The Art of Two Step Forward One Step Back
There aught to be a physics law that states the natural pattern of evolution is “two steps forward and one step back”? It should be mounted on walls and taught in school because it is so fundamental in our life and our world. It’s applicable to everything from nature to the smallest details of our behaviour.
The Cycle of Seasons
From the sprouting in spring, blooming in summer, falling in fall, and disappearance in winter, the seasons tell us the story of two steps forward and one step back. It cycles through life and death only to be re-birthed next year bigger and stronger.
In health…
For anyone who’s ever recovered from a serious health condition, they’ve most likely heard of the healing crisis. It’s where after some treatment, the body starts having severe rejections often resulting in even worst symptoms than before, it’s the phase before the body truly begins to recover. Like an immune reaction, it begs the question of do you want to keep going, or should you just give up? Another words, a similar pattern to a step back after progress. On the path of healing, we often experience much set backs or plateaus before finally regaining our health and reaching our goal.
For anyone who’s ever had to fight the weight battle, losing weight is plagued with constant plateaus and the need to continue to reinvent oneself to find a more effective solution. Yet we often praise and envy the people who were able to lose weight in a short time even though it’s not a realistic expectation. The truth is, anything that is a path will likely not be the direct path from A to B, but the things that are so called detours o the way, are just as valuable as the end result itself.
Even when learning…
Doesn’t matter what skill, level, or subject learning and exploring is required, there will always be times of frustration, difficulty in breaking through, or simply running out of steam. We tend to pick up things rapidly in the beginning only to slow down learning as things become more distracted.
How to work with this energy?
Keep fighting! Persistence is key in this game of patience. We learn to appreciate success after encountering hardships. Without facing obstacles in life, the sweet just isn’t as sweet. It’s the contrast of taking the step back which makes the journey that much more difficult to accomplish. Part of experiencing these setbacks is for us to learn to have mercy and compassion upon ourselves. Can you love yourself even in difficult times? It’s so easy to take pride in thing s you’ve achieved but can you keep your head up and have compassion in those times when you’ve fallen flat on your face?
Have compassion…
We are often too harsh and judgmental when it comes to setbacks. We imagine things to be a way and when we don’t ee thing keep moving in one direction, we become critical of ourselves.
What if backwards is just an illusion?
Everything in life is an opportunity to learn from an experience. If we detach ourselves from the absolute path of “moving forward” then the journey, is neither long nor short. No comparison is needed and all that is left is the love of any experience. Talk about finding enlightenment and beauty in life itself.
