The beauty of spiral time and internal growth
I was talking to a client about this recently and that conversation inspired me to dig deeper into the concept of spiral time. It’s a concept I was familiar with, as a coach I worked with a few years ago shared it with me. But as often happens, it had dropped out of my head until my client mentioned it.
Spiral time is a beautiful idea because it brings a different perspective to our experiences. Rather than the linear, forward-marching view common in Western thought that we have a past, present, and future, Spiral Time offers a cyclical and recurring perspective on our existence.
What I love about this is it explains why we often revisit the themes of our life. It offers something interesting when it comes to life lessons. Instead of seeing time as a straight line from a definitive past to a distant future, it's viewed as a spiral, where we continually revisit similar themes, seasons, and life lessons, but from a new vantage point each time.
Think of it like the passing seasons of the year. Each winter is still winter, it’s still a mix of cold, wet, windy, dry. The months are the same. There’s the same broad set of events. But our day to day experiences are different. The blend of weather shifts and bends.
Spiral time envisaged by a spiral staircase.
Linear Time, The Straight Arrow
The concept of linear time is straightforward and deeply embedded in modern Western culture. It views time as an arrow shot from a bow:
It has a clear beginning and end. Events are organised chronologically, moving sequentially from past, through the present, to the future.
The past is gone forever. Once a moment has passed, it is irretrievable.
The future is a new, undiscovered territory. Progress is key, as we move forward to achieve new things and leave the past behind.
We are encouraged to be more in the present, but are often to be found ruminating on the past and worrying about the future.
This model is advantageous when it comes to planning, scheduling, and measuring progress. It helps us make appointments and not miss them (in theory!)
It also drives the idea of constant growth and forward momentum in everything we do. Especially our personal goals, careers, and healing journey.
Spiral Time: The Rhythmic Cycle
Spiral time, with its roots in indigenous, Eastern, and ancient philosophies, sees time as a connected, rhythmic cycle. It combines the cyclical nature of a circle with the forward progression of a line.
Imagine walking up a spiral staircase. You circle around the same central point, but with each revolution, you are on a higher level. This gives you a new perspective on what has happened before. (It’s also rather beautifully aligned with Fibonacci geometry, or the golden ratio, where nature has used an exact mathematical ratio to create incredible spiral shapes. Give it a google!)
The golden ratio is used in nature to create shells, galaxies, hurricanes, and leaf patterns.
We revisit the past each time we rotate around our cycle. Events and experiences are not left behind. We return to similar points around the spiral, our anniversaries, seasons, personal challenges, with the accumulated wisdom from our previous journeys and moments of healing.
The past informs the present. Ancestors, historical events, and past lessons are not distant memories but active presences that shape our current reality. What happened before will happen again, but with a new context.
Growth is about deepening understanding. Progress isn't just about moving forward into the unknown. It's about how we handle the recurring patterns in our lives. Did you learn from the last time you faced this challenge? Have you grown since the last time this season of life came around? Perhaps the reason we experience the same thing over and over again is because we haven’t let go of something, or haven’t yet learned the lesson, or done the healing work. It gives us clues as to what to focus on.
Our past becomes not something we run away from, wanting to forget. But something we learn from, cherish, and build off.
Spiral time encourages a more integrated view of life, where past, present, and future are deeply interconnected. It invites us to learn from recurring patterns and recognise that while we may face similar situations, we are never in the exact same place twice.
This is particularly useful in our healing journey, as it helps us understand why certain events may continue to impact our present. It also provides reassurance that while our past may indeed shape our future, the benefit of examining it, learning from it, and leaning into all parts of us instead of running from them, means we can truly become whole.
