THE RHYTHM OF US
How Groups Breathe, Break, and Come Back to Life
"Cannot gather.
Cannot disperse.
Cannot."
What This Is
This is the accessible entry point to understanding organizational consciousness through your own body. Not through theory or mythology, but through the exhaustion you already feel. Every group you're part of—family, team, community, organization—moves through three fundamental rhythms that you've been sensing your whole life but never had words for.
The book maps these movements—BREATH (gathering-dispersing), PULSE (rising-falling), and TIDE (creating-dissolving)—through direct observation rather than abstraction. You know that suffocating feeling at family dinners that won't end? That's BREATH stuck in chronic gathering. The flat exhaustion in your team? PULSE trapped in endless rising. The overwhelm of accumulated projects? TIDE unable to dissolve. Your body has been reading these patterns perfectly. You just haven't trusted what it knows.
This isn't another framework to optimize groups. It's a recognition guide for what's already happening, a permission slip to trust your embodied knowing, and most importantly, a set of gentle practices for when rhythm gets stuck.
Who This Serves
This book serves exhausted practitioners who know something's off but can't name it. Parents whose families feel suffocating or scattered. Team leaders watching good people burn out. Community organizers feeling the life drain from their gatherings. Anyone whose body tightens walking into certain meetings, certain spaces, certain dynamics.
It's NOT for those seeking quick fixes or productivity hacks. The movements can't be optimized or managed—only recognized and allowed. If you need control more than you need rhythm, this book will frustrate you. But if you're ready to trust what your body already knows about how groups naturally move, this offers language and permission.
What You'll Encounter
Your exhaustion as intelligence - Why chronic tiredness is diagnostic data about rhythm violations, not personal failure
Three movements decoded - BREATH, PULSE, and TIDE explained through everyday examples your body will recognize instantly
Simple diagnostic tools - How to read what's stuck in 30 seconds using body signals you're already feeling
Gentle restoration practices - Five-minute interventions that don't require buy-in or explanation, just quiet shifts
Permission to stop forcing - Why trying harder makes rhythm violations worse and allowing creates natural flow
How This Connects
Read this first if:
You're new to this work and want practical entry
You're exhausted and need immediate recognition
You work with groups and sense something's systematically wrong
Then explore:
We Gather But Do Not Meet - The mythological diagnosis of what you're feeling
The Field Manual - Underground practices for soul-level organizational work
Organizational Metaphysics - The cosmological framework explaining why these movements exist
Or start here if:
You need body-based understanding before diving into mythology or theory
You want to test these ideas through direct experience first
You're skeptical of abstract frameworks but trust somatic knowing
Related Koans
"Breathing.
Drowning.
Both."
"What gathers
when the gathering ends?"
"The exhaustion
that generations carry—
when did it begin?"
Get This Book
Coming Soon on Amazon
Published: February 2025
Publisher: Fractal Praxis Press
Format: Paperback, Kindle
Practice This Work
Self-guided
Apply the three movements in your groups
Use the diagnostic tools from Chapter 6
Work with the Quick Reference guides
Track patterns in your Field Journal
Facilitated
Strategic Witnessing with Performance Rising
Group rhythm assessment and restoration