According to the Treccani, rhythm is “the orderly succession in time of forms of movement, and the frequency with which the various phases of movement occur.” There are the visual rhythm, the acoustic/musical rhythm, and the existential rhythm (the rhythm of the seasons, for example). There are many kinds of rhythm, in short.
All these types of rhythm have one constant: a certain order. The rhythm-even in its many possible variations- conveys a repetitiveness that soothes the mind. Recognizing it in music makes you predict how a song will unfold and puts you in a better position to appreciate it. Any change of pace, on the other hand, causes discomfort or disorientation.
Running also has a pace: it is what, if maintained, allows you to cover a certain distance in a certain time.
Again, this is something that has an order, and is made up of a certain number of steps performed with a certain frequency. In other words, we speak of “cadence,” described by philosopher Federico Ferrari on these very pages, such as “that moment [in cui] the steps begin to be no longer a simple mechanical sequence of movements but a fluid gesture that no longer needs anything except the attention that helps to keep the pace, to feel the rhythm as the very meaning of running“.
There is a very reassuring factor in rhythm: it is the order it manages to express.
Imagine running a marathon while constantly changing pace. Could you ever achieve even the most miserable result? You would probably stumble every 5 minutes. Or imagine that you have no rhythm at all and therefore cannot find any order in the way you run-you would get nothing but frustration.
The rhythm greatly calms the mind, putting you in a state of mental peace and serenity. Except for rhythms that are too accelerated to make absurd times that, while still rhythms, put you under such strain that you only perceive them as intolerable.
The disturbance
A rhythm can also be found in daily life. It is that of routine, it is that of habit. These are things that are repeated cyclically, things you always do the same way because it gives you serenity to do them that way.
Part of the malaise we can all inevitably experience comes from the disruption of these habits, caused by external factors you cannot control. In everyday life it is anything that interrupts or alters the routine to which you are accustomed, creating a disruption and, indeed, a disruption. Unforeseen commitments, external accidents, anything that takes over your life, from the simplest to the most complicated.
However, there are also some voluntary perturbations that it is important to introduce. These are changes to one’s habits consciously sought in order to improve and change. A planned and intended change, so to speak.
In this case, these are alterations in the rhythm of life that cause more restrained discomfort because they are intended.
Stoic philosophers used to say that we should only worry about things that disturb us but are in our domain. Allowing ourselves to be troubled by those that do not affect us (in the sense that we cannot control them) is useless.
As always, there is only one thing we can control and change: our reaction to events. Events (disturbing or otherwise) we cannot change.
The less you let outside intrusions or the causality of life alter your rhythm and thus your serenity, the happier you will be.
On you depends only how you react to what happens to you, not what happens to you.