Why there are differences in physical and mental activity;
What biological rhythms are most important for humans;
Why you should not believe the calculation of biorhythms by date of birth;
How to feel your biorhythms;
Two practices for each day.
Have you noticed “swings” in your emotional, physical, intellectual, creative, social and other activities? For no apparent reason! Sometimes you feel like a unicorn in love, sometimes you feel worse than a stranded fish. Desiring to explain and often justify someone nods to mercury retrograde, someone on the karma or philosophizes about the constant changing of black and white stripes… and someone like the surfer made peace with the waves but not the ocean, and the sine wave, exaggerated illustration which walks on the Internet: a point of its peaks signed, “I – genius”, and the points of minimum of values “I am a sad g***” (sorry, censored).
This cyclical nature stirred up observational minds in Ancient Greece, and even earlier, but serious studies began only in the XIX century. Scientists have studied that in the course of the evolution of humans, animals and plants, repeated processes that are genetically beneficial for the body have become fixed. They were combined into a general term-biological rhythms.
Your heartbeat and breathing, the alternation of sleep and wakefulness, daily fluctuations in body temperature and blood pressure, monthly menstrual cycles in women and daily morning peaks of testosterone release in men – all these are biorhythms. According to experts of chronobiology and chronomedicine if people get acquainted with its internal clock and will follow their “instructions”, then health will be stronger, better mood, more productive work. And the above-mentioned differences will become much softer.
The sun is the main watchmaker of our body
Scientists distinguish two main biorhythms with which we should be as harmonized as possible – seasonal and circadian (circadian). Both are dictated by the sun. There is also a theory of “three rhythms”, each of which lasts about a month, but more on them later.
Seasonal. It is associated with the change of seasons and the weather conditions that they entail. For example, when the light day decreases, the production of serotonin, which is responsible for good mood, also decreases. But increases the production of melatonin, which is also responsible for our sleep. Therefore, autumn-winter melancholy and drowsiness are normal (of course, when in moderation) and you do not need to “rape” the body with medications. The best medicine will be a full sleep, daytime walks, moderate exercise and a salad of nuts, bananas, pineapples, dates.
Around the clock. It is associated with the change of day and night. It is quite carefully studied, and on the basis of the activation of certain hormones and organs, approximate hourly schemes are drawn up, how to plan your daily routine. We do not give them here, because the operation of the internal clock depends on many parameters and it is wrong to focus on generalized schemes. We will list only the sequence:
After sunrise: waking up, emptying the bowels, perhaps light exercise or jogging (but not heavy physical activity), intellectual activity, lunch, light rest/afternoon nap;
In the afternoon: intensive physical activity, intellectual activity, dinner, again favorable mental work (including entertainment), after dark-going to sleep.
Theory of “three rhythms” and calculation of biorhythm sinusoids by date of birth
For the first time I learned about this “entertaining mathematics” at school, at a valeology lesson together with the teacher, we drew sinusoids of our physical, emotional and intellectual ups and downs. Each of them has its own period – 23, 28 and 33 days, respectively. The reference point on the coordinate axis is the date of birth, from which the graph rises evenly and reaches the peak, goes down to the minimum value, and from there back up and so on. The “instructions for use” states that the higher the value, the more favorable the corresponding activity and vice versa. Years later, the calculation of these cycles has not disappeared anywhere, but has moved to a digital format and now you do not need to pore with a calculator and pencil – an online program will calculate and draw everything for you. And if I were a naive 14-year-old schoolgirl now, I would probably be happy, but alas!
The fact is that the basis of this chart was the so-called theory of “three rhythms”. Emphasis on the word – theory. Its founders are considered to be specialists who worked independently of each other, but each in the course of his professional activity noticed a certain cyclicity in the states of the people with whom he worked.
Doctor Wilhelm Fliss in 1897 published an article in which, based on observations of patients, he expressed a version of the existence of a 23-day physical rhythm and a 28-day emotional rhythm. He also shared the assumption that they are triggered in a person from the moment of birth, and therefore based on this date, it is possible to predict crisis psychosomatic periods.
Psychoanalyst Herman Svoboda made similar conclusions in the same year. He noticed that the expression of his patients ‘ emotions fluctuated with a certain frequency. So he singled out the 28-day cycle, calling it “female”, because sensuality, emotionality, intuition “obey” it. Continuing the research in this vein, the doctor also identified a “male” cycle – 23 days, with such frequency the wards showed increased courage, will, and physical strength.
Teacher Friedrich Melcher, conducted research in 1928 with the students. He knew about the above assumptions and began his experiment to refute them, but instead he found another rhythm, 33 days long – intellectual.
And no matter how beautiful these data may be, there is another side of the coin: subsequent attempts to confirm the theory of” pulsation ” of our main activities were not crowned with success. More precisely, experiments have shown that there are indeed fluctuations! However-in different people, at different ages, with different lifestyles and health conditions, they are so different that it is pointless and even harmful to focus on the “average hospital” 23/28/33!
Practice creates perfection
The fact that the sinusoid of biorhythms is in demand is not surprising. People always want to be a little ahead of time, to look into the future, to find out where you will fall, to lay hay, to be prompt in solving problems… But quickly is not fast, but timely! Think about what will happen to a butterfly if you open its pupa before the proper time.
The opinion of a specialist
The opinion of a specialist
Doctor, psychotherapist, master of Thai traditional therapy and yoga Reusi Dat Ton Mila Jackson:
“Focus on yourself, not on predictions! When we focus our attention exclusively on the future, the level of anxiety increases and the value of the present moment is lost. We are focused on the outside world and lose the value of ourselves, as if we forget about our inner world. Keep the balance of internal and external! In addition, human nature is such that we often succumb to “programming” predictions, even skeptics are subject to this (just a little less and obvious form). That is, when a person touches the forecast of the future, he subconsciously adjusts to what it says. And, as they say, “what we fought for, we ran into”: I learned that a bad day was coming and everything was wrong for you. Or, maybe even the day is not bad, but its events are subjectively perceived in a negative light. We are infected with the proposed emotions. But the point is not that the stars did not come together (although this is not excluded), but often the problem is in the internal mood and internal “biased” view of events. The surrounding world is diverse, but consciousness snatches out of it what the prediction has already “oriented” to.
Therefore, I do not advise you to trust third-party resources in matters of forecasting, especially since they often muffle the inner voice and confuse you with your own feelings. What do I recommend? Learn to listen to your body’s signals, which your brain then processes and outputs as decisions. Trust your mind, body, intuition! However, to do this, you first need to learn to distinguish your own voice from the external “radio” (parents, politicians, marketers and other opinion leaders), which forces us to conform, shaping our needs, worldview, and imposes desires…»
There are quite a lot of ways to learn to listen to yourself, feel your own biorhythms and harmonize with your internal clock. For example, the practice of Thai yoga and Thai massage helps TMila Jackson, because it is extremely important to observe the principle “if some movement is inconvenient for you, then you will not benefit the client”, that is, first feel yourself and only then work with other people. Other types of yoga, meditation, vipassana and other spiritual practices, art therapy, the habit of being aware, keeping a diary, frequent interaction with animals and even extreme hobbies also help well… And we also recommend trying such practices:
Try to live without a watch at all, without looking at the time at all. It is advisable to spend a week or two in this mode. Yes, it is most accessible to freelancers, unemployed (mothers on maternity leave do not count) or those who are on vacation, but if you do not have a week, then practice at least 1-2 days.
The version of the “light”. Spend your days as you feel, without dwelling on anything (even on the light day) and try to keep the clock out of sight and hearing as much as possible. Wake up when you feel that you have had enough sleep, eat when you are hungry, you will want to do creative work-do it, you will feel the need for physical education-train, sleepiness will come – go to sleep and so on.
The “hard” option. To all of the above is added mandatory statistics: you record key moments, for example, waking up and falling asleep, meals, mood swings, well-being, and other things that you consider important for yourself. Choose such a tool for keeping a “diary” so that you do not see the time when writing, but at the end of this practice you can identify it. The simplest is a voice recorder or video recording on a smartphone, since the date and time of recording is recorded automatically and you can find them only by viewing the properties of the files.
Create a table and fill it out regularly. Enter dates in the cells of the first column. In the cells of the first row, enter the indicators that are important for you (these can be those physical, emotional, intellectual states, and any other). Every evening, as far as possible, take 5-10 minutes to analyze your states during the day, evaluate and enter the assessment in the table. Choose the rating scale yourself, whether it is 5-, 10 – or 100-point, or a smiley face, or a normal verbal description. What is it for? First, you will develop sensitivity to the body, the habit of listening to yourself and recognizing your states – this is the main thing! Secondly, after a few months, draw a graph based on the table: when there were “ups” and” downs ” for the selected parameters, whether they have a periodicity.
Finally, I would like to wish you, dear reader, to find time to get acquainted with yourself, to find harmony and to make the internal biochasics tick in unison with the rhythms of nature. The road will be mastered by the walking one!
