Please note – I’ll be taking some time off and plan to restart the blog at the end of July or beginning of August.
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But it was all going so well!
When a routine is clicking, we’re clicking right along with it. We can come to rely on routine, doing the dance of the day that gets us through.
But when it gets disrupted, by illness, vacation, or a good solid sneeze, we can feel adrift. The morning routine, the exercise regimen, the rhythms of study just went poof.
Structure can be a powerful ally for a wandering mind. But sometimes there’s too much. Or too little. Or what we thought would be too much is too little and vice versa.
At certain times of life, we can rely on the structures others build for us such as school, work, meetings, family, and more. But what happens when something out of our control shifts? What happens when those external structures are no longer there?
We can certainly make our own. But structure isn’t just “Do this from 6-7. Do that from 7 to 7:30”.
Trying to schedule intentions might work for some, but for many can readily become an exercise in frustration. For example, arriving at some time scheduled, we can easily wonder, “Why now? I could do this later.” And even with the best of intentions, later often disappears in the waves.
Consider the self-created rhythms that have worked. Maybe even the broad structures and systems you built yourself over time. They may well be out of reach in this moment.
But I wonder if another perspective is that they’re out of tune with who you are now. Rather than being something placed and never changed, finding the rhythms that work is a creative process, iterative and grown in time.
Chances are, that whatever worked started small. Some single rhythm, maybe that one note that you wrote to yourself, maybe that one cup of tea that you can count on, maybe that single news show that you started to pin a habit on.
Somewhere, some tiny thing felt consistent.
Certainly, it can be terribly upsetting to lose a structure. But in starting small, we may be able to rebuild something new, often more attuned to our current lives.
– Kourosh
PS: Consider if there is a single tiny rhythm you can trust today. Maybe it’s pausing for a breath, or jotting a single line in a notebook. Maybe it’s a game you play. Develop from there or not, however and as you decide.
