The first thing I do when I awake is go to the balcony and give thanks for where I live. The second thing I do, is take note of the tide. Humans have always been drawn to the ocean, when I lived in the US the lakes, rivers, snow and blizzards in Colorado filled me spiritually and emotionally.
When you live near water you bear witness to the tides, I find myself thinking about the ‘water’ and ‘tides’ of life. The ebb and flow of the tides is a powerful reminder of life’s regeneration. Life is always in motion and things are always changing. We must all let go of bad habits, negative thinking, anything that doesn’t help us move forward and enjoy our lives. Change can be difficult, but just like the changing tides, our lives are always changing. The Changing Tides bring new life and nourishment while taking away the things in our life that aren’t useful.
The universe around us is constantly moving—the setting sun, the rising moon, the ebb and flow of the tides, the beating of our hearts.
There are lots of timing pattens in our lives.
Birthday to birthday.
Primary school years.
High school years.
The single years.
The married years.
Your 20’s.
Your 50’s and beyond.
The years we thought things would happen and they didn’t.
In 2008 I went to Ethiopia. I had another reminder of about being connected to natural rhythms. With limited electricity and technology I honored their way of life and went to bed with the sun and rose with the sun. Electricity was scarce, depending on the day. There was no facebook or text messages or distractions so the quality and connection of conversations was more authentic, deeper. In our busy lives we have lost the connection to ebb and flow and cycles. We have lost our connection to nature and each other. Do you honor your body when you are tired and rest or go to bed earlier? If it’s hot are you doing more cooling activities or pushing through a vigorous pace and creating more energetic heat?
A simple life hack and act of healing is feeling connected to the moon, and the tides. I find myself questioning and inquiring, how are these qualities operating in my life. How are they operating in yours?
- Transformation
- Subconscious
- Fertilization
- Purification
- Reflection
- Intuition
- Renewal
- Blessing
- Motion
When is the last time you felt like a tide was turning in your life?
Are you overdue for transformation?
You may feel stuck. Waiting for change and wondering when it will happen. If the moon and the tides teach us anything, its that nothing stays the same forever. Life may not change ‘when’ we want it, but it changes.
Just like a crashing wave in the surf, we get to duck and get under it or get overpowered. There are many unpleasant waves that can hit us: shame, sadness, anger, helplessness, disappointment, embarrassment, vulnerability and frustration. These feelings can feel overwhelming but they are also physical.
When feelings get physical they can create stress, anxiety, headaches, breathlessness, pain. We naturally want to escape or numb these feelings. Waves and tides teach us that intensity, physically and psychologically can overwhelm us, but they also change.
There is skill and sometimes painful practice in learning to ride waves of emotion.
Remember the most painful event in the last year. How did you get through?
Remember the most stressful event in the past five years. How did you get through?
The answer is you learned how to ride emotional waves.
Riding emotional waves takes practice.
A huge part of rhythms, tides and transformation is knowing ‘when’ to breath. Do you need to come up for air? Or take a deep breath because you are going under?
Breath is everything. Mastering the physical and metaphorical breath is how you survive transformation.
The mastery of our emotional tides, is a skill that gives us emotional and psychological freedom.
I’m not going to be a master at surfing this lifetime, but learning when to breath definitely helps.
With magic,
Julia x
