Twirling with Life without Getting Dizzy

My life is full.  With three young children, two dogs, two cats, a husband, acreage to care for, yoga classes to teach, and an increasingly busy energy medicine practice I have an incredibly rich and blessed life.  It is never dull and even more rarely quiet.

However, there have been times when I have found myself in the midst of a strange and unusual phenomenon: my body twirls in a circle while my mind is suddenly freed of all rational thought and has no conscious recollection of which of the multiple requests I was attempting to fill at the moment.  It’s not a proud confession but it is true nonetheless.  Perhaps some of you can relate to this odd behavioral pattern as I’m certainly hoping that it’s not isolated to just me.  For those of you who still all have all of your brain cells fully functional I commend you and assure you that the condition described above is in no way painful or harmful to others should you encounter a loved one in such a circumstance.

To my recollection the onset of this phenomenon occurred sometime after the birth of my children.  Over the past six and a half years it has occurred frequently enough that I’ve developed some strategies for resolving the episodes quickly and easily.  I’m sharing what has worked for me in the hopes that it may help some other poor hapless twirling soul(s).  We are not alone in our twirling.

First off, I’ve learned to embrace the twirling with a sense of humor and acceptance.  I’ve found that the “oh crap, why is this happening and what’s wrong with me?” approach does nothing but add further confusion and prolong the episode.  Instead I embrace the twirling by adding my own spin on things -- literally.  If I’m already spinning I might as well add some flair to it and make it a dance.  (This also helps to keep other people from behaving as if they’ve encountered a complete lunatic and lowers the bar to slightly “dotty” instead.)  I swing my arms in a figure eight motion as I twirl and imagine that I have spirals of energy moving through me and connecting me to the heavens and earth.  Then I bring my hands to my belly and heart (the second and fourth chakras for those who map the body this way) and figure eight my hips and/or baby sway them back and forth.  The baby sway move is the rocking motion that you do naturally when you’re soothing a baby in your arms only this time you’re the baby.  (If you’ve ever watched a mom with a baby do this in a public place it’s not uncommon to see all of the other moms, with or without a baby, doing the same thing.)  I place my palms together at my heart in a prayerful position (also known as namaskara mudra in yoga traditions) then stretch my arms overhead and sweep them palms turned outward alongside my body to my waist.  As I do this I imagine that I’m moving everyone else’s needs out of my immediate space so that I can breathe and remember myself.  I then breathe in deeply and feel the breath moving all the way to my belly and back out.  The yogis believe that prana -- which they defined as “essential life force energy” and modern scientists call “oxygen“ -- rides on the breath.  I figure I can use all the prana I can access in times like these.

These techniques are purposefully simple and quick to execute.  Since my brain is already seemingly offline when this phenomenon strikes I’ve found it almost impossible to execute more intricate maneuvers or protocols.  The good news is these very simple movements that I’ve described seem to work for me and I can then nimbly resume my dance with life with a silent thank you for the restoration of my normal functioning.

So if you ever find yourself spinning in circles I invite you to try these moves and see if they’re helpful to you.  Better yet, explore and find your own dance!  My wish for you is that you are always able to twirl joyfully with life without getting dizzy.

In love and light,

Jill

Comments

[Angela Melton]

Jill, that is fascinating, and I am so glad you have managed to make these moves thoughtless so you can do them while your mind has checked out. They sound like they would also be good to help us ground when we can not connect with who we are.
Angela Melton

[Ellen Farrell]

I love your twirling! Why not make it a conscious choice when it occurs to you!? When I was a child I used to do this and had no idea what it was, but I loved it. Finally, it would usually end with my falling down, which was equally satisfying. Later as I studied Tai Chi, Aikido and Alexander technique in my BFA movement program, I learned about the Sufi dance form, the whirling dervishes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_whirling), and we would alternate which hand faced up and down, and had directions with how to stop if you wanted to use it (put index finger and gaze at it rather than the surround and then it is easier to slow down).
As they say in the link, it's considered a type of worship ceremony, and "Revolving from right to left around the heart, embrace all humanity with love. The human being has been created with love in order to love. Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love." From my Divine core and heart to yours, Thanks for sharing Jill!

[Ellen Farrell]

It is also interesting to note what we do/did as children (and what our children and clients love to do) that provide potential insight to past life proclivities and experiences! For instance as a child I also loved to dance in a combination of Yogic moves and modern Native cultures akin to traditional dances from India. I have a client whose son has told man stories about his "other life". So good to acknowledge these multidimensional facets of our current selves. Namaste!