HAVING THE TIME
OF YOUR LIFE
Online Course Introduction
Understanding and Mastering Your Personal Life Cycles
Welcome to this Online Course on Personal Life cycles. I have used this work with cycles in my spiritual counseling practice for over 35 years. I have found that it is often stunningly accurate and helps people get a real perspective of where they are in their life journey.
It is said that cats have nine lives. What is true for cats may also be true for human beings. Within the course of our lives, we die and are reborn many times. Of course, I am not talking about physical death, but about psychological death and rebirth.
We are who we think we are. We live out from the internalized beliefs that we have about ourselves or others. Those beliefs about ourselves—the ways we define who we are—are not static. They are constantly changing.
Like a plant, an idea or belief begins as a seed. It is nurtured and it grows. It expresses and extends itself as leaves and flowers. And finally the flowers wither, fall off and seed the ground. What began as a seed now has returned to seed. A cycle is complete.
This does not just happen once in your life. It happens many times. Who you are now is not who you were ten years ago, or twenty years ago. You have changed.
Of course, some things change and some things do not. Your essence does not change. But your understanding and beliefs change. And, as they change, you live in a different way.
Each cycle is an expression of who you are. Each cycle represents a shift in energy and intention. Each cycle incorporates and integrates what you learned and experienced in the previous cycle.
You are a work in progress. That progress expresses itself in numerous consecutive cycles. Each time you go through a cycle, you have the opportunity to learn about who you are in a new way and to redefine yourself and your approach to life.
The Three Stages Within Each Cycle
It is important for you to understand where you are in your current nine year cycle. If you are in a 1 or a 2 year, you are at the beginning of a cycle. This is the Formation Stage. If you are in an 8 or 9 year, you are at the end of a cycle. This is the Detachment Stage. If you are in years 3-7, you are in the middle of your cycle. This is the Action Stage. While action and outward activity are optimal in the middle of a cycle, the beginning and end of each cycle require a turning inward for vision and reflection.
Moving with the current of the river is always more satisfying than trying to swim upstream against it. Trying to manifest actively in the world when you are at the end of a cycle or at the very beginning will be counterproductive. These are years when you need to turn within to find guidance and welcome new energy into your life (years 1-2), or years when you need to turn inward to find reconciliation and to detach from old energetic patterns (years 8-9). Those are not years when you should expect to be outwardly engaged and productive. If you try to do so, you will be swimming against the current.
On the other hand, procrastinating or being a perfectionist when you are in years 3-7 of a cycle is equally dysfunctional. These are years when you when you need to be moving outward into the world with energy and enthusiasm.
Because we are wounded and confused by life, we often swim against the tide, pushing ourselves to be active when we need to rest and go within, or holding ourselves back when it is time for us to participate fully in the world. This makes it hard for us to learn our lessons and to express our gifts.
By understanding which phase of your cycle you are in, you can better attune to the energies within you that need to be nurtured and expressed. That means less conflict within and fewer struggles without. When you cooperate with the universal energy, instead of fighting it, you begin to thrive. Grace and abundance start to manifest in your life.