In order for a planet to complete a whole orbit around the Sun, the planet does not always move forward. Several times during the cycle, the planet retrogrades, that is, it moves backwards. Mercury, for example, enters retrograde motion between three and four times a year, for about three weeks at a time.
We can imagine this movement like a spiral, moving into one direction, making a temporary loop back and move forward again. Spirals are a frequent and beautiful phenomenon in nature, to be seen in snails, sunflowers, the path of draining water, galaxies and the DNA.
The golden spiral, a geometric perfection which gets wider by a specific factor for every quarter turn it makes, is found in nature too. The Golden Ratio (or Fibonacci sequence) with its impressive functionality in nature represents a fundamental characteristic of the Universe.
Spiral shapes and movements are natural and there is beauty in their perfection.
We move in spirals too.
Whenever you aim at something and move towards it and then get to a freezing point, stumble, move backwards, get up and aim at your goal again… that’s when you’re creating spirals. You are on a track with a direction, make a loop and continue.
We do this all the time. Whenever we learn, we end up on a plateau and commit mistakes in order to advance. The important thing is that we need to make steps back in order to advance. Learning is linear and circular – that is, doing spirals. Life is not linear either, it moves in cycles.
So why do we feel bad when we do steps back? Why do feel guilty when we stumble and retrograde to get on track again? It’s as natural as the movements of planets or the whirls of water.
As long as you know where you’re going, it does not matter how many loops you get in. Just keep on going. Learn from the loop, get your eyes back on the track, and feel good about it.
After all, by making this step back you may have just created a golden spiral. You’ve done what the whole nature does in every instance.
Perhaps you thought it was a race, when all the time it was a dance.
A dance where you must step back to move forward.
Just the way a planet does to complete its orbit around the Sun.