“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts most.” ~ Harry S. Truman
When looking at rhythms, you might think about other substitute words, such as cycle, pattern, phases, or the ups and downs of life. The reason I call each phase or cycle a rhythm is because none of the other definitions seem to fit as well, and each of these words already has a pre-conceived meaning attached to it. Rhythm is a good word, a non-judgmental one, one that fits for everyone.
Let’s take a brief look at the meaning of the term “rhythm.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes rhythm as “movement, fluctuation, or variation marked by the regular recurrence or natural flow of related elements.”
Another definition is of “a regularly recurrent quantitative change in a variable biological process,” such as a circadian rhythm. Big words for a simple meaning! The term “rhythm” refers to regular changes, or to your own internal biological clock that affects mental and physical characteristics occurring in the course of a day; a 24-hour interval.
You might be familiar with the word biorhythm, which is defined as an innately determined rhythmic biological process or function. A biorhythm chart with its waves illustrates how we are influenced by physical, emotional and intellectual rhythms. Literature has a rhythm to it and when children learn to read in school, they clap or tap rhythmically.
When I came across the work of Charles Brodie Patterson (1854-1936), an influential leader of New Thought (which popularized the Law of Attraction), I realized that my thought of a definite rhythm has been around for quite some time. We cannot deny that there is a rightful place and a rightful time in which something is to take place. After all, the saying goes that “everything happens in due time.”
Patterson wrote in his book Rhythm of Life, “all vibration is the result of energy in motion. Energy in rhythmic, vibratory motion has produced every form in the universe; and energy in discordant motion is destructive of all forms.” He then writes: “Perhaps we know something of the melody of life, but we do not yet understand the rhythm and harmony of it in the sense that we shall some day; for we have hardly yet begun to enter into the joys and beauties of life that will eventually be revealed to the dwellers upon this earth.”
Tell me, what has been your conception of energy, and of rhythm? I realize that the concept of ego-RHYTHM™ is fairly straightforward, but each of us perhaps had a different sense of it. Would you share yours with me? I’d love to know about your point of view. Thanks so much!
Image by Michael Albany Photography
