Gosh I love the growth periods—the times when I feel invigorated, alive, excited, that is. However, part of growth is the contraction periods and I don’t enjoy that quite as much. Expansion is exciting, enlivening—the times of being creative, energized, full of ideas, bold, daring. During these times I feel my power and glory, I am unstoppable. I know intellectually that these ways of being cannot be sustained. But I tend to be an inspiration junkie anyway. So when I am in the contraction period, I resist. I make it wrong. I don’t like how I feel—I doubt myself.

Consider a rubber band. It both expands and contracts. If it were to always expand, eventually it would lose its elasticity and it would snap. It must spend time in contraction to rejuvenate. Many of us expect that we can always be expanding, creating, doing, achieving and growing. Then many of us crash, snap or collapse because we have lost our elasticity.

We are resilient creatures and growth is a result of pushing the barriers to another level. Naturally this will feel challenging at times. We will push ourselves to the edge and we grow stronger. If we want to build muscle on our bodies, it takes time. We can’t just go to the gym once or twice or even for an entire month and work out like crazy and expect our muscle will build and sustain. It takes consistent effort over a period of time.

I will try to remember that today, how about you?