Keeping The Beat

When learning to play the drums in my earlier days, I recall being both best friends and worst enemies with a little device called a metronome. Most musical folk - and most folk in general know that a metronome can be set to keep a certain time - keep the perfect rhythm or beat you might say. When you get off time you learn to curse at this thing, because everyone knows since it always keeps perfect time - it must be you the human who is off. Stay in sync with it and you’re ready to be the backbone of the band - keeping everyone else on time. I was attending a continuing education course a few years back and the instructor was discussing how the energy of the cells in our body and the various rhythms in the body can perhaps be affected by each other. We typically think of systems in the body as acting independently, for example your heart rate doesn’t match your breathing rate. Dig a bit deeper down to some cellular levels or energy channels (if you chose to acknowledge such things exist), and you may find when you tune in, that rhythms that should be in sync sometimes are not. Some manual or energy therapists, acupuncturists or other healers may apply various techniques in attempt to align or sync these again - usually resulting in the person reportedly feeling “better”. 

Now I must say I was quite a skeptic of this thought pattern as it was pretty far out there for my education and life experience, but I was shown a video that caused me to pause and at least entertain this idea that biological rhythms or perhaps energies might be at play and maybe they can get out of whack with each other. The video, showed someone setting off 32 metronomes at different times - as you can imagine there was clicking all over the place randomly and it sounded like complete chaos. But then slowly, slowly, there started to be a noticeable beat getting stronger, as more and more metronomes began to synchronize with each other. In only a couple minutes all 32 were beating in perfect alignment. In theory, they should have all stayed exactly on their own time, as these are the gold standard in keeping perfect time, yet somehow they were influenced by the others around them. Don’t believe me - or just want to see for yourself - check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5eBf2KwF8. Now, for the skeptics and nay-sayers out there, a disclaimer…is this only happening because perhaps the board they are on is unstable so other forces are at play? Maybe, but let’s be honest, our lives are fluid and changing all the time as well, so let’s just appreciate the demonstration and know that we too live on a bit of a wobble board! There are also countless examples of this in nature: Fireflies flashing together, or even people walking in a crowd or clapping together, we tend to synchronize at a certain point.   

So what does this mean for our health? I’m not going to tell you there are energies or biological rhythms that must be aligned and in sync for you to be healthy; you can decide for yourself if that resonates with you and your life experiences. Regardless of where you’re at, I’d argue that we could still apply this principle to various aspects of our lives, depending on the size of magnification we choose for the lens we want to view this in. Super power magnification, perhaps each cell is impacted by the cells around it. Strong magnification, perhaps our various body systems crave alignment to each other - we know our hormones need to be in sync to be healthy for example. Moderate magnification, perhaps our body structures function better when aligned to each other - like our spine, also our muscles and joints if we plan on going anywhere with any sort of smooth motion! Minimal magnification, perhaps our body is affected by our environment (certainly we see this to be true in the case of brainwaves and sounds and we are generally healthier and feeling better when our biological clock lines up with day and night at the correct times). Clear lenses with no magnification, maybe our energy can be impacted by those around us. We’ve all been around people moping around and complaining of being tired - it takes a lot more work to maintain your upbeat, happy self in this situation compared to one where you are surrounded by folks marching to the same beat that you are. We can zoom out further and further, looking at how a community functions, the country, the planet, the solar system etc. 

I think we can all appreciate that when we sit down and think about it, regardless of the lens we choose to look through, it is easier when we’re in sync. It’s easier when we move symmetrically and we unknowingly trend towards synchronization when there isn’t interference in the way. It would appear then, that health also seems to want synchrony rather than haphazard chaos. So pick whatever power of zoom lens you want and see if you might be able to synchronize some level of your being with an optimal state. Maybe you choose to sit quietly with meditative music and relax your nervous system and thoughts for a few minutes. Maybe you visualize the cells in your body and your energies aligning. Maybe you just choose to go for a hike with some like minded folk who’s energy matches what you want yours to be. Maybe you find a spot in nature and match the unwavering energy of things bigger, more stable and grounded than yourself to reset. Maybe you go be the strongest metronome and rally the troops in your neighbourhood to unite and work towards a common goal. Regardless of what you choose to try, I think you will find that any and all of these strategies will make you feel a bit more in sync, a bit stronger and probably, just a little bit healthier. Rock on.