Beginning again and again and again. The cycle of evolution.
Personal photos through the seasons of life
I used to think I was doing it all wrong. Cause no matter what I did I always seemed to end up at the beginning again. I felt I had to start over and over again, no matter how hard I tried to get it right, get it done, finish somehow, create order in life chaos. I had this idea that life would somehow be wrapped up in a pretty bow. All neat and clean and in order. And then I could get to living. I was so disappointed every time I felt I was at the starting line again. Like it was groundhog day and it reloaded me up at the start and I had to begin all over again and again and again. I used to feel I wasn’t moving forward. And I would be hard on myself for failing again and just not getting it right and done.
I thought somehow I would leave beginning behind. That life was linear, as in beginning, middle and end. I wanted to get to the middle where I thought I would be more put together. I would know who I was, what I was gonna do with my life. Just know more than at the beginning where I have to figure everything out. And so many things are still in the unknown.
Life is a cycle
Turns out though, life isn’t linear, it’s a cycle. Which means when you get to the end of a cycle, you also end up at a new beginning. So you get: beginning middle end - beginning middle end - beginning middle end, on repeat. Which means as long as you’re existing you never stop ending up at the beginning.
What does this mean? To me it meant that I wasn’t doing life wrong, I was just looking at it the wrong way, because I was missing this piece of vital information.
The why of the cycle
The cycle of life is the cycle of evolution. It may appear that you end up at the same start line over and over. But that’s because you are so close to yourself that you can’t see the tiny or even big ways you’ve evolved.
The cycle of life is here for the evolution of you. It is the WHY behind change. Change is here to evolve you. To become more yourself, to discover and unleash the power of you. With each cycle it can deepen. Especially when you embrace it and follow the flow of the life evolution cycle.
Use the energy and power of each season of life
A way that I love to visualize the cycle of evolution, are the seasons. It’s very visual and we know them by heart. Which makes it easy to remember and apply in daily life.
It literally is the cycle of life, of nature, of which we of course are part of.
Let’s take a (simplified) example of a tree during the seasons:
Spring: Growth begins. New leaves are forming on the trees.
Summer: Leaves and flowers grow and blossom. New seeds are made. Growing reaches its peak in summer.
Autumn: seeds are dispersed. The leaves turn yellow, red, brown because they are drained for their nutrients, to use this energy for getting through the winter. The leaves are let go, fall off the tree. It’s to preserve energy.
Winter: Rest, preserve, hibernate, keep warm. The tree is in essential mode.
And repeat
To get a even clearer feel for the life cycle let’s take a (simplified) look at the birth, growing and maturing of a tree during the seasons:
Spring: The seeds that were dispersed in autumn, take root and sprout.
Summer: The sprout grow into little baby trees, saplings.
Autumn: The sapling cannot reproduce yet, for it is not yet mature. Leaves fall off.
Winter: Hibernation. Preserve energy.
Next growth and maturing cycles:
Spring: The sapling grows deeper roots, and bigger stems and more branches.
Summer: It continues to grow deeper and bigger. Becomes taller and more deeply rooted into the earth. So it can better weather storms and such.
Autumn: Leaves are drained of nutrients and the leaves fall off.
Winter: Rest, hibernate, protect against cold. Keep warm and safe. Preserve energy for the next spring, when growth starts up again.
With each cycle of the seasons, the tree grows and matures. With maturity it will be able to produce seeds, fruits and flowers. And the tree will flow and evolve with the cycle of the seasons.
Alternating between seasons of growth, spring and summer, and seasons of rest, autumn and winter. A dance between Yin and Yang, being and doing. A balance of being and doing.
The off-balance of yin and yang in our society
What struck me when I was learning about the energy of the particular seasons, was that our societal emphasis lies on the yang as the most important, a way higher virtue than the yin part. There is such a high emphasis on always growing and doing, achieving. That being, resting, recharging, relaxing is snowed under big time.
I read something about our obsession with growth (I unfortunately don’t remember the book, but I’ll never forget this fact, you’ll see why). So the author talks about how we want to grow, grow, grow, without stopping. We want it in our economy, our life. We always want more more more, without decline and preferably without a stop in growing even. And then he said this: “the only thing in nature that grows without stopping is… cancer.”
BOOM. Did that hit you, like it did me? That was a wake-up call to me. Wanting only growth is sort of cancerous to our lives and wellbeing. And who wants that!
Every season has its own powers
What I learned from the seasons is that each season has its place and importance. And I wanted to apply that to my life. I set out to balance being and doing, cause that is how nature stays healthy and strong. And following nature has allowed me to become stronger, healthier, more creative, joyful and more in flow.
Being allows me to do in a more sustainable way. And in a higher quality. I have to say embracing more being, doing nothing, relaxing and just having some fun, has made me so so so much more productive. I’m still super surprised at times, of what I do in a higher quality in less time, by adding more of doing nothing. It’s like ideas have the space to mature, marinate and stew in downtime and then when I get to it, it’s just there, ready to go. And I’m more often ready to go because I’ve rested and taken care of myself.
The balance of growing and slowing
The seasons are showing us that there is a time for growing and a time for slowing down. And when we follow the cycle of the seasons, with each that passes, we become more deeply rooted in ourselves, we stand taller and stronger. We mature and flower. We express ourselves freely in the world. With each life cycle you evolve and unleash more and more the power of being you.
Practice: Using the flow of the seasons in daily life
On a practical note, you can use the symbolic visual of the seasons, during the literal seasons. As that will be the energy of nature that will be in the air and will support that particular characteristics of the season. It’s like riding your bike with the wind in your back, easing and supporting you in the direction that you’re headed in. As oppose to bicycling into the wind, which costs way more energy and can be pretty frustrating.
The energy of spring
So say when you start a new project in spring, it will get the extra boost of the energy of spring, which is the birth time of new growth. You will experience more flow when you time it with spring. Spring is more yang, more doing flow.
The energy of summer
In summer you can develop and flower the project you started. As the energy of nature will be to grow and blossom. Summer is the big yang, which is doing in pure flow aka flowering.
The energy of autumn
In autumn it’s a great time to release what doesn’t suit you anymore, whether that is things, thoughts, relationships or habits. As autumn is the energy of release, falling of the leaves. Autumn is more Yin, which is transitioning more into being. Slowing down more.
The energy of winter
In winter, it’s the time for slowing down, resting more, letting ideas and inspiration stew and hibernate until it’s time for spring and birth. It’s a time to reflect and look within to what is essential and what is not. To see what is true and what is not. Winter is the big Yin, which is turning inwards, into being. Being and seeing who you are.
The seasons in a day and in a moon month
You can see the “cycle of the seasons” also on a daily basis, when we go from night to day to night again. Night being winter. Waking up in the morning, spring starts. Summer in the afternoon and autumn in the early evening.
Another “cycle of the seasons” is the moon/months calender. From new moon to full moon is spring and summer and the decline from full moon to new moon is autumn and winter.
I love flowing with the seasons in a day, month or the actual season. It helps me with feeling more vitality, ease, joy. Like I have the wind in my back going through life.
The personal seasons of life
Next to the use in the literal seasons, you can use the wisdom of this cycle in your personal season of life. Like when you start a new school, a new job, a new business or a new relationship. Or the release of it. Or the maturing of say your job, like a promotion or marriage or whatnot. Or a rest and recharging phase in between.
In any new, growing, release or slowing you can use the knowledge and the visual of the seasons to know where you are, and know that you are flowing to whatever the season is. And that you are just right where you’re supposed to be.
Whether it is beginning again. Birth. Spring.
Growing stronger and flowering. Summer.
Releasing what’s no longer true and slowing. Autumn.
Rest. Preserve energy. Slow down. Replenish. Winter.
You are exactly where you need to be
In your personal seasons, focus on your cycle and don’t compare to where someone else is at in their cycle of evolution.
You are exactly where you need to be. Your personal cycle of life is just that, it is tailor made just for you. Trust in the wisdom and intelligence of nature guiding you, growing you, evolving you. Let the changes of the seasons evolve you. And if that means you are at the beginning again, know that underneath the surface you are growing deeper into who you really are.
Beginning again doesn’t freak me out that much anymore. It’s exciting and also still a bit scary. What will happen? Who will I be? Can I? But knowing it’s natural, beginning again, and having seen the cycle of life evolve me, I trust that life will guide me into the next deeper level of me. Now I see it as an adventure, beginning again. Where will I go? What will I experience? What am I gonna learn? Let's have some fun and explore and discover new land, inside yourself.
Love,
An-na
