, to know that the underlying commitment is there no matter what, to continue to look and know when we’re out of rhythm. Your comment reminds me to appreciate that no matter when I dip, I always continue looking, I’m ready to keep going despite the bumps and more and more I’m learning to be gracious with those bumps and see them as part of my journey and learning. I read something beautiful the other day about how we can accept where we are, without wishing for something else – and I am doing that more each and every day, accepting and appreciating in that, and that’s part of my rhythm too, beautiful to feel that, thank you for inspiring me.
I read your article again today and it helped me to get off the hamster wheel I seem to have hopped back on to during my working day today, thank you Coleen.
Coleen love your sharing with time and rhythm. It is great when we are able to understand space and not get caught up in time. Creating a beautiful rhythm with cycles has been so amazing to explore and adapt into my life. It is forever unfolding.
Consciously bringing rhythm back into our lives, in practical and simple ways, is such a natural way to restore balance to the disjointed, speeded up and out of control existence so many of us have created in our lives. Thank you Coleen.
I can really relate to the busy life you described, Coleen. I had chosen to live in that ‘hamster in the wheel’ way of life in the past too. The way you’ve made the changes and developed your rhythm with your body is totally inspiring. And I love your sentence ‘No longer am I a victim of time and its apparent pressures’.
An amazing article, your way of writing almost sounds rhythmic too as I read. Reading your article shows me the areas I am holding back developing with in deepening my own rhythms.
Likewise, Rebecca. Having read this I feel inspired to look into more detail at my own rhythms in life.
“Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.” This is beautiful Coleen. What a revelation – I can feel your joy. It is very lovely to feel what is available to us through connecting to our natural cycles. It really can be life changing.
Yes, it did/does feel joyful to feel that, Rebecca. My whole breath changed instantly with that realisation – almost like there was a ‘victim of time’ breath and a ‘time is my instrument’ breath. Now I can feel which of the two I am..it’s awesome.
This is very inspiring Coleen. Thank you.
‘I was exhausting myself with my breathless and compulsive ‘hamster on a wheel’ existence.’ This is a reality for many, many people nowadays – always half a foot behind life… Time happening to them, not them living with time. The very well known ‘solution’ to this lifestyle is caffeine, but what you have beautifully presented in your blog is that living rhythmically makes all the difference, without having to intoxicate your body with drugs or substances that physically pressure you to keep going.
Great comment Susie – well said, the hamster on a wheel experience is most certainly a “reality for many, many people nowadays”. What is incredible is how Coleen has presented how it is simple changes to incorporate living more rhythmically into her daily routine, that has meant that “no longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures”. This is so important to share with people – that it is possible to feel like there is enough time in the day, and even a little bit extra to look after you!
Being in line with your own rhythms and cycles in your body is just beautiful. I used to suffer from dyslexia but found that when I aligned to my own natural rhythms the stuttering over words and forgetfulness all fell away. It was the pressure of not honouring my own rhythm that put me in a state of anxiety which then led to the dyslexia.
Fiona, what you share here about dyslexia is extraordinary. I have never before heard of someone unlocking the key to their dyslexia and walking away from it. It makes me wonder how much more is wrapped up in in our constant struggle to be a certain way and live to rigid and external rhythms and ways.
“It was the pressure of not honouring my own rhythm that put me in a state of anxiety which then led to the dyslexia.” This is an amazing realisation Fiona, that could help millions of people. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they too found their own rhythm and had such results, I am sure it is possible!
Thank you, Fiona. I shall certainly be sharing your experience with the mothers of my students who have dyslexia.
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.’ This line feels like it belongs in a song, a song of celebration, it feels so expansive. Inspiring blog Coleen. Thank you
Thank you, Judy: I too feel there’s a song in that expression also.
Learning to live in rhythms and master time is the secret to living in the world today and brings true contentment and a joyful way of living. Thank you Coleen for all you share and such an important message you offer us.
Thank you Coleen for showing that the world will not end when we let go and step off the treadmill. You have shown that living in the present and claiming yourself, re-awakens the true essence of whom we all are naturally.
This is a great comment, ‘the world will not end when we let go and step off the treadmill’, so true and a great reminder for me, thank you.
I love your comment Steve and many caught up in the stress of work would appreciate knowing it is ok to let go and step off the treadmill. There is another way, as this article shows.
Amazing metaphor, we are all running on a treadmill that we are afraid of getting off. The treadmill is so exhausting, that when we do finally stop, we have to feel the pace at which we have been running. But as the blog describes there is so much to gain from letting go and accepting the natural rhythm that is within us.
So true, Steve: the world did not end – it just started. Thank you.
I love this, sjmatsonuk – “the world will not end when we let go and step off the treadmill.” No more struggle or exhaustion but a new way of living awaits us when we do.
love this blog Coleen, you write in a rhythmic way too in how you describe the time-rhythm-relationship… sounds so liberating to no longer be owned by time, but instead learning to master space for the expansiveness it offers.
A beautiful sharing which I can relate to thank you Coleen. I was very much caught in the time trap of always having too much to do and so the constant drive and pushing, exhausting. I am now practising being connected to me and just allowing myself to complete one thing, then the next one comes, it feels freeing and much lighter, a far more enjoyable way of being.
“Living as a rhythmic being allows me now to observe how I am moment by moment, daily, monthly and yearly. I now see each year as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.” This is a very open view to hold, such a shift from seeing each year as another to get older.
Thank you, MM. The ageing angle is absolutely true and I am currently working on that blog 🙂
So inspirational Colleen. You have changed your life around from rush and stress to being a rhythmic being, allowing time to come to you, as you live in a rhythmic world. This is a blog to re-read time and again, knowing now that there is time to do so as I make space, not deadlines, in my day. A whole new approach to being, not doing.
I love your line, Lorraine – ‘I make space, not deadlines.’ Awesome!
‘I make space, not deadlines’ – brilliantly put Lorraine.
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’ I love this line Coleen. By connecting to the natural rythmn that my body communicates has completely transformed my relationship with time. I was always in a rush, starting the day in a fluster was how I lived. I now listen to my body and wind down much earlier in the evening and rise in the early morning. My life has become so much more spacious and I have so much more energy with less sleep then I had before. By connecting to my body’s daily rythmn I have discovered that my body responds in-kind and my sleep is so much more restful than ever before.
I agree Anne Marie – since I was a young child sleep has never felt safe and I was always scared, but slowly I am working towards feeling safe enough to let go and sleep in rhythm.
yes! and when we just accept the natural rhythmic world than runs through us we have a lot more fun!
Thank you, Anne Marie: it felt like a very claiming conclusion. It also felt like an affirmation of what is in fact the truth for us all.
I had not realised how much I loved rhythm and routine…I used to do everything, well most things, very efficiently – but also was very tired and stressed. I would have baulked at the idea of a rhythm or routine, I connected to this idea or way of being to a lack of freedom and spontaneity, so would actively seek not to have a routine or rhythm. However learning to honour my need to sleep and wake has meant that I am starting to enjoy my own rhythm. I really appreciated your quote “I love rhythm and rhythm certainly loves me” Thank you, great blog.
So true Samantha, I too used to associate rhythm with a lack of freedom, a strict discipline and rigidity. How joyful it is to find one’s rhythm again, to align to the laws of nature and in doing so, discover so much vitality and gentle joy. Thank you Coleen for reminding us all of the natural rhythms we take for granted and showing us that by consciously aligning, we can make huge changes in our lives.
Thank you, Samantha.
I, too, felt that ‘teenage’ concept of routines being ‘boring’ and took my rejecting of them as a sign of maturity and adulthood when I could do whatever I wanted. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! I effectively ignored the most essential part of my by refusing to listen to my natural rhythms!
“By connecting with the cycles of the full moon, I have experienced a deep confirming of how I am in a rhythmic relationship with rhythms that are very much larger than I, and oh so much more expansive than our tiny wee concepts of time.” I love how you said this Coleen, it brings a real sense of expansion and opening up. It’s easy to get blinkered by the seeming constraints and pressures of time but when you bring in rhythms and cycles it helps put it all in to more perspective.
This is so true, we have so much to learn here.
Very beautiful point Fiona, it does open us up to the wider implications of rhythms we tend to be unaware of. We are part of a huge and beautiful rhythm that pulses through the universe, the one verse as Jo put it. We are a tiny part of an enormous song and when we choose to align to our part in the song sheet, we can begin to experience true harmony again.
It is very true Fiona, and keeping things very practical is the key.
So true, Fiona. Our perceptions and perspectives on time change when we tune in to our natural rhythms. It’s quite remarkable how simple it is and remarkable, for me, how I managed to ignore these rhythms for so long.
I love this Coleen, thank you! Time is such a beastly illusion! Love listening to my body although becoming aware of the auto-ignore is quite alarming!
Thank you Coleen for this great confirmation and claiming of the power of living in a consistent rhythm. I have noticed that when I commit to going to bed early on a regular basis, I awake with a whole new level of vitality. It’s almost ridiculously simple to do, but many times I have let a false feeling of not doing enough during the day control my actions in the evening, keeping me in motion before bedtime. Once I let go of these thoughts and focus on what my body needs first, I can let myself relax fully knowing that there is nothing more to do until the following day. This inevitably leads to a solid night’s sleep.
Great point Michael about taking the time to wind down. I was talking with someone at work who has found it so hard to switch off at night and as a result has had a broken sleep. It’s causing them a lot of distress and reminded me of the time before my understanding of the importance of winding down; that I would stay up late thinking and planning all the things I needed to do. My sleep was very erratic when I did or if I still do this.
I agree David, with the importance of winding down, I notice that if I wind down before bed by not looking at computers or engaging in lively conversation, just having some quiet time before going to sleep then I sleep really well, whereas trying to get things done in the evening means I lie awake In bed thinking about these things and unable to go to sleep so easily.
I absolutely know this one too David! It’s so freeing to give yourself permission to just stop and anything you didn’t get finished by 6pm one night really can wait until 5am the next day – it’s just no biggy! That is a big momentum for me to break though so its sometimes easier said than done 🙂
I so agree, David and Michael: the thing is it IS so simple. It seems to be just our minds that make it more complex.
It is really so simple! It would be funny – how we complicate it – but the state of our health world-wide is such a staggering mess it is peculiar that we continue to live so complicated what is indeed so simple.
I love the way you bring rhythms to life in your writing Coleen. Very inspiring, and I can feel the dimensions, layers and repetitions as you share your discoveries… and in them, the beautiful flow and rhythm that you enjoy.
That is very true Rosanna. Coleen has transformed a lineal relationship with time into a multi dimensional relationship with rhythm. Life is about rhythm and nature reflects it back to us all the time, we have a 24 hour rhythm, a 28 day rhythm and so on, as well as our own personal rhythms. It makes me think of music and how it is a combination of different layers and rhythms of sound that build and support one another. What an amazing transformation and how beautiful to connect with and restore true rhythm within the day.
Rowena, You mention how the rhythms and cycles we live in make you think of music; this makes me think of the word “Universe”; uni verse, ‘one song’…so if we are all a part of one song I want to be in rhythm with it not a discordant part in it!
That’s gorgeous Jo…The one sound
Jo I love your comment. We are all part of the one song! “Uni-Verse”. Yes we are, and this calls for us to be in absolute harmony.
That is really beautiful, Jo. We are one song and bringing awareness to the rhythms as Coleen shares enables us to re-connect with the song.
How fantastic to be able to turn this around to master a flow and rhythm that your body clearly loves; and has enabled you to get off the hamster wheel. This clearly demonstrates just how much pressure we choose to put ourselves under and that we can have complete control over our relationship with time. Thank you Coleen for claiming your rhythm for us all to benefit from.
I agree Rowena, thank you for sharing Coleen, it shows that by claiming our rhythm the changes we can make are huge. We do not need to choose a less stressful job, or be less committed to life far from it – we can actually be more engaged and present with life, just not caught up in the time pressures which we and others put on ourselves. Something I find is that when i feel pressured by time I keep thinking i have to get this done by …, and then what I am doing next pops into my mind – so it takes me away from what I am currently doing – this means what I am currently doing takes longer, and I often make silly mistakes meaning it takes even longer! Whereas if I had let go of what’s next then I would already be onto it and would not have got all rushed or panicked!
Great blog, Coleen. I used to be a work-aholic: working late into the evening/night and rising relatively early but sustained by caffeine, sugar and alcohol and being exhausted all the time. Now following a similar rhythm of developing the Gentle Breath meditation and going to bed much earlier I am now rising much earlier, achieving far more in the day than I used to without the stress or feeling exhausted AND my life is so much more joyful.
Thank you Coleen. I’m learning to listen to my body more and not push through to what I deem to be the right time to go to bed as dictated by my mind.
I loved your blog Coleen, and the title says it all – “Time: how I changed my relationship with the invisible tyrant.” Along those lines I have also heard it asked “how goes the enemy?”. I can relate to the “hamster on a wheel” mentality. It really is mental to do that.
I enjoyed reading how you took steps to reclaim your own time, and the ways you are deepening your relationship with yourself, through earlier bedtime routines and using the moon cycle to chart your lymphatic rhythms. I am also working on this and have had the experience of time expanding to fit me, rather than the other way around. It’s very inspiring to know that this is possible and how you relate that “no longer am I the victim of time and it’s apparent pressures”.
In honesty, I am very much working on staying committed to a rhythm that supports me. Rhythm is a thing that makes life about rituals that build love. So going to the gym for example stops being just about getting exercise. It fits in to complement all the other things I do to look after myself. The way I make a cup of tea changes – there’s more presence in the process and the end result is that life stops becoming about ticking the next thing off the list of to-do’s. It’s a daily education!
Thanks Jinya, me too and thank you for this lovely and gentle reminder.
Well said Jinya, some great points about how committing to a daily rhythm which supports the body builds more love; it changes the purpose behind why, and then the way we do things.
A lovely read Coleen. Before I was aware of what a rhythm was, that I could have one or why, I too was a victim of time. It’s funny how that can feel so natural. Until of course – I learnt there is another way to structure my day – not by the ticking of the clock but by the way I am in my body. It is a very personal and permanent support – and I too have Universal Medicine to thank for presenting to me the possibility of a rhythm.
I love this. I have learned another way, not by the ticking of the clock but how my body feels. What a great switch to not be dictated by time but to connect to the rhythm and cycle that the body naturally communicates.
Coleen. It took me a long time to slow down, and become less stressed regarding time; things had to be done as regular as clock work. I now give myself breathing space, and do not chase my tail. Sure gives life another meaning.
Dear Coleen, I too have felt that I had a “hamster on a wheel” existence. I realised that I was chasing my own tail and that I didn’t enjoy life. Introducing rhythms in my day felt very natural and it has transformed my life. I love living moment by moment making space as I go and enjoying the present.
“I now see each year as an an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.” This gives me a feeling of life always opening up in front of me if I stay with myself and move in my rhythm, and a feeling that time with boundaries and deadlines does not exist. So very different from the White Rabbit experience. The beauty of that continual re-turning year – by year – by year – brings a spaciousness and time seems to expand.
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.”
What a beautiful line… lovely writing.
Thank you, Chris. I feel there is a song in that line.
I found this a wonderful read, Colleen. You reinforce that rhythms are the way to live. I love that we allow time to come to us and we take the rush out of living. Thank you for taking the ‘time’ to write this.
Inspirational and profound Coleen, thank you for sharing.
I can really feel your truth and how you have claimed and are living these loving choices and changes in your life, it is very inspiring. It is incredible that you no longer need medication that was taken for 10 years to help you sleep, this is a massive change in itself; but what I can really feel is how you are no longer governed by time. This is currently what I need to look at and work on within my life because at the moment I just seem to be focused on what needs to be done and where do I need to be at certain times in the day.
Amazing that you could quit sleeping medication after 10 years by simply having a wind down routine before bed. Life is so simple if we let it be. Love it!
Coleen I just love that you haven’t blamed your work for the stress and time pressures, you have taken responsibility for changing your relationship with it….and you have!
Thank you
Coleen, thank you for the Hamster on the Wheel imagery this is perfect as I too am learning to let go of the automatic pilot that comes into play at work and takes me very quickly into drive and function, always racing against the clock. This is so harming to my natural way of being and the honouring of my own rhythm.
Great blog Coleen about such an important issue that affects so many people. I too can relate to being a victim of time rather than a master of it in the past. There is so much liberation in connecting to our natural rhythms and respecting time but not being governed by it. By feeling the natural rhythms of the body and the universe which are so much bigger and grander than our human made up concept of time, it allows us to see the bigger picture and not get stressed about the tiny issue or deadline – which is insignificant in comparison to the larger cycles at play. I still get caught sometimes by time but this approach has certainly helped me a lot over the years to be less stressed and tired.
So amazing yet at the same time so simple. What I loved about this blog was how it expanded. From a moment of breathing in rhythm to a daily rhythm, monthly and eventually yearly and for life. A great template for anyone looking for a start point in reclaiming a natural rhythm.
Thank you Coleen, for sharing your amazing revelations and change in your life with rhythms, time, and your relationship with yourself. This is inspirational and I feel it all so true. I have been developing and working with this also, and really relate and feel the joy and contentment that comes with living this way in connection with rhythms and oneself, and the changing perceptions of time as a result.
It is all thanks to Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine presentations, and the truth and understanding of life he brings.
Beautiful Coleen, I too feel the power and natural loveliness of living in rhythms and cycles.
Thanks Coleen, I had never seen time as an invisible tyrant until you compared it thus, a great analogy as is the hamster on a wheel. The way that time insidiously controls us and how hard it can be to break that control is a great thing to look at and I can identify with all the stress and tension that control leads to. I was a slave and time the master until I learned from Universal Medicine how to break the control it had over me.
Wow, it is incredible to hear the direct outcomes of connecting with your own rhythm. I know for myself how important my own rhythm is, and in each moment I am learning to discern wether I am living my own, or that of another around me, for it can be easy to move to the beat of another’s drum. When we listen to our body, all is revealed and we can learn to make choices that truly support us, as you have clearly shown, thank you.
“Living as a rhythmic being allows me now to observe how I am moment by moment, daily, monthly and yearly. I now see each year as an opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through living a naturally rhythmic life.” I love this Coleen – great article, Having been a victim of time it feels so amazing that when I am connected – to me- and stay present, I accomplish all I have to do. I echo your comment also “The more I work on my rhythm, the more I master relationship with time and the more I develop my relationship with me.”
I really love what you have highlighted here Sue, ‘living as a rhythmic being….’ and, ‘the more I work on my rhythm…’, I too feel these are super important in helping me to let go of the invisible tyrant that time had become for me.
I love what you say: taking pleasure of living in my own body. Our body that we live in 24/7 and that is with us in every moment. How wonderful it is to really honour that body and listen to it. Thank you for this great blog, it shows that it is possible to have a demanding job and deadlines, but that we can deal with this in a more loving and supporting way.
‘”Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim” Beautifully written and so true. I have lost my own rhythm of late and am much more appreciative of how rhythm supports me in my life now. I feel empowered by what you have written here. Thank you Coleen.
Thank you Coleen, I relate well to your article and it is a very timely reminder of the importance of rhythm on a daily basis
“I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world.” Just reading your article I felt the gentleness of your rhythm and this inspired me further as I have noticed lately a few areas getting out of sync. Thank you for sharing.
Very true Coleen I could completely relate to being a victim of time and when this happens it seems like there is never enough time to do what we need to do. It is all too easy to see time as the problem when in fact it is as you say it is our relationship with our rhythms that governs our relationship with time.
A beautifully expressed and inspiring blog Coleen. I can so relate to what you’ve shared. I’ve been pondering a lot lately on my own relationship with time. Recently my understanding of how it has kept me captive for so long has unfolded, like you say – the proverbial ‘hamster on a wheel’ never feeling that there is enough time to fit everything in. How freeing it is to let go of that illusion! And I love how you describe us as being rhythmic beings – beautiful! Re-connecting with our rhythms and cycles are key to our health and well-being – no question!
‘Re-connecting with rhythm was like finding the most essential part of me that I had inexplicably completely lost until I began to make some very simple changes presented by Universal Medicine.’ I loved reading your article, Coleen and this sentence particularly stood out to me. When out of rhythm, we can feel lost and unable to cope and out of control and have to use all sorts of stimulants to get by. Choosing to build a rhythm into our day is then one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and can begin so simply by starting with our gentle breath.
Excellent blog, Coleen and very timely – pun intended !
Gosh, we could all do with learning about time in this way as it makes so much sense. I, for one, used to be governed by the ‘tick tock clock’ as I call it and it sure controlled me and my body. I was always tense and that anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach never ever left. I found solutions to suppress my symptoms and carry on ‘business as usual’ knowing how drained and depleted I felt.
Thanks to the life and work of Serge Benhayon, slowly slowly I have started to trust my own clock to the point where I very rarely have to use an alarm clock now. I work double the hours I used to and I work most days. Amazing to think I have more vitality and nothing really is a big deal for me now. I am 52 and feel and look a lot younger.
I agree we could all do with learning about time in this way, Bina. Working in education, I see how both the messages of time being a pressure, and the living to external routines which do not always respect our body rhythms, both start at a very early age, unfortunately. How would it be if we were taught to perceive rhythm and time differently from a young age instead?
Thank you for sharing Coleen, it is amazing how when we ourselves can be ruled by time, pressured by deadlines, trying to cram as much in, always anxiousness with thoughts of, ‘Can I manage to get this done in time?’ But as you said, when we allow ourselves to be in a more harmonious rhythm and flow then things naturally have their time and place and there is no longer a rush or a panic to get things done rather, as I have found, there is a way and an order.
It is indeed shocking that we have allowed ourselves for so long to be ruled by time and pressured by deadlines… I relate to what you’ve shared James, and know for me in the past when I allow this to rule it has definitely lead to a constant feeling of anxiousness.
Coleen as someone who so often got caught up with “time” issues I can completely relate to what you are sharing. It’s also very empowering to start to see time from a new perspective not as something that is up against me and that I have to beat. I really enjoyed reading how time is now a rhythm for you – it’s something that I will enjoy exploring more – rhythms instead of trying to beat the clock!
This is very inspiring to read Coleen, especially how you breath your own breath and stressful situations do not have the same impact and also the fact that your colleagues have noticed.
I wonder how many sleep medications could be discarded by adopting a wind down routine for anyone struggling to sleep. It might surely have as immediate an affect on many people as it had for you, Coleen. Could many medications be reduced or removed by making choices that support our bodies and don’t override how we are feeling? It seems like a commonsense first step to begin with making these type of changes to the rhythm we live in when things are ill at ease.
Stephen, all I can say is that it worked for me and that I see myself as a regular, normal person. Hence, I don’t see why it shouldn’t work for others also. It’s most certainly worth anyone on medication giving it a go, in conjunction with the meds, initially. The two approaches could be mutually supportive until the need for meds changes.
Coleen, this is a beautiful blog. It is inspiring to read the changes you have brought to your life and your sleep pattern with living with a rhythm.
Your final line has just ‘blown me away’ with its profound wisdom and simplicity, a blessing in itself – it will be going up on the wall above my desk – a consistent reminder to enjoy and re-member who I am.
‘I am a rhythmic being and I live in a rhythmic world’.
Thank you, Stephanie. Hmmmm- I might place that line above the clock at work. Could be fun!
Thank you, Coleen. I too was on the hamster wheel of ‘so much to do and no time to do it all’. Being introduced to rhythms has been like coming up for air. The rhythm of the gentle breath steadies me and brings me back into my rhythm when I can feel the pressure of stress trying to creep in. The rhythm of going to bed earlier is something my body has always been telling me but I ignored as it didn’t fit in with other people’s patterns and beliefs of when a ‘grown up’ should go to bed. Listening to the rhythms of my body is beautiful music that I am increasingly in tune with.
A great reminder of just how powerful claiming the rhythm we live by can be. Our daily cycles are something that many people feel are dictated to us, or that we must follow because that’s just the way things are. But I found when I connect to myself what I need to do next (time to eat, time to sleep, time to go for a walk, etc.) flows from me. I just need to get out of he way and trust what I feel. When I am not so connected is when things get a bit hairy and I find myself rushing, staying up too late, or just vegging out in front of a movie. Connection is the key.
So often we try to make something work by focusing intently on, and tweaking our approach to it, meaning it and our fundamental relationship with it remains the same, we just try to adjust us to fit it, but part of the wisdom of this article is that it highlights that often the way forward lies in looking at something or our relationship with it, in a totally fresh, and way broader way.
From witless victim of time to master of it as a useful tool, and all by becoming aware of your breath and choosing for it to be gentle. A fairytale or the true experience of many?
This is an exquisite piece of writing as it sets out, so simply, the true choices we have and the joy of responsibility. The power of connecting to my breath and choosing for the quality of it to be gentle, inspires me daily.
A victim of time – a game I’ve played for far too long. Time for a change of approach and this clearly lays it out.
Thank you Coleen. I especially enjoyed reading about your “gentle vitality”.
I enjoyed reading this and felt this line relayed a deep understanding of the rhythm you discuss. “No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures.”
This blog inspires me to deepen my connection with being a rhythmic being, working in shift work in healthcare, I have to cope with the pressure of time and I get affected by this on a regular basis. Since I know I have a choice to connect with me inside or with the pressure of my job and the outside world, I find it easier to deal with this time issue.
“No longer am I the victim of time and its apparent pressures. Time is now my instrument to develop these natural rhythms within my body and to feel the harmony that is there when I participate in cycles that are greater than me, and yet somehow, are mine to claim.” Thank you, Coleen!
A beautiful sharing Coleen, how powerful rhythms are. I also use to get caught up in time and was in constant exhaustion. When I changed my rhythm of sleeping, my body got rid of the exhaustion and suddenly I had more time to get through my task in the day. My work load has not changed, if anything it has increased, but now I am not fighting against time.
Super beautiful, thank you Coleen. Just by reading this I can feel the space that this natural rhythm of cycles brings to us. There is no pushing or striving just a being and unfolding.
Living with time pressure is an invisible tyrant and I have been under it for so long that it has become normal which is awful. It was something I accepted because everyone around me was feeling the same and there seemed no answer to it. With the support of Universal Medicine, I have also been learning about rhythms which could well be the only way to slay the beast. I am still in the process of grappling with the time thing, but I have experienced significant shifts as I make changes to my daily rhythm.
Colleen, thank you for highlighting the importance rhythm has in relation to how we feel about time pressures. I know in my own case, refining my rhythm has helped enormously for me, too. Letting go of the need to get things completed by a self-prescribed time has also supported me in getting off the hamster wheel, and I feel that my life is much more evenly paced. In fact, I am able to do far more productively now than ever before whilst staying with me, and not having to go into hardness to get things done.
It’s amazing how these few simple changes can have such a positive impact on your life, time really can be our friend with a bit of rhythm added to the mix.
Interesting to read this, timely one would say – ha ha. I am being asked by my body to deepen my rhythm to bring more love to my day. So thank you, very inspired.
Thank you, Coleen, for this great reminder of us being rhythmic beings living in a rhythmic world. I am on the way to discover how the rhythm in me is guided by the rhythm of the full moon and nature and what it requires to adjust my life concerning what the rhythm requires and this is an ongoing deepening process.
Much appreciation Colleen for your reflections here. Your expression has deepened my awareness and inspired me to ponder more on my own rhythm. ‘We are rhythmic beings’. I love the confirmation I feel in that truth.
This is really inspiring Coleen, thank you. I often notice thoughts in my mind of ‘got to do this, got to do that’ which in itself is exhausting. I am becoming aware that as I put those thoughts to one side and live my rhythm, everything that needs to get done, does get done.