How to Sync Your Coaching or Therapy Practice with the Earth’s Cycles

When the Machine Stops Working

Sometimes it gets really, really hard to fit in and keep up.

Have you noticed how our society runs in an artificially linear way that doesn’t account for the built-in cycles of rest and activity that humans have evolved to need? Women especially, but men as well, are feeling the disconnect between our modern pace and the natural world that shaped our ancestors’ lives for millennia.

As humans, we adapt quickly to new technologies at some levels of our being. For example, our mobile phones quickly become an extension of our hands, just as driving a car at 60 miles per hour became an easy and second-nature extension of our movement as recently as the 1970’s. But at other levels, our cells and spirits remain inextricably interconnected with the Earth: cycling through periods of greater activity and periods of greater rest whether we like it or not.

It is unnatural to act as a machine and try to run your business (or your life) in an unrelentingly linear way. This mechanical approach to productivity results in burnout, perceived failure, and the crash of creativity. It’s one of the big reasons why corporate burnout is at an all-time high, and why our online world often feels like a digital dumpster: people are just squeezing out hollow content because they think they’re supposed to, instead of creating in inspired cycles.

We are taught that resting is wasteful and that our need to rest is an indication of weakness. We’re almost never genuinely praised or rewarded for taking a break. More likely, you’ll hear somewhat patronizing words like “good for you”, while secretly they are thinking “good, more of the pie for me.”

But they’re mistaken if they still think that hustling harder will deliver them into their Sage Era.

What We’ve Lost Along the Way

The Wheel of the Year is an ancient and natural framework that marks the changing seasons and the important agricultural and astronomical events of the Earth. It is a cyclical calendar system observed by most of the original cultures of the world. The longest day, the longest night, the days when the day and night are perfectly balanced, all are represented and celebrated in the Wheel of the Year.

And this can be an incredible guide for running your coaching, consulting, or therapy business.

As the seasons come and go throughout the year, they bring certain energetic influences. Some periods of the year are better for producing, and some are better for resting. There are times in the year when the energy is fertile and abundant, and times when it is right and natural to allow a period of dormancy.

We no longer look to the elders for advice, and the old ways have been mostly forgotten. Therefore, most coaches and therapists don’t even know about the Wheel of the Year model or that there are seasons for productivity and seasons for resting in your life and your business.

Beyond this lack of knowledge comes a lack of understanding about the why. We don’t know the benefits of embracing Earth’s cycles, so we have little motivation to do so.

The Magic of Moving With the Current

Over the years, as I have gradually developed my ability to listen to messages from Nature I have come to understand that syncing with the cycles of the Earth is equivalent to floating with the current. Not doing so means you are often trying to swim against the current, which obviously uses a ton of energy and leaves you depleted and usually disappointed with your lack of progress.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had the wisdom and permission (both from others and from ourselves) to REST when we need to rest, and as a result of having adequate rest, get wildly creative and productive when the muse strikes? For anyone brought up in the standard school system,and especially if you went on to post-secondary education and then worked within a corporate or government system, this seems foreign and it probably feels a little dangerous. I know it did for me.

Just as the ancients used this wisdom to guide them in planting and harvesting crops, making journeys and unions, and planning for what is to come, we can apply these principles for entrepreneurial success. You can find wisdom and guidance in the Wheel of the Year to help you grow your small business, coaching practice, or healing clinic in a way that is sustainable and effective, because it is aligned with the powerful natural cycles of the Earth.

Let’s dig into that a little deeper.

3 Simple Ways to Align Your Practice with Earth’s Cycles

1. Follow the Light

Do more when the days are long, and do less when the days are short. This is one of the most fundamental rhythms that our ancestors knew and that we seem to have forgotten. We do this to match the energy of the natural world around us.

Step outside and look at what Nature is doing: that is the purest and simplest guidance for how to live your life and run your business.

When spring unfurls its leaves and summer stretches the daylight hours, allow your practice to expand accordingly. Schedule more client sessions, host workshops, collaborate, and launch new offerings when the energy of the world around you is vibrant and expansive. Your clients will feel this alignment too; they are also more receptive to growth and transformation during the longer days when the world is blooming and ripening.

2. REST is Your #1 Productivity Tool

Commit to rest. Honor it as sacred. We are meant to rest, unapologetically. And in the winter we are meant to rest more. The natural world slows down or goes completely dormant in the winter, and the darkness of the short days and long nights is begging us to surrender to rest. Winter is a time to read that stack of books you’ve collected… not to venture out in the dark and stormy world because you committed to a networking event.

Reflect for a moment on what comes more easily and naturally for YOU, and at which time of the year or month.

If it feels unnatural, it probably is. Unfortunately, we’ve been well trained to ignore that felt-sense and soldier on anyway; but I am inviting you home to your intuitive senses. You already know what is aligned with the energy of the day and what is not, because you’re an exquisite biological being. You just need to re-activate that ability.

Rest is a tough one for the sort of people who are drawn to entrepreneurship. We’re a Type-A bunch, to be sure. But it’s vital for your health and creativity, and therefore it’s vital for keeping the magic alive in your business. Rest is NOT a weakness any more than eating food or drinking water is. Rest is an innate human need.

3. Embrace the Ancient Wisdom All Around You

Learn about the ancient and natural cycles of the year and discover the guidance each turning of the wheel can provide. Syncing with the Earth’s cycles means embracing support from the energies that are already swirling around you.

It could be looked at as the ‘lazy way,’ but I’m an anti-hustle person who’s all about helping you run your business with confidence and tranquility. It’s your natural right to have all the power of the seasons on your side, and I want to empower you to know how to move with them instead of against them, to support your business and infuse it with Practice Magic.

Coming Home to the Rhythm of Nature

Most business advisors ignore these cycles completely, usually because they don’t even know about the Wheel of the Year or the natural energy cycles of the Earth. They continue pushing against nature’s currents, and teach you to do the same, because it takes courage to reject the norm and steer your ship in a different direction.

But what I’ve found works better is this: Syncing with the Earth’s cycles means inviting in the support of the energies that are already swirling around you. When you align your coaching or therapy practice with these natural rhythms, you aren’t fighting against the tide, you’re riding it right into your Sage Era.

What To Do Next

Ready to align your business with the Earth’s wisdom? Get the Celtic Wheel of the Year Business Planner and discover how to infuse your work with the magic of natural cycles. Stop swimming upstream and start flowing with the current that’s been waiting to carry you, all along.