The Practical Soul:

This is the week!

It's the week I'm putting my body in charge. I'd like to hear what it has to say about how I'm living my life and what it would do differently given the chance. Now it has its chance.

I'm imagining it'll have some things to say about the amount of sleeping, eating, resting, exercising and sitting quietly I do and I'm open to hearing from it on any other topics as well.

I'm looking to uncover my natural rhythms and see how close to or far away from my adopted habits they are.

The ways my body will be in charge

I'm going to go to sleep when my body tells me I'm tired, rather than stay up and socialise or finish e-mails

I'm going to allow my body to wake up naturally in the morning when it's had enough sleep rather than set an alarm

I'm going to eat when my body tells me it's hungry rather than when it's lunchtime or others have arrived to join me

Exercise is a bit different for me as I don't believe I've ever received a signal from my body telling me it would like to exercise. With this one I'm going to do what I had planned and watch closely for signs. Signs of ease telling me it's OK to keep going and signs of distress telling me to slow down or stop.

I tend to get frazzled if I don't take enough time quietly on my own, either reading, thinking about a client or meditating. I'll watch for signs of frazzle and whether it's due to lack of quiet.

There's other things I know contribute hugely to the wellbeing of my soul and I'll keep an eye on those too

Order, beauty and good smells in my home (I work here too so doubly important) A balance of stillness and movement

Pleasure and fun, I can tip over into work, work, work, very easily and become dull without noticing

Talking of pleasure, I drink wine (one - three glasses) and coffee (one cup) most days and plan to continue with these pleasures. They are for pure pleasure and not imbibed in order to get my body to do things it wouldn't do without them, like wind down or stay awake so I can drive or finish a piece of work. I know they'll have an impact on my rhythms and I'm going to accept that distortion.

So....I've begun, my body is in charge and I'm listening.

I'll note down what it asks for and how far that is from what I'd have done. I hope it's not too far!

I'll report the findings through the week. Now...time for wine.....

Hello. How’s 2007 going for you so far?
A rich and fertile new year, each moment ripe, luscious, full of promise and lived with zest and relish?

Or is it closer to the other end of the spectrum, a bit grey and tired? Weather a bit grey, skin a bit grey, system a bit groggy and tired?

No problem, eat this superfood and get vibrant in a day!

Wow. When did we develop expectations of year round vibrancy and verve, with no allowances for the natural ebb and flow of things? From people who make products that will help us get that way maybe.

We’re totally accepting of plants and animals having natural rhythms, growth periods and dormant periods. We happily indulge their hibernation.
Trees can drop their leaves and do apparently nothing for months without us being on their case to produce. When new shoots arrive in the Spring we’re delighted to see them. We don’t say ‘About time! How long does it take to produce a few shoots. What have you been doing all winter?’

But ourselves? Alas we seem to be far less accepting of our own natural rhythms.
Or rather we’re very accepting of the flowing, not so of the ebbing, seeing tiredness as a problem to be overcome rather than a signal from our wise bodies advising us to rest.

Do you agree to lots of social things that all sound great and you really want to do but them when the time comes you just don’t have the energy and either crawl your way through and don’t enjoy them or end up canceling and feeling bad? It seems our body just goes right ahead and organises our ‘ebbing times’ regardless of our plans and we go right ahead and fill our diaries regardless of our bodies plans.

Do you keep working late to finish ‘just this piece of work’, telling yourself you’ll get back to normal hours after this, but then another priority arrives, working late becomes normal, time at home drops down the priority list and before you know it ‘ebbing time’ is barely there?

I know very few people who know what their natural rhythms are and fewer still who pay attention to them and work their lives according to this precious wisdom.

I’ve tended to adopt timetables. Working hours that are culturally acceptable, school hours and social habits and flex myself to accommodate them without giving a whole lot of thought to my own rhythms.
The size of the gap between our natural rhythms and our adopted timetable determines how much we will need to flex and ignore or alter our bodies in order to continue with our adopted timetable.
My ignoring and altering habits seem like minor enough offences

- I sometimes stay up and socialise longer than my body would like to. It says
tired now, time for sleep’. I ignore it and stay up anyway.
- I sometimes need to be up in the morning before my body would like to be, so I ignore
it wanting more sleep, set an alarm and get it up out of bed anyway.
- When I get downstairs and start getting breakfast ready, I’m a little less than sparky and
ready for the day so I alter that with a cup of earl grey tea.
Minor offences I’m sure you’ll agree, when you think about the sugar, drugs, workaholic and shopaholic tactics I could be adopting to ignore or alter things.

Minor though they may be, I can’t help wondering what it might be like not to ignore or adjust all the time but to try life according to my body, what that would mean in practice and how different that is from what I’m doing now?

I’ve decided it’s time to find out.
I’m putting my body in charge for a week.
Next week!

I’ve chosen next week as it’ll be a little easier, it’s our school Feb half term holiday and my son is away snowboarding (the highlight of his year by far), so I won’t have him and his friends for tea. A friend who regularly stays with us while working up this side of the country has her last day in that job today (Fri 9th Feb) and so won’t be joining me to eat next week either. I’ve also kept the week fairly free of appointments so I’ll have as little as possible to dodge around.
I’ve thought about some of the things my body might like to have a say about like how much and when I work, eat, drink, sleep, sit quietly, exercise, and socialise. I’m open to hearing things I hadn’t anticipated too. I’m really looking forward to seeing what it has been trying to get me to do for years.

Have you a sense of how close or far away you are from your natural rhythms and how your body would adjust things if you let it?

I’m hoping to unearth my natural rhythms, (or at least my natural rhythms for a week in February), then we’ll see…….
Is it bliss? Do I love it? Am I converted? What am I going to do now?

All these answers and more…. find out how it’s going here at the blog.