For a balanced life, take the heroine's journey

Living a life not attuned to nature's cycles can affect the body and cause digestive issues as well as mental stress

- Hariprasad Varma [e-mail]

Modern workplaces and social systems we have in place today reflect a deep-rooted misalignment with natural feminine cycles and energies. Perhaps, the most significant indicator of this is the global shift in the way time is perceived. Indigenous cultures around the world followed the lunar calendar which honored natural rhythms. Lunar time is cyclical in nature and emphasizes the patterns of death and rebirth captured metaphorically in the phenomena of the waxing and waning moon.

Modern-day Gregorian calendar, first introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in October 1582, is a solar calendar. Solar calendar emphasizes linear time over cyclical patterns and standardizes months into artificial lengths that do not correspond to natural cycles. The design and intent behind this view of time was primarily to cater to the industrial and commercial needs of the time rather than serve one's biological rhythms.

This fundamental shift has led to a loss of connection of daily routine with the rhythms of nature. Companies and governments follow systems of artificial division of time into business quarters and fiscal years rather than natural seasons. What has got lost in this reasoning is the knowledge that our bodies respond differently to each season. Our energy levels and sleep and dietary requirements among others tend to vary with the seasons. This suppression of natural cycles has a grave impact on mental health. Stress induced from the efforts to fit into artificial rhythms, for instance, affects digestive and reproductive health.

GETTING INTO A RHYTHM