Dancing to Your Own Beat
Coming out of the haze of the go-go-go world is both a welcome relief and a critical necessity to those who are profoundly engaged in a worldly mission. As time perceptively speeds up with “round the clock” connectivity capacity, the snail mail days of yore have all but disappeared—along with it the experience of having time to respond. Can you even imagine the days when you might communicate by correspondence delivered by the postal service? As a lover of the art of letter writing, it’s easy for me to imagine living a life slowed down to the speed of molasses and luxuriating in the viscosity of communication slowed way way down. Reveling in that fantasy, I find that the physical tension and contraction in my body begins to unwind and release. My breath begins to deepen and my abdominal cavity opens further to life.
In the face of raw unadulterated technological speed, social and internal pressures mount to encourage rapid response styles. “He emailed me a few days ago, and I haven’t responded yet. I need to get on top of that!” Does this sound familiar? For those that are social change artists—activists, bodhisattvas-in-training, and agents of deep change, your pressures to respond quickly may be even further heightened. Facing the world and those around us in the midst of many crisis/opportunities seems to spawn extra degrees of internal and external pressure to respond and take action. Have you ever thought, “If I could just do more…get in touch with that organization…call that person…connect those people….” Yeah. Me too. In the face of marginalized, impoverished, traumatized, and forgotten beings, human or otherwise, I feel called to use my humanness to respond, even if it means just being present with what is happening around me.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with responding quickly, and greater technological capacity comes with many obvious and novel gifts. What I have come to understand, sitting at the feet of great spiritual activists, is that staying in tune with my own rhythm—the beat of my unique drum—is utterly essential. As the world spins itself into a maelstrom of orgasmic frenzy, your unique and indigenous rhythm may become more faint, difficult to discern with all of that background fuzz. Know that it is still there. Behind the go-go-go beat of the world is your beat—steadfast and genuinely you.
Tuning into your own signature rhythm means turning one of your ears inward and listening inside to your own needs, desires, and dreams while you attune one ear outward to the needs of the world around you. Let’s call it “stereo” attunement. Attuning to your rhythm might ultimately mean taking some days off, a vacation, a retreat, or a new direction for your professional and/or personal life. Ultimately it means being able to commit to profound engagement for the long haul. Being a deeply engaged social change agent means dancing to your own beat so you can keep dancing, serving, engaging, and caring for the life of this party to which we’ve all been invited. The world and your internalized notions of it may not tell you to slow down, take a break, or stop, but your own beat will. Your own beat knows you.
Just imagine what engaging from a place of renewal would feel like. Nice, huh?
If we can do anything to revision and refashion the archetypal humble servant for the twenty-first century, let’s sacrifice the archetypes of the stoic martyr and the glorified disembodied workhorse to the alchemical fires of transformation so that we in service can open ourselves to balance and self-love in a harried world. Self-love and balance yield wise responses—the ones we most need and the world craves. I encourage you to find your rhythm and give yourself permission to attune to it—live through it. May you give yourself this gift so that your well-worn dreams of freedom take root and blossom through you into embodied glory.
so needed. there is so much pressure to respond and communicate these days. thanks for the reminder to truly stay connected–to ourselves! great post Kat!