The rhythm of life is now slow and more meaningful.
Do you remember this song from the early 90s Rhythm is a Dancer by Snap!©
“Rhythm is a dancer
It’s our soul’s companion
People feel it everywhere.
Lift your hands and voices
Free your mind and join us
You can feel it in the air.”©
I’ve heard this song a thousand times but never truly listened to the words.
And it made me nostalgic it isn’t even in my featured top 20 if I had to choose but it reminds me of a more simple and less complicated time.
Unable to plan ahead because of the uncertainty of the future,
the song bought back many good memories.
And we associate songs with memories.
I haven’t planned or thought about the future and have taken each week as it comes, breaking it down bit by bit, day by day.
Last Sunday the Prime Minister shared the government’s plan to ease lockdown and by the end of his speech, I was bewildered as much as the next person.
Give me a list of the things I can and can’t do make it easy on us, will you?
I am a list person.
I can follow and tick my list when it is done and I know what comes next when I work from a list.
On Monday, I felt like I was back at the beginning of the lockdown, insecure, worried and anxious.
For eight weeks there has been no travelling, no meeting people and no office.
Eight weeks not seeing anyone in the flesh other than Zoom or WhatsApp video and now we are told we can meet with two people from another household or take as much exercise and spend as much time as we want outside.
Why is it that I feel more nervous and edgy?
Change is being forced upon us at a rate that I am yet to find comfort in.
Humanity is transforming into a different way of life and work.
The hand of nature is changing how we socialise, communicate and, the way we work.
Many aspects of our lives, once so familiar and right, are no longer relevant.
We can’t go back to how it was and to resist change, whether individually or collectively is futile.
I settled into the new way of working and accepted the new status quo.
And now we are moving into the first phase of coming out of lockdown, and it feels weird.
I’ve tried to work out why but I can’t put my finger on it.
Is it because we are creatures of habit?
I like routine and with that comes a sense of security.
But, we are in change mode yet again.
I have changed, I am less stressed and more in tune with time and nature.
The daily routine that I was accustomed too is gone, in its place a home/office bound life.
I wake up when the light stirs me from my slumber, and I wind down for bed and fall asleep when my eyes are too heavy to stay open.
My body moves in time with nature’s rhythm, no alarms, no clock watching only my body working in harmony with nature.
Like the sea, I have found my ebb and flow, I feel calmer, more relaxed than I have for a long time.
There is a simple rhythm to my life, and I don’t want it to change.
2020 began with goals and desires and an ‘if only I’ attitude.
Believing that if you hit that goal or achieve that task, you will find the inner peace, the elusive serenity that we search for.
A new handbag, ‘that dress’ a new car, a change of job or moving house will provide fulfilment that we yearn.
But it only serves to make us believe that happiness and joy are out of reach.
Human nature makes us discontent with what we have because we are programmed to want more.
The lockdown has demonstrated the importance of family, staying healthy and making the moment of every day.
Letting go of the need to strive for the ‘object of our desire’ and embrace nature’s rhythm by living in the moment we can be happy.
