Lesson #31: The five rhythms of a balanced life

Last Saturday I participated in a full day of Five Rhythms dancing as part of a day workshop with the theme of ‘shadow and light.

It was the second workshop I’d been to, though I’ve been doing 1.5 hour dance sessions for three years. Five Rhythms has become a form of therapy for me, where I dance out feelings, release inhibitions and connect with myself and others, all while dancing and (mostly) having fun.

I wanted to attend this workshop for the same reason I wanted to attend the first one — to understand more deeply the five rhythms so that I can get more out of the weekly dances. So I went into this workshop only thinking of the ‘5 Rhythms’ and not much about ‘shadow and light’. Really, I didn’t think much at all, after all, this practice for me is really about getting out of my head and into my body, and it has really helped me in that regard.

What struck me in this workshop, first and foremost, was that, even though we were still exploring the 5 Rhythms .. the context was completely different. I saw more clearly how deep the 5 Rhythms concept goes.

Last years workshop moved through the rhythms as the journey through life .. from birth (flow), to childhood (staccato), to adolescence (chaos), to maturity (lyrical), to death (stillness). In that workshop, with the guidance and music, I explored my life and gained new understandings and connections that I now want to go back to and reflect on.

This year’s workshop, ‘Shadow and light’, was nothing like last years — in it’s focus at least. The light and shadow of each of the rhythms was highlighted and through movement I could explore the shadow and light of my existence.

Rhythm 1: flow — this feminine energy had me (in my state of exhaustion) mostly lying on the floor and move very gently. I could sense the movement and flow in the smallest of movements — even simply breathing — and with my eyes closed my body became my whole world. I don’t remember the shadow side to this state..

Rhythm 2: staccato — this movement is more edgy, angular, masculine. It embodies boundaries, rules, and a tribal beat. The guidance and information had to do with father figures and will and control. In reflection afterwards I notes how the masculine, overbearing quality was present in the females, and with me — my strong will, holding my breath, pushing through. It’s as though the patriarchal balance got tipped from one end to the other, with the females seeking to dominate the men. And I saw how I can return to balance, with boundaries and assertion and holding space.

Rhythm 3: chaos — this was the biggest clarifying piece for me. I can love chaos — the wild, creative, unpredictable. But in the description of shadow and light I saw my issue with chaos — the light = uncontrolled, the shadow=out of control. My issue with chaos was that I had lived more in the state of ‘out of control’ — at the whims of fate (and others), tossed like a leaf on a stream. And I realise that I would swing between ‘out of control’ to ‘over-control’ (of myself) in my quest for balance.

I learnt to love this chaotic space
this space of feeling lost.
It felt so comfortable because it was so familiar.
But I was going nowhere.
Running up one path and the next
not knowing where I was going
clinging to habits, commitments, attachments because without them I was lost.

Rhythm 4: lyrical — here the masculine and feminine combine in harmonious ways. In terms of the light and shadow:

light = playful, connected
shadow = dissociated, people pleasing, disconnected

Entering into a playful creative energy anything is possible.

Again and again this practice came back to being present to my breath, since in the shadow side of ‘dissociation’ we are not connected to our breath.
The ‘light’ side of this movement seems to directly reflect my mission on this earth, this balance of masculine and feminine, of playful connection, of presence and fresh perspectives.

Rhythm 5: stillness

By this point in the day I was completely spent. Exhausted. All I wanted to do was to lie and not move. And once again, like at the start, I could sense the movement in the stillness, and felt like honouring my body — feeling, releasing, presence, stretching, pressing, massage.

I burnt my battery at the start of the year
I’m slowly recharging it.
And in the stillness,
I become clearer.

Completion

And so the 5 Rhythms mark a journey of honouring and accepting the parts and bringing them into a whole. This workshop really opened me up to the depth of this practice and this concept. And in line with my word for 2022 — Awaken- this was an awakening to some aspects of my being that had tipped to far to one extreme, in particular the swing between ‘out of control’ chaos to ‘over controlled’ willpower.

Here’s to presence in the stillness, in the chaos, in the playful connection, and to flow in the structure and structure in the flow. Here’s to your journey in all of it’s shadow and light. Here’s to life.