spiritualgrounding

When you feel time passing quickly and can’t catch up

/ Julia Aziz / Leave a comment

“How did this time go by so fast?”

This time of year always seems full of transitions. It can be disorienting, half wanting to hold on to how things have been, half feeling the need to move on. It has me contemplating one of my favorite cosmic mysteries: Time. 

I like to work with spiralinear time, the idea of time moving forward and also cycling back around again and again.

In spiralinear time, the seasons, the moon phases, the sunrises and sunsets–all are as significant as the progression of years. On the one hand, we may feel ourselves aging, children growing up, elders losing independence. Everyone moving on to new chapters, never to return to the former ones. Tuning in also to the cycles of life, we might pause in this place and moment, feeling ourselves part of a much larger pattern. Waxing and waning, expanding and contracting, giving care, receiving care. All part of a whole.

In spiralinear time, grief can walk alongside curiosity, anxiety with peace. We are, after all, inheritors of resilience. We would not be here if we weren’t. 

When I work with folks, I always start with slowing down time. We enter a longer exhale, where a minute of quiet might feel like five. It’s the best way I know to move between one thing to the next. If you are going through a transition, I hope you feel the land beneath your feet, the sky with all its glorious movements above you. In the spiral of time, we are in this together.

With love,
Julia Aziz

PS- If you do best when you’re more tuned into the cycles and taking more slow time, you might really love our women’s circle. It has a true cyclical rhythm that continues as we all grow and change 🌖

Changes that feel uncomfortable, inevitable, and not quite here yet

/ Julia Aziz / Leave a comment

“Things feel uncomfortable, uncertain, surreal.”

“I know something is changing, but I have no idea what’s next.”

“I’m not sure what’s happening, how I feel, or why!”

I’ve been hearing these themes a lot lately. Some feel they’re at an unfamiliar crossroads; others are grappling with existential questions. In this Great Unsettling, it seems as if one phase is shifting without us knowing what the next one will be. Like driving through a fog and missing all the signposts, it’s a vulnerable time to be moving through.

What’s exhausting you could be your vehicle of transformation

If we accept the truth of what’s happening now, we can “offer up” our weariness, confusion, and existential uncertainty. Offering means we let what is hard for us become sacred. We acknowledge that the road ahead runs precisely through the territory we like to avoid, and we take that road in the spirit of soul growth, with courage. Surrendering some resistance, we may feel more open to receive from unexpected directions.

Changing the questions we’re asking

When we can say “I don’t know” honestly, with open curiosity, “What’s the point?” may no longer be such a heavy question. There’s something about admitting lack of control that frees up the mind to see things differently. We come back to what’s in front of us right here. Rather than “What do I do?” we might ask, “What do I do next?”

Remembering where to find the inner compass

I’ve never been one for roller coasters or winding mountain roads. I feel that instability deep in my core, right away! Maybe you’ve got the stomach for turbulence, though you still may not feel thrilled by the ride of personal and collective change. It helps to know if there’s a voice inside saying “Aghhhhhhh!!!”, there’s also one that’s good at handling things. It’s the part of us that shows up for other people when they need it. That competent, fierce, adaptable part has a better sense of direction than the tired and frightened inner child. In this new terrain, we might intentionally ask the inner adult to take the wheel.

New rules to the game? 

There’s not just one insight that changes everything, and then we’re good to go forever more. So much spiritual seeking seems to have this flavor of “if I just change in this one way, I’ll be golden, and then I can finally coast.” Who came up with this silliness? Everything alive on this earth is in some cyclical process. Life is temporary; the mystery of life is always. 

Upwards Spiral image

If you’re struggling to find your way, I hope you reach out and ask for some help. We’re really not meant to be doing all this life stuff alone. When there’s too much constriction to let in support, clearing some things out can make all the difference. Change, of course, requires some creativity–and undoing.

Wherever we go, I’m glad to be on this wild ride with you,

Julia Aziz

PS- Here’s a little off-the-cuff, less than two minute audio to support you in these strange times: Get the “Rapid Reset for Instability” practice audio.