How a simple reframing can help your life feel less chaotic

Use the word "RHYTHM" instead of "SCHEDULE" to change your life.

I am a wildly creative, intuitive person who resist schedules, routines, and rules. My life often feels chaotic and messy. I crave order, but refuse to be controlled by clocks.

I am also a person who loves jazz. Jazz has key and time signatures, but it is not a march. It is not rigid; there is space for improvisation.  Jazz follows a rhythm; that rhythm holds jazz together and makes it beautiful. And there is space for improvisation. 

Likewise, nature has rhythm. The moon circles the earth, there are seasons and tides. The rains come in the spring, the earth thaws and plants spring forth from the once cold earth. Nature has variation and beauty, but there are patterns that are unique to time and place.

When I started to think about my life not as a spot on a timeline marching forward, but as a cycle, moving around and around, week by week, season by season, returning to the spring at the same pace each year. Beautiful like jazz, with plenty of space for improvisation.

I cannot keep a schedule, but I can keep a rhythm.

Photo by Julio Lopez on Unsplash