The Seven Year Cycles
There are many articles out there about the life cycles. Early Years TV states that “Rudolf Steiner’s educational philosophy revolutionized early childhood education. His holistic approach, emphasizing creativity, nature, and child-centered learning, continues to influence practitioners worldwide. For Early Years professionals and students, understanding Steiner’s ideas offers valuable insights into child development and innovative teaching methods.”
In the Harper Bazaar’s article, “Have you checked in with your seven-year cycle?”, Nilgin Yusuf explores the benefits of seeing your life as a series of cycles, rather than in linear formation.
Tom Monte’s article, The 7-Year Cycles of Life” helped me to gain some perspective on what I was experiencing. However, none of these articles mentioned anything about how to take care of the body as it goes through these cycles. So, I had to do my own research. From my angle, I wanted to understand the life cycles from a physical perspective.
The New York Times article, The Body is Younger than You Think, touched on the optimism that I was starting to feel. Renewal, shedding, letting go, moving on up and forward and tackling age from the inside.
At the age of forty two, I had begun the sixth of the seventh cycle of life. A very significant time though I did not know this at the time. During my processing, and with all the conflicts that I was facing, I began to become more interested in the knowledge of things, so to speak. What were these life cycles that I’ve heard about and how can this knowledge help me?
There is a lot of information out there about this phase of my life like preparing for perimenopause as a woman, breast screening, preparing for retirement, how to travel, making new friends, aging well, longevity, dating as you get older, etc. etc. I decided to keep that information in the background and approached things from a different angle.
My body was feeling pain more than usual. If I did anything physical, it took longer to heal and recover, and this aligned with the pull to sleep more. I wanted to eat more. I wanted to just lay down and rest from here on out. This was a struggle. I wanted help – help to carry my bags, to not walk too long, I became out of breath easily. I felt anguished and angry.
A positive point here is that I started to feel more compassion for people, specifically older people. Memories surfaced of times when I would see older people walk at a slower pace or put their bags down in the middle of my pathway. Then, at times, I would walk past them and feel like they were in my way with no thoughts or mindfulness that they might have stopped or was resting for specific reasons. It seems, life was teaching me a great lesson. I felt thankful.
And there, right there, a reality started to present itself. What was the condition of my heart, what was my karma, my past actions towards myself and others, and what was I willing to change? Here, at the age of forty two, I started to feel the effects of my past actions affecting my body. I regretted all the breaths I didn’t take, all the times I went against the body to satisfy my image, all the times I rushed to do things, eating too fast, moving too quickly, blocking my heart to meet criteria, expectations and time deadlines. I regretted that I had negative thoughts or actions toward others somehow seeing the correlation that there are consequences in life to everything.
So, I started to push myself to live, to get out of the belief system that I had to prepare for age and death. I decided to break out of what I may have created unconsciously and that required, movement, movement, movement.
I moved three times between the ages of forty two to forty nine: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. I got rid of things. I ended jobs, tried new careers. I ended relationships. I started to exercise more than I wanted not settling for just a stroll in the park eventually choosing to box to gain some much-needed upper body strength and cardio.
I dove into my spiritual practice to bring all that I was experiencing to find answers. The more I asked, the more I got. I started to eat differently, at times, just juicing for days. I changed habits that reinforced a low vibration like the pull to be comfortable, hold a warm blanket in front the TV, stay in social situations that drained me. I gave more that I could have thought I had within me to give. I pushed myself to stay active, staying out late at night and getting up early. I started journaling every day. Water became my best friend. I laughed, laughed, laughed. I upgraded my supplements to match what my body needed. I listened to my body, talked with it, apologized to it. I became friends with it. I started to care more about the earth and felt I was a visitor and wanted her to value my presence – I recycled more, and I thought about the footprint that I was making and leaving from my visit here on Earth! I started to make changes to the way I spent my money cutting down on unnecessary things. I disconnected from things and situations that wanted me to age and die.
Little by little, I started to see and feel a change within me. The best I can describe it: life, renewal, youth, rejuvenation, hope, goodness, love, beauty and light with a trust in myself. When forty nine showed up, I knew I won my first big battle. It felt great! I recognized the rhythm I created. I then felt like I was looking forward to celebrating my 50th birthday with joy and a feeling that the best years of my life are yet to come…
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