Finding Your Own Rhythm

This morning, I went lane swimming alongside a feisty aqua-fit class. Really, the class was inspiring. There was potentially a wide range of ages in attendance although my quick scan indicated seniors heavily dominated the class and rocked, I might add, with their earnest and energetic participation. Of course, mostly I observed the class from underwater out of the corner of my eyes. I saw a multitude of legs running on the spot, legs jumping forward and back, arms pushing "weights" into the water, building endurance and strength. I was impressed. I was also distracted. 

It was not the jumping legs that had me distracted. It was the music the legs and arms were pumping to. If I were to be exact, the music itself was not really the problem either. The music was lively, fun, and fine. It was that the music's pace and rhythm was not my own (at least not for swimming) and for a while, it was so loud that I couldn't hear myself breathing or my body moving through the water: I couldn't connect to those indicators of my own rhythm and pace. This jarring or "rhythm interference" did not prevent me from swimming but it did make it harder to feel like I was settling into some pace or to even decipher what my pace and rhythm was, to hear it and find it. 

And so the expression, finding your own rhythm, visited me while swimming, turning over in my thoughts as my arms turned over, one following the next in repetitive fashion. I find I encounter the same type of challenge while running: mostly that for me running and music don't really mix. I like to be able to hear the sound of footsteps predictably tapping, the sound of my quiet breath. It is almost as if I need to hear these. Being able to tune in has an orienting function.

The first song this morning was the most exuberant, and then the sounds softened down so that I was able to tune in and relax into the rhythm--my own--that I found there with the interference substantially diminished or gone.

I have written and talked about this sort of thing with people many times before--about learning about your own rhythm, your own pace, your own needs and proclivities and (for the most part) honouring these. Yet I find I might wish to write about this topic in different and similar ways a hundred hundred plus times. That, and questions of what pulls us away from our most authentic selves and rhythms and dreams, and what helps to bring us back. 

Are you experiencing "rhythm interference" these days or are you nicely in step with your own?