Ever felt like there are some periods in life where you are on that little kiddie roller coaster at the fair - but yet other periods feel like the drop of doom (on repeat)?
Yeah, I’ve been there.
In response to this week’s podcast episode about perseverance (to listen to E84 CLICK HERE), I wanted to talk further about one of the Universal Laws that relates to this idea of mindset.
For those of you who have been following my journey, you may have already heard me talk about the 12 Universal Laws - but I wanted to focus on one for this particular blog, the Universal Law of Rhythm.
And no, I am not talking about getting your boogie on.
The Universal Law of Rhythm states:
"Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."
--The Kybalion.
But what exactly does this mean?
Well here is my interpretation…
If we were to spend some time watching a pendulum we would notice that it naturally swings from left to right and back again - the height of swing from side to side is equivalent, meaning that the height as it swings to the left will be matched on the right.
And so it goes in life - we receive periods of highs, and periods of lows in equal parts.
What is important then is not whether or not we can avoid suffering at all costs, but how we show up when our pendulum swings in this direction.
Enter mindset.
I want you to think about a time in your life where you experienced hardship, challenge, suffering of any kind - how did you show up?
There are a couple options here - either we experience the situation with unattached awareness, we distract ourselves away from the experience, or we judge/label/feed into what is happening.
In E84 of my Podcast, I share with you some of the major milestones of my own journey - and how the most difficult experiences I have been up against have led to some of the proudest, most beautiful moments of my life - because I didn’t buy into the low or pretend that it wasn’t happening.
I experienced the low, because this is a necessary part of the process, a necessary part of the healing. But I moved forward.
In moving forward, that pendulum starts to shift in the opposite direction - we are able to bounce back.
But how do we move forward if we don’t know where to begin?
Here are my top tips to rise in the face of adversity:
1 - Understand your strengths AND weaknesses.
Look we all have things that come easily to us, and then there are those things that we just cannot figure out no matter how much time we invest - get to know these parts of yourself. Become an expert in understanding your skill set so that when faced with a challenge you are able to either learn what it is you need to, or find support in someone who knows how to do what you don’t.
2 - Be open AND coachable.
The more fluid you are in the process, the easier it will be to move forward - which is not to say that being fluid is easy. Notice where you are resistant to the process, or to the feedback that is handed to you. And then...Do. The. Work. Make the shifts, lean into the discomfort, show up differently. Know that even when something stings (perhaps especially when it stings) information is what ultimately helps us move forward.
3 - Ask yourself what you really want.
It’s great to understand where you might need to learn or lean into support, and it’s important to be open during the process - but none of this matters if deep down you don’t want it. In order to rise from the metaphorical ashes of adversity, there needs to be a fire - and that fire comes from within you. Take the time to reflect on what it is that you TRULY want, and be okay with whatever the answer is that comes up.
The more we practice this, the less drastic the pendulum swings (imagine instead of someone giving the pendulum a push it is just at rest - because even at rest it moves with slight energy from left to right).
This pendulum is our life.
We can either ride the highs and lows at random - or invest in our mindset to meet the highs and lows with awareness.
And when we meet the lows with awareness, we are given a choice - we can allow ourselves to buy into it, to become consumed or to knowingly distract our attention (and that pendulum swing continues to shift dramatically from left to right).
Or, we can become unattached, we can recognize that the highs and lows occur in rhythm with one another - that the struggle is just as important as the triumph. We experience, we learn, we move forward.
So maybe, in a way, it is a little bit like a dance - boogie on my friends.
And know that everything you need (and more) is already inside of you.
To listen to E84 CLICK HERE