Stop Fighting Your Natural RhythmIn

In 1962, a young French scientist named Michel Siffre lived for sixty-three days in a cave with no clock and no sunlight. When the experiment ended, he thought almost a month less had gone by. His mind had lost track of time. His body hadn't. It kept waking and sleeping on a steady rhythm of about twenty-four and a half hours.

We were made with a design: built-in rhythms, built-in needs, and a built-in pull toward what's true. I believe healing comes faster and easier when we live in step with that design instead of fighting it.

Here's how to stop fighting how you were made, and start living in step with it.

Step 1: Find your friction

Friction is any place where we're pushing against how we're made. Take a few minutes and write down where you feel it. For example:

- Staying up late because it's the only quiet time I get.

- Running on caffeine to get through the afternoon.

- Eating on the run, or skipping meals altogether.

- Saying yes when my body is saying no.

- Ignoring a symptom and hoping it goes away.

Don't judge what you find. Just notice it. Then acknowledge the one that costs you the most.

Step 2: Set your clock with light

Siffre's body kept a rhythm in the dark, but without the sun his days slowly drifted longer. Our inner clock is real, and it was made to be set by the light.

Get outside in daylight soon after you wake up, even for a few minutes. Open the curtains. Drink your tea by a window. Then let your evenings get dimmer as bedtime gets closer. You're giving your body the signal it was designed to follow.

Step 3: Live the season you're in

One of the oldest texts of Chinese medicine, the Huangdi Neijing, says the three months of winter are a time of "securing and storing." Its advice is simple: "Go rest early and rise late. You must wait for the sun to shine." It also says to avoid the cold and seek warmth.

Here's what that can look like this winter:

- Go to bed thirty minutes earlier as the nights get longer.

- Choose warm, cooked meals and warm drinks over cold salads and iced drinks.

- Keep your neck and feet warm.

- Slow your evenings down. Say no to a few late nights.

Winter isn't a season to push through. It's a season to restore.

Step 4: Protect your big three

There are three things I ask everyone about, no matter why they come to see me: sleep, digestion and bowel movements. All three are rhythms. When they're out of step, everything else struggles.

Help them find their rhythm. Go to bed and get up at about the same time each day. Eat your meals at about the same times. Give yourself unhurried time in the morning. Small, steady rhythms give healing a foundation to build on.

Step 5: Keep the Sabbath

From the very first week of creation, rest was woven into the pattern. Six days of work, and then the seventh day, set apart. God's word says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." And Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."

Shabbat isn't a day we pick to fit our schedule. It's a rhythm God already set, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. It was made for us. It's part of the design, not a reward we earn after everything else is done.

Consider what it would look like to keep it holy this week. Finish your work before sundown on Friday. Light a candle, share a meal, and bless the people around your table. Then for one day, stop. Rest. Worship. Walk outside. Be with the people you love without an agenda. Notice how your body responds to a day it was made for.

Step 6: Tell yourself the truth

None of us lives in perfect alignment with the truth. But every step toward it lowers the friction. Denial takes energy, like holding a beach ball under water.

The next time your body sends a signal, a headache, a knot in your stomach, an exhaustion that won't lift, pause and ask: "What is this telling me?" Then make one small choice that honors the answer.

A practice for today

Look at the friction you acknowledged in Step 1. Choose one small change that moves you in step with how you were made, and start it today.

Words to Carry

- I was made with a design, and I can live in step with it.

- My body knows the rhythm, and I'm learning to follow it.

- Rest was made for me.

- I'm willing to tell myself the truth.

- When I stop fighting how I was made, healing has room to work.

Tomorrow, we close our first season by looking back at where we started and naming what I believe we were made for.

With you every step of the way,

Dr. Jocelyn

References

Foer, J. (2008). Caveman: An interview with Michel Siffre. Cabinet, 30.

Unschuld, P. U. (2011). Huang Di nei jing su wen: An annotated translation of Huang Di's inner classic – Basic questions (2 vols.). University of California Press.