What the Heck are Sustainable Cadences?

If you’re here, then something about reconnecting to your rhythm spoke to you. But you may still be wondering what Sustainable Cadences actually are so let me explain what I mean when I say Sustainable Cadences. 

Sustainable Cadences are the practice of creating and maintaining rhythms that honor your natural energy, timing, and capacity - free from capitalism's imposed schedules and expectations. 

So much about how our society operates is a robotic sunrise-to-sunset situation. We’re supposed to wake up, jump straight into working for some capitalist overlord, and still make time for meditation, friends, family, partners, kiddos, hobbies, exercise, perfect nutrition, and more work before bed at night. 

We are surrounded by messages that virtue signal the merit of endless hustle and we’re all exhausted. Because it turns out that endless, relentless hustle is exhausting and oftentimes, it’s quite harmful. 

So if Tricia Hersey’s beautiful manifesto Rest is Resistance is the antidote to capitalist hustle, then consider Sustainable Cadences to be a practical application of the principles she espouses in that manifesto. If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it, but it’s not required reading for developing a Sustainable Cadence practice.  

This is something anybody can do. If you want to learn how to slow down, create a Sustainable Cadences Practice. If you want to honor your neurodivergence better, create a Sustainable Cadence practice. And if you just want to figure out how to move through your week with better flow and less struggle, then I invite you to adopt a Sustainable Cadence practice. 

The Essence of Sustainable Cadences

I call Sustainable Cadences a practice because the methodology (if you can call it that) is composed of a series of what I call Cadence Experiments. These tiny experiments are just me playing with time to explore different approaches to time, energy, and focus to discover what aligns with my natural rhythm.

Some experiments are task-oriented like my experiment of doing one thing per day and others focus on experiencing and working with time via alternative structures to capitalist timing. A lot of times, that structure is different cycles of time in astrology. I’m particularly attuned to the moon cycle, but I also like to work with the days of the week via an astrological perspective. 

The practice of Sustainable Cadences often looks like me playing with one Cadence Experiment at a time. If the experiment is successful, then I’ll add the experiment to my Cadence Mapping sequence, which is the place where I document and track which of my Cadence Experiments play well together in terms of finding my ideal life rhythm. With enough consistent practice, I find that you can start to automatically attune to your natural rhythm without having to consciously think about what comes next. 

I know my practice is working best when I wake up each day knowing what I need to accomplish and feeling like I have ample time to accomplish that thing, rest, tend to myself emotionally and physically, and still have time to spare for anything last minute that comes up or to enjoy the kind of spaciousness that comes from undesignated time. 

Changing Our Relationship to Time via Sustainable Cadences

It can be easy to think about Sustainable Cadences as a methodology for developing new routines and productivity practices and habits, but I want to caution you against that.

If you’re looking for productivity hacks, you’re not in the right place. I don’t know how to optimize anything, let alone time. 

But I do know how to change our relationship to time into something that flows. Something that we’re working with instead of fighting against. 

I know how to create time abundance if that’s something you believe in. I prefer to call it time sovereignty in the sense that this is a practice that enables you to reclaim your time from systems and structures whose only desire is to rule and dominate you, in part by dictating all the ways you’re supposed to spend your time. 

So if you’ve lost yourself to busyness culture a time, or two, or 400, then this is the place for you to reconnect to your rhythm so you can explore what it is to belong first and foremost to yourself instead of a culture and system designed to exploit you 24/7.

And if those exploitative cultures and systems have never worked for you no matter how hard you’ve tried to contort yourself to fit into their squares and triangles, then this is the place for you too my neurodivergent friend. Sustainable Cadences is a practice that lets you take off your neurotypical mask and explore the magic that is your unique relationship to time. 

It’s a place to discover when you focus best. Because maybe it’s not that you can’t focus. Maybe it’s that you focus best at certain times during the day and/or night and on certain things that have nothing to do with a capitalist agenda. 

It’s a place to identify and prioritize your needs. Your physical needs, your emotional ones, your mental ones, and your energetic ones. 

It’s a place to understand what it is to honor your capacity and notice what it feels like to give yourself that kind of tenderness. 

It's a place to align with your unique time signature.

Sustainable Cadences is about creating a foundational practice for maintaining your connection to your unique rhythm and finding your way back to it with relative ease in those times when you inevitably lose your way. 

What You’ll Find in This Space

As I said before Sustainable Cadences isn’t a rigid routine; it’s a flexible practice. So in this space you’ll find my reflections on the Cadence Experiments that I’m running, how I’m incorporating the more successful experiments into my Cadence Map, and the results. I’ll talk about how I stay consistent and what I do when I get a little lost or feel compelled to abandon my practices. 

You’ll also find real-time documentation of what it looks like to build a business moving at your natural rhythm. I’ll talk about the cadence systems I use for my business, how much I’m working on my business versus resting, pursuing hobbies, and doing other things that are important to me, and how that does or doesn’t impact my income. 

If any or all of that sounds good to you, then I invite you to join the journey.