I bought a snail and a Beta Fish! The snail does not move much. Much of the day he looks like a little stone on the bottom of the aquarium. If you introduce another snail, it’s no big deal! One snail will peacefully coexist with the other, carrying their own houses with them. They do not engage with others, and their existence is self-contained.
Beta Fish are beautiful graceful swimmers when free to swim by themselves. But, if you introduce another Beta Fish, become fierce warriors. Each introduces intolerable change to the other’s living conditions, and they will fight to the death to maintain their status quo. However, both snail and fish need their environmental conditions like water temperature and aeration to be unchanging. Too warm or too cold can be life-threatening.
We humans are wired a little differently than my friends in the aquarium. We manage change constantly. Most change that we encounter may be annoying, but not usually life-threatening. It reminds me of one of my favorite comedy routines by George Carlin. He labeled all other drivers as idiots or maniacs.Slower drivers were idiots and faster drivers were maniacs! True confession: I can relate, but I’m working on it!
The fact is, we all handle change differently. Some of us find great comfort in unchanging daily routine and feel stressed by even the slightest change. Others get restless without variety in their day. A mentor of mine once told me, that after working for twenty years, a person can either have twenty years of experience or one day of experience for twenty years! On one hand, change creates stress, but on the other hand, we cannot grow in knowledge and maturity without it.
So, waxing philosophical for a moment, I feel compelled to ask myself, “Who am I? What am I? And if not now, when?” Or, in ayurvedic terms, is my personality and metabolism hot/firey/focused, windy/inconsistent/unfocused, or cold/sluggish/resistant to change, and focused as long as everything stays constant. Each set of descriptors begins to define our human constitutions. We are not only wired differently from the beta fish and the snail, we are wired differently from each other!
And, layered upon our constitutional differences are the range of seasonal impact of summer, fall, winter, and spring. We dance with the elements of each season. If I am by nature, hot, the heat of summer can make me feel worse. I might actually find some comfort in the cold of winter. If I feel cold and sluggish, summer might help. If my digestive fire goes down in the summer, it is likely to be more robust in the winter.
Our constant challenge is to find the right balance between the vital forces within us and the forces of nature around us. Diet is a major tool, and so are the choices we make that help us relax and rejuvenate. As a result,expect to respond to your world with greater energy, clarity, and vision. Self care, with a regimen of therapeutic oils,yoga, and meditation prescribed for your constitution’s engagement with the immediate elements can also make a world of difference.
It may seem like a fishy puzzle with too many moving pieces, but I can help you make sense of it all. Why not contact me, and we will sort it out together in a free discovery session. Just click on the link below and fill out your contact information.
Recent Comments