Dance of the Bio-Rhythms
Remember Biorhythms? I think they were trendy around the time of Pet Rocks and Mood Rings. The idea was that we all have three aspects – physical, emotional, and intellectual – that follow a sort of sine wave through our lives. And where you are on your biorhythmic ‘cycle’ determines how things will go for you in those three areas.
(Right. Did I mention we were paying actual 1978 dollars for Pet Rocks?)
It would be great if it were true – just like horoscopes, tarot cards, wishing on the first star of the night, and every other attempt we make at certainty in an unpredictable world.
But true or not, bio-rhythms are dead useful as a way to say, “Eh, it’s just not my day.”
Because any thinking person can see our culture is so wrapped up in peak performance every second that we are driving ourselves to exhaustion. Work like a winner, dress like a model, eat like a bird! But maybe, biorhythms tell us, maybe we’re not meant to be at 100 all the time.
I know there are days when I don’t feel aggressive, don’t feel up to making that hard-sell call. Do I panic? Do I worry that I’ve lost my ‘edge’ that it’s all down hill and I’m doomed to failure? (No, that would be the husband, Mr. Woe, who has sworn to me for 12 years that it’s all bad and we are minutes away from living under an underpass.)
On my ‘low’ days, I just listen to the voice of experience, let up on the gas pedal a little and I wait for the cycle to rise up again. I go home, treat myself to something nice (like massaging SkinMilk Body Cream into my legs – it’s a big tub of thick, rich cream that only costs five bucks, so I can use gobs of it), go to bed early and wait for another day, another cappuccino.
A friend once counseled me that a writer has to let the well fill up from time to time – that you can’t keep drawing and drawing on the same resources. I think even the cheeriest Dale Carnegie-ites among us knows that’s true. And that pushing it gets you nowhere. Because sometimes there isn’t anything left in you to push with.
So don’t.
(Right. Did I mention we were paying actual 1978 dollars for Pet Rocks?)
It would be great if it were true – just like horoscopes, tarot cards, wishing on the first star of the night, and every other attempt we make at certainty in an unpredictable world.
But true or not, bio-rhythms are dead useful as a way to say, “Eh, it’s just not my day.”
Because any thinking person can see our culture is so wrapped up in peak performance every second that we are driving ourselves to exhaustion. Work like a winner, dress like a model, eat like a bird! But maybe, biorhythms tell us, maybe we’re not meant to be at 100 all the time.
I know there are days when I don’t feel aggressive, don’t feel up to making that hard-sell call. Do I panic? Do I worry that I’ve lost my ‘edge’ that it’s all down hill and I’m doomed to failure? (No, that would be the husband, Mr. Woe, who has sworn to me for 12 years that it’s all bad and we are minutes away from living under an underpass.)
On my ‘low’ days, I just listen to the voice of experience, let up on the gas pedal a little and I wait for the cycle to rise up again. I go home, treat myself to something nice (like massaging SkinMilk Body Cream into my legs – it’s a big tub of thick, rich cream that only costs five bucks, so I can use gobs of it), go to bed early and wait for another day, another cappuccino.
A friend once counseled me that a writer has to let the well fill up from time to time – that you can’t keep drawing and drawing on the same resources. I think even the cheeriest Dale Carnegie-ites among us knows that’s true. And that pushing it gets you nowhere. Because sometimes there isn’t anything left in you to push with.
So don’t.
posted by Whoopla at
12:57 PM
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