Reduced to everything: The Artistry of the Subtraction Dance
Greater clarity. Greater insight.
Hello Hedge Schoolers,
There is a slowness to the words I write this week. Salty air, no schedules, and family fun the order of the week have led to a lull in the usual pace of life. It is in the contrast of these slow moments that a light is shone on the gathered. The gathered things that murky the water of my own clarity. The many tabs open in my brain as a result of overzealous curiosity and unconscious attendance. Personally, my greatest growth has always been when I prune back the growth. When I close the tabs of more. To allow breathing room to the prioritised few.
Slow time leads to that reset. An opportunity to say no to everything so that I can reassess the value of everything. To notice the patterns that are showing up in my life and to make sure that those patterns are the right ones for me.
Habitual Fractals
In nature, repeated patterns are called fractals. Fractals are everywhere. Simple building blocks that repeat over and over leading to increased complexity. In our own lives, our habits are patterns repeated over and over. Simple tasks repeated often enough that become engrained in our brains.
Our habitual fractals form the foundation of our well-being. They are integral to all facets of wellbeing. The repeat of the patterns leading to being well or unwell.
Some habits are more important than others. Author Charles Duhugg, calls these habits "keystone habits". A keystone is a “central stone at the summit of a door arch" that holds the other stones in place. A keystone habit is a habit that holds the arch of our lives together. A habit that keeps all the habits in shape.
Personally, I regularly assess all stones in the arch of my life to ensure that my fractals are serving me instead of gripping me in place.
This for me is the Subtraction Dance.
Subtraction Dance
This practice is my way of pruning the Bonsai tree of life. It takes many shapes. And as always is a work in progress.
The contrast of Abstinence
Fasting from vices (positive and negative) is a practice I complete regularly.
What can I learn from putting this practice down for a week?
I do this with movement, meditation, writing, and any other practice that provides me great joy. Especially when it brings me great joy. This helps reinvigorate the practice by making my participation more conscious. By the end of the abstinence period, I'm usually really missing the practice in my life. The joy, the playfulness. And I begin the practice again but with a much greater appreciation.
With food, regular 24-36 hour fasts provide the physical and mental space needed to pause in my life. Water fasts are spiritually enriching for me. But more so, they break the pattern of poor eating.
Landing the plane slowly
With the stickier vices and practices (alcohol, coffee, sugar), I find that gradual reduction works better for me. I quit drinking on December 30, 2019, but it had been a three-year journey of conscious reduction. When I turned 39, I started marking the days I drank on a physical calendar. I drank 40% of my 39th year. 30% of 40th and 20% of my 41st. I have now been sober for a year and a half. The pattern didn’t serve me and I haven’t looked back since.
At the moment, coffee is my vice. Covid helped my habit creep up to four cups a day. And I'm in the process of switching out two cups for herbal tea. Which will be one next week. And then a week of no coffee as I prepare for an upcoming ceremony. With the contrast allowing for the conscious addition (if I choose) back into my life afterward.
Reduced to everything
Why does reduction matter? When we reduce, we gain greater vision. We reduce the repeated fractal to its simplest form.
Does this pattern at the micro level serve me?
Is it a good building block for my well-being?
Which of these habits holds the arch of my life together?
What helps keep me in integrity?
Personally, movement is my keystone habit. I have to move physically every day. Running. Surfing. Playing sport. Working out. It doesn't matter. I need to be in my body and dancing with the world, my life is better when I do. In its simplest form, I need to move with vigor each day. Variety and periods of Subtraction are then intertwined to consistently check in on this practice.
Be willing to give it all away…for a time.
The contrast will yield tremendous insight.
Till next week,
Steve
Be willing to give it all away. I resonate with this practice. We have patterns tucked away in the corners of our lives. The willingness to seek out and look at these patterns provides riches we cannot imagine until we stand naked of them. Thank you.