What is it time for in your life?

How do you relate to time?

In general, is your relationship with time something you’ve paused to consider?

If not, the question may be a funny one. Or it might seem like a “what do you mean how do I relate to time” type of a non-question. Societally we most often grow up not considering the question beyond ‘learning how to tell time’ by reading the clock, learning the weekdays, months, and linear history going from A to B to C.

“There is a place and a time for everything,” as traditional wisdom teaches us.

And indeed, our reality consists of the coordinates of space (physical place) and time, so time is kind of a relevant theme. And there are many different qualities of time beyond the obvious linear assumption.

And digging a bit deeper, many do actually feel this, too.

Natural cycles of time hiding in our everyday

We may think of time as linear even though even our regular calendar is about repeating cycles. Living in a northern country, the four seasons are sooo important. This shows up for example with the obsession over the weather, which is of course intimately connected to the annual cycle of the seasons, as well as the diurnal, daily cycles.

People naturally feel the chill of late-autumn stormy winds, the magical quiet of a winter night right after snowfall, the burgeoning of life in spring when surrounds seem to turn green over night, and the lazy warmth of summer afternoon. Thinking about it this way, it is easy to reflect that indeed, time feels different very different at each of these moments. And we have individual preferences for when we wish it would go quicker, and when we wish it would stand still, for the moment to last on forever.

Linear growth is an illusion - yet it’s what our society is built around

A lot of pain comes from the illusion that a continuous, linear “forever growth” would even be possible - hence lots of energy is wasted trying to force it.

Nature provides us with the template for sustainable approaches. If it’s not found in nature, it’s not meant for this planet. And linear growth is not found in nature.

An illusion of it is prominent, however: we may say that ‘hey, a tree does start growing and then at some point stops growing and dies’. That is true. However, it is an artificially limited scope: What happens before the tree started growing visibly? And what happens after it dies? The short answer is, a lot - most of it out of view, below the surface, nurturing growth. With the wood wide web, an individual tree is only a temporary above-ground manifestation of cycles of life that go on continuously. Like life cycle thinking and circular economy, the picture is broadened.

So what?

The ‘so what’ is that since linear growth can only be measured with artificial cut-off points, we miss that cyclical growth has waxing and waning seasons.

Modern culture cherry picks waxing only, puts an overemphasis on celebrating external growth and successes and assumes growth can continue forever.

This unquestioned, often subconscious assumption puts stress on people to perform accordingly. Or at least come up with explanations for and make announcements around why they are not ‘always on’: not always active on social media, not always reaching for the next big career milestone, not always starting some amazing new project.

The natural waning phases of growth are often the hardest to accept. This is due to the misconception that you ‘should be’ progressing in a way that you have something external to show for it constantly.

Yet the purpose of waning phases is to slow down, reflect on where you’ve come and what it all means. To rest and to heal and regain strength and inspiration for what is coming up next. It’s darkest before the dawn.

Cycles give you a map of where you are at

Astrology is really about the study of the quality of time, specifically the cycles of time - and there are an abundant amount of various cycles interplaying at any point in time, a picture way more complex than a simple blog post. A big reason that cycles are so interesting to me, is that they give meaning to each individual moment in them: it’s like they provide a map to understand where you are at in reference to the bigger picture. This provides a birds-eye view, and brings perspective. This on the other hand helps make meaning of and bring clarity to what you are living through.

There really is a time for everything. And at the end of the day everyone has their own unique right time for everything, which may or may not be in sync with what’s right for your friends / family / co-workers / neighbors - let alone what society seems to be doing.

We need to be that authority for ourselves to give ourselves permission to go at life at our own pace. No-one else can do that.

If you’re feeling

• a push to go fast when something inside is saying ‘slow down’,

• uncertainty around your why or what,

• lack of focus,

• the overwhelm of being pulled in too many directions,

not to worry, nothing is wrong with you. You are exactly where you are meant to be and whatever you are feeling is sending you a message. The question is, can you hear what it is trying to tell you?

If you’d like some support on decoding the message of your inner wisdom, join me for an Inner Compass Clarity session.

In this 90-minute exploratory session, we’ll delve into what’s blocking your natural flow and help reconnect you to the inner wisdom that already knows the way and pace forward.

Book here or email me at saila (a) purposeworks.fi to chat about where you are at.

Wishing you presence and pleasure in your present!