I spent a beautiful week with my parents and my nephew on the Mediteranean sea. It took me a full day though to recover from it hahaha. But I welcomed it, embraced it. I took a day off everything. Just refilling my energy. This is why I didn’t post yesterday.

This week, I want to focus on cycles. They are really important in my life, and I really feel good when attuned with them.

Cycles are the rhythms of existence. It’s easy to notice them if we take the time to do so. Some are obvious, others are more intricate, more personal probably. Most are just witnesses of our life, milestones that mark our time, to which we can refer in order to materialize the path we already walked. Some are more present in our growth. Others are just meant to be broken in order to go on… But they are. They exist. And we can make the choice to recognize, value them, give them the importance we want them to have in our life.

Days. I love to think that days are my shelter cycle. When needed, I can only focus on the day I live. I then don’t care about anything else, no long term projects or regrets. Only the day I am living. I then can spend time to look at each and every little thing that makes this day special. We often loose track of the singularity of each and everyday we are gotten to live. We just exist, lost in our routine…. while each day brings its own colors, its own taste to our life, if we let it do so. So from time to time, I just love focusing on the very day I live, enjoying every minute of it. It brings me happiness, serenity, and fills me with memories that I would other wise ignore. I usually do it when I wake up in a grumpy mood, which can be seen as a paradox. But it’s the solution I found to counteract my bad mood. On those mornings, when I wake up and just want to go back under my blankets, I trained my mind to just switch on ‘enjoy the day’. First step: take a big huge breath, smiling…. Then stretch like a cat, being aware of each parcel of my body…. then I go on with my day, being aware of my acts, my thoughts, my feelings…. And trying to look for the secrets of this day, what makes it so special I had to focus on it…. It’s an amazing experience. Really fulfilling. And it builds up awareness. I love it!

Moon. As a woman, I am lucky enough to be attuned with the lunar cycle. My own cycle is in perfect alignment with it. So it plays a role of importance in my life. I just love feeling that my body enters in resonance with the Moon. It probably helped me to accept and to understand what was going on at first. But now I just embrace it and live it to its fullest too. And I love thinking that each new moon means a new beginning too… I try to focus on it as much as I can, and I love celebrating it with my own little rituals ( like taking a warm bath with lavender oil and Himalayan salt, soft music and candles).

Seasons. I am lucky enough to live in an area where seasons can really be seen and felt. As we enter fall, I get ready to dive into a more self reflective time, while watching nature letting go of what needs to go before winter. I try to tune in and do the same, celebrating and thanking what helped me grow and letting go of what doesn’t need to be part of my life now. No sadness, but a deep feeling of gratitude to have been able to go through it, with it. Time to switch from summer light clothes to warmer, cosier clothes… scarfs and mittens. Time to listen to rain on the windows while drinking a good and warm tea. Then winter will come, and its crisp cold, maybe snow if I am lucky. Light will play a special part while night will greet my warm tea and blanket time… Time to enjoy home, its warmth, time to cuddle and to enjoy the foggy mornings. Time to wear those warm cosy clothes, coats and mittens. To enjoy the warmth of fireplaces and restaurants with friends. Then spring will softly come back, and with it the happiness to be alive, and to watch nature come back to life too. It’s time to start to go out again, to enjoy those mornings at the lake, to spend more time with friends outside, to wear back those light weight clothes, to slowly put away scarfs and mittens. Then summer will bring its warmth, its light, and everything I need to make my favorite salads. Time to enjoy outdoor endless evenings with friends, under a starry sky. Time to spend time by rivers to cool a bit. Each season brings us something to be grateful for, to enjoy, to attune ourselves with Nature. And each of them teaches us something about us, about life.

Other cycles rhythm my life. But those are the most universal, to me.

Thing is, we can either embrace those cycles, as they teach us something new each and every time, or we can fight them. To me, some anniversaries are hard to face. But they keep come back, and I realize that it was up to me to let them put me down for a while or to look at them as just dates. With time, it becomes easier for me to face some of those days. And surprisingly, I forget about them, noticing the meaning I gave them once they passed. Some of them are still painful, and I know that it will take time, and acceptance, before they become ‘just a day’. A few will probably still be painful for a while, or maybe a lifetime… but it’s ok, I will learn to greet them, to welcome them, as they are part of my path, of what made me the one I am.

So this week, I will welcome cycles, as they come, as they go, and enjoy each and every of them, as they are my best teachers.