Re-learning How to Move With Time (Not Against It)
Modern life treats time as something linear, flat, and endlessly productive. Monday follows Sunday, January follows December, and the expectation remains the same: show up, perform, repeat.
But biologically, psychologically, and historically, this isn’t how humans have ever functioned. For most of human history, time was experienced as cyclical rather than linear. Life moved through rhythms — day and night, light and dark, growth and rest. Activity expanded and contracted with the seasons, and rest was not seen as a failure, but as a necessary phase of renewal.
The Body Keeps Its Own Clock
Our bodies still follow natural rhythms, whether we consciously acknowledge them or not. Light exposure affects melatonin and serotonin. Energy, mood, motivation, and even cognition fluctuate across the year.
Many people feel more reflective and inward during the winter months, and more expressive and outward during spring and summer. This isn’t a lack of discipline or motivation — it’s biology.
Seasonal changes influence sleep, recovery, emotional processing, immune function, and focus. The idea that performance should remain constant all year round is a modern construct, not a natural one.
What Ancient Cultures Understood
Indigenous societies and ancient cultures organised life around cycles rather than rigid schedules. The Greeks distinguished between Chronos (clock time) and Kairos (the right or meaningful time). Traditional systems such as Ayurveda and Chinese medicine aligned daily routines and seasonal behaviours with the body’s changing needs.
Winter was a time for rest and repair. Spring for renewal. Summer for output and connection. Autumn for reflection and integration. None of these cultures expected people to operate at full capacity indefinitely.
When We Ignore Natural Rhythm
When we override biological cycles with constant stimulation, artificial light, and unbroken productivity, the body pays the cost. Burnout, anxiety, low mood, chronic fatigue, and disengagement often emerge not because people are failing, but because they are living out of sync with how humans are designed to function.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is one of the clearest examples of this misalignment, but many people experience subtler versions throughout the year — a quiet sense of depletion, resistance, or disconnection that often goes unexplained.
Working With Time, Not Against It
Living cyclically doesn’t mean abandoning ambition or structure. It means understanding when to push and when to pause. When to expand, and when to consolidate.
Small shifts can make a significant difference:
- Allowing more rest and reflection during darker months
- Planning growth and high-output phases for spring and summer
- Using autumn as a time to review, refine, and let go
- Paying attention to daily rhythms such as light exposure, sleep, and recovery
When we respect these cycles, performance becomes more sustainable, creativity more consistent, and wellbeing less fragile.
A Final Thought
Linear time is something we invented. Cyclical time is something we are built from.
When people feel exhausted, unmotivated, or disconnected, it’s often not a personal failure — it’s a signal that their internal rhythm is clashing with an external system that has forgotten how humans work.
Re-learning how to move with time, rather than constantly racing against it, may be one of the most practical and compassionate forms of resilience we can develop.