Biologists tell us that human cells replace themselves every seven to ten years. Is there a good argument to be made to consider your life as a series of seven-year cycles, rather than a linear process, when writing your life story?
SEVEN-YEAR CYCLES TO JOG YOUR MEMORY
I find even-year cycles extremely valuable as a tool with which your life story can be constructed. Tracking my own life in this sequence, I was quite astonished. Every seventh year (more or less) did represent a major change!
Philosopher Rudolf Steiner sees life as a series of ten cycles that all of us who make it to the age of 70 years old must pass through. Each cycle, Steiner said, is composed of seven years, and each cycle offers its own challenges and rewards.
AGES 0 to 7: From Oneness with Mother to Growing Autonomy
AGES 7 TO 14: A Fight for, and Commitment To, Life
AGES 14 TO 21. Wild Emotions, Raging Hormones, Sexuality
AGES 21 TO 28. Play That Turns Toward Responsibility
AGES 28 TO 35. The Body In Full Bloom
AGES 35 TO 42. Crisis and Questioning
AGES 42 TO 49. Soul Searching and Wonder
AGES 49 TO 56. An Ever Growing Vision and Understanding of Life
AGES 56 TO 63. The Crossroads: Mastery or Re-evaluation.
AGES 63 TO 70. A Time of Harvesting and Spreading the Wealth.
A PSYCHOLOGIST’S POINT OF VIEW
Seven-year cycles could be “attributed to many of the so called ‘random’ things that happen in life.” But if you follow the seven-year theory cycle you might start to think they weren’t so random after all? “In his recently released book, Your Best Life at Any Age, psychologist Andrew Fuller describes the seven-year cycle as the basis of many of the common patterns he sees in his patients and in the many thousands of people he has talked to throughout his career. While he stresses that everyone is unique, and their lives retain individualist twists and turns, there are, he says, ‘identifiable, common patterns’. These patterns reflect an ancient idea that has influenced and permeated every civilisation and almost every religion.”
SUBJECTIVE MEMORY – AN EXERCISE
Of course, your memories are going to be subjective, but it is your life story after all! When you use the framework of seven-year cycles, it is a starting point to take your mind back to things that happened around those years. Start by picturing a specific event, somewhere around every one of your seven-year cycles. This will provide the skeleton for your research. It might not be sentences or a story yet but just jot down as many details, physical as well as sensory, that surface. This type of writing is very private and meant only for your eyes, so do it as accurately as possible, even if it hurts.
Your memories might arrive as a jumble of images, rather than something you can put into words. Close your eyes and allow the jumbled images to become words, and feelings, and sensory descriptions.
Use the ideas that present themselves, during and after this exercise, as inspiration for a short story or a chapter in your life story or memoir.
SEVEN-YEAR CYCLES IN YOUR LIFE STORY
When we write we aim to touch our readers’ hearts: we write about love, forgiveness, justice, freedom, sacrifice, resilience. We write about the big narratives in our lives. Take a step back and reflect. Where and how can you identify such themes in your seven-year cycle exploration? If you need assistance in planning and working with your series of seven-year cycles, I am available, as an author coach, to assist you.