Motion in Distress

Forwards was the only direction I tried to take. No looking back, just forward. This was a mistake. My vision, clouded by ambition, would only accept forward as a direction. Currently, I am residing in uncertainty, and being anxious about the future, I have been overlooking a few things.

Whilst living in uncertainty, I’ve noticed some things that can happen. One is standstill—a paralysis of thought. A retrograde on mistakes and "could-have-beens." A feeling of going backwards, ruminating on how things could have been done in a better way. Stuck in a past that has been, and ending up more frustrated about decisions that were made. This doesn’t propel forward motion; it’s backward motion—stuck in the past.

Another is spiralling—going out of control, not moving in any particular direction. Not even thinking about a direction. At first, this is liberating, as there is no little brain-person controlling my every decision—just pure freedom and no remorse. Until everything comes crashing down, and reality smacks you in the face. The feeling of going nowhere sets in, and frustrations are born. This doesn’t propel forward motion; it’s just motion with no destination.

A thought struck me: maybe the spiralling isn’t as bad as I first thought. Maybe I should lean into the spiralling and take nature as my guidance. Heading in various directions and letting time do its thing. Nature expands and makes its beauty visible to all. It intertwines systematically in ways that seem undisciplined to the untrained eye. As humans, we love to classify, organise, and turn everything into a pattern. I believe we do this to control our realities and create predictable outcomes. The things that have placed me into uncertainty were out of my control, and what’s in my control is how I react and move.

Move. That word is the one I should be thinking about. Movement is key to life. When we start moving, regardless of direction, things happen. Atoms move, ideas flow, and connections start happening. Stagnation isn’t bad, though—it’s an opportunity to reflect, rest, and reset, readying oneself for the eventuality of movement. We can take advantage of a still period to flow better with movement. We jump into a spiral and flow along a path to an inevitable point in time: the future. We may not be able to predict it, but it arrives regardless of what we desire.

If we desire a huge change—a change off the scale of what we’re acclimatised to—it’s going to require a lot of movement. This requires willpower, determination, grit, and adaptability to constant and relentless change. When we start moving, we initiate change. Change is what nature is all about, and life is about change. Seasons. Planets. Paths. All change and vary. Our solar system is moving all the time. Within our bodies, there is constant movement—whether blood, brain activity, or growth. There is always something in motion.

Motion brings life. It doesn’t matter the direction. Moving takes you closer to something than standing still, waiting for whatever it is that you want to happen.

I was mistaken in thinking that going backwards or spiralling out were wrong directions—that the only way to succeed is forwards. Our planet orbits around the sun, our sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, and the universe is expanding constantly. We are moving dynamically through space. I will start applying dynamic movement to my life and decisions.

God bless, and wishing the best to all for 2025.