The Power of Placing Yourself in Time
One thing I have found in common across all cultures and ways of being is the importance of marking and celebrating time, aka holidays.
I recently went to a Passover dinner and was reminded of the importance of sharing time, food and song with each other. It was my first Passover celebration, so I learned a lot about Judaism. It didn’t really matter that I am not Jewish, only that I was present and participating. A main theme was the encouragement of asking questions, which led to deeper discussions and understanding. It was a truly warm experience, and it helped me to remember that these are core human needs – to be in community and to tell the story of your people. Without stories, who are we? How much of your day is predicted by the stories you tell about yourself and the roles you play? How do the stories of your ancestors affect the way you live your life?
Time is the sense that we are moving in a certain direction – forward. Time arises from the Earth spinning, which creates cycles of day/night and seasons, and from that movement comes growth and decay. A sense of growth or decay goes hand in hand with a sense of time because it allows us to see change. The fact that things change means that they are moving from one state of being to another. This change has a huge influence on our lives, as we are constantly moving from one state of being to another. States of being include feelings, levels of wakefulness, body conditions, thoughts, and behaviors all put together. Time is a measure of change.
Time is made of the mixing of many rhythms. From heartbeats to the length of a day on different planets to cycles of light and dark to hunger and sleep. Humans run on what is called the circadian rhythm, which dictates timing of hormones that cue when it’s time to eat, sleep, and wake based on the light of the sun. When we live in alignment with this rhythm – rising and sleeping with the sun and eating when we are hungry – we experience more ease. The body and brain connection is strengthened each time we listen to a signal from the body, meaning that our body trusts the brain to get what it needs. This is important because when your body trusts you, it can communicate using more gentle signals, rather than screaming out for attention through pain or symptoms.
When we align our inner rhythms with the outer rhythms of the Earth, we are thoroughly supported. The rising sun triggers a rise in hormones that pull us out of sleep, but if we continuously let the tired take over and go back to sleep, we override this natural phenomenon and suppress the waking hormones, making us more tired throughout the day. Thankfully, we are naturally inclined to be in sync with the outer rhythms of the world. For example, eating a big meal in the middle of the day is supportive to the digestive system because as the sun is the highest in the sky, our digestive fire is at its strongest. We can learn to harness the energy of the seasons and cycles to make life easier because we stop forcing things and support our own energy systems. We begin to lean in and listen deeper to the needs of our body, and when we give our body what it needs, it is more likely to be able to do what we need it to.
The ancient science of Ayurveda (sister science to Yoga) understood this and treats illness by re-aligning to more natural rhythms and supporting the body with proper nutrition.
Ayurveda teaches which foods support the digestion in which seasons and times of day. Ayurveda is not alone, in fact many older systems of science and healing place great importance on the timing of each aspect of life, and how we can harness the power of time in our lives.
The act of marking your own time with routines and rituals is a source of great power because it is how humans create identities, and thus, culture.
Marking time can be as small as brushing your teeth when you wake up in the morning, or as big as celebrating your birthday each year. It is simply the rhythmic way we move through the constant cycles of change (days, weeks, months, etc.). It is how we organize our internal rhythms, like hunger and sleep, in accordance with the outer rhythms of the sun, moon, and stars. Often times it is the smallest adjustments in routine, that can create the most profound changes in life and health. What would happen if right after you woke up and before you went to bed, you took a few minutes to breathe deeply and check in with your internal state?
Marking time is especially important for making it through the more difficult seasons of life. Up in the mountains, where winter is long and cold and dark, celebrations and ceremonies are key to helping people make it through. The warmth and joy of the harvest ceremonies in the fall helps to keep the people’s hearts hopeful through the winter. Throughout winter, gathering is crucial for the maintaining of mental health. Then the joy and newness of spring works to bring in fresh energy and excitement – the balm of motivation that comes to break up the stagnancy of winter. In this way, rituals are the communal medicine that has allowed humans to spread all over the globe. They learned how to mark time in alignment with the places they were in, and thus, thrive in almost any environment.
I come from a town that celebrates Vinotok, a harvest celebration with roots in Eastern Europe and mining culture, each fall. It is a time of full expression, freedom to be as weird as you want, and it is a time of gathering with your people to take note of what you have harvested so far in the year. What you have harvested as in what has come to pass, what has grown because of you, and what has grown inside you. It is also a time of letting go, of throwing into the fire anything too heavy to take with us through winter. Vinotok was the seed that planted the medicine of marking time with my community.
When cultures overtake other cultures, the conquerors don’t allow the conquered to keep worshipping their own gods because it directly cuts the people off from their source of joy, community, and time, thus making them easier to control. Each religion has specific days or times of the year that represent important times from its history and times for celebrations. These times foster a deeper sense of understanding that comes from shared experiences and shared history.
The power of placing yourself in time is creating a life of more ease and alignment, as well as writing your own story. Through our rituals and ceremonies, we write the story of who we are, as individuals and as cultures. The freedom to write your own story is a core element of the human experience, however, in the past thousands of years, we have experienced many cultures being erased, overtaken and changed by others in forceful ways. We have witnessed the death of countless stories and the overgrowth of certain narratives. Now is the time to take back our power in the form of marking of our own time by creating routines that feel supportive, celebrating with your community, and choosing to write your own story.
