On Seasons, Cycles and Excitement

It has just gone 6pm as I sit and write this in my London apartment. Outside, the streetlights are on and the last remnants of the sunset sillouette the trees outside. Nature has ended a cycle of growth and is pulling back into itself for the long northern winter. Wind over the past few days has blown the autumn leaves into ankle deep drifts on the pavements keeping the streetsweepers very busy indeed. In spring it all starts again, the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.As a Gestalt practitioner, this cycle of life is reflected in the theoretical model of "cycles of experience". My life is a cycle, every meeting is a cycle, every experience is a cycle within a cycle. Sometimes a cycle is interrupted, I'm not fully present, perhaps anxiety gets in the way, transposing itself over the excitement. So I'm not fully present and I don't really see the other person, or really experience the moment. Part of me isn't quite there.The power of working in a Gestalt way whether as a therapist, coach or facilitator, is to work with the present awareness, to really get inside the current experience on all it's levels and in all its complexity. What's my heart doing, how am I breathing, what physical sensations can I feel, how do I really know that I'm happy, sad, anxious, excited? Do my thoughts actually correspond with everything else I experience in myself? What do I do to interrupt the cycle of experience and to keep me from a full engagement with the present?As I write I can feel my own excitment bubbling up through my body. As the winter draws in in England, I am planning a workshop in South Africa next month. The thought of this future event results in pleasure and excitement now. The season for working outdoors is drawing to a close in the UK and another is starting (for me at least!) in the Cederberg in a few weeks.So while there is always something to look forward to and to plan for, there is always a rich present experience to be had right now! Sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant, but rich and exciting nevertheless!