The Sun's 11-Year Cycle and Me
Although I did not know it at the time, 2012 was the beginning of my spiritual awakening. Toria and I moved from Cincinnati to live with Glenn and his children in Columbus, Ohio. At the same time, my anxiety spiked.
Did I always have anxiety? I’m not sure, but all of a sudden when I was walking the dogs I would have to stop just to breathe. I couldn’t get air into the tightness that felt deep in my lungs. There was also this strange squeezing in my shoulder, arm, or neck, like someone was clenching my muscles from the inside. It scared me.
I went to my wonderful general practitioner who sent me through tests: a carpal tunnel test where they shoot electrical shocks through needles in your forearms (they don’t tell you how much that hurts), then a brain scan to make sure I wasn’t having strokes. Nothing. No clear issues. So I asked for something to take the edge off, and I was prescribed anxiety meds. They didn’t stop the anxiety, just dulled it. I stayed on them for a while, but eventually I was able to come off the meds by working with ceremonial cacao and learning how to tune into my body in different ways.
And yet, even then, I would have fleeting moments of total inner peace in my chest. A deep, happy, peaceful feeling. Now I know those moments as alignment: when what you’re feeling inside matches what you’re doing outside. Like right now, sitting here writing, my action (writing) matches my inner joy of expression. That’s alignment.
See my other post on me and the sun https://tinyurl.com/5axhardm
Fast forward to 2025
Here we are again, another solar maximum. Back in 2012 I didn’t know the Sun itself was stormy too, scientists call it a solar maximum. Now I do. And right now, we are just outside the peak of another 11-year cycle.
Lately my anxiety has been creeping back. Some days I can’t seem to get a grip, even though my life is good, plenty of freedom, some worries, but nothing unusual. My Oura Ring shows my resting heart rate is up. My body isn’t calming down during sleep. Something deeper is stressing me.
Sometimes I wake at 2:33 or 3 a.m., tossing and turning. And of course, I check my apps. First the Schumann resonance (clear), then Space Weather Live. Sure enough: a spike in solar wind and the KP index.
What’s wild is that I often feel it before it even hits Earth. A slight shift in my body first, then full dysregulation when it arrives a couple days later.
The Sun’s cycle
The Sun isn’t solid like Earth. It’s plasma, twisting and turning itself like a spring over 11 years. At maximum it’s all wound up, then it unravels, flips its poles, and settles. The settle comes in 2027. For me, that image makes sense: being twisted to the breaking point, then shifting, then calm again.
And maybe it’s not just me. Politics, people, the world, all of it feels chaotic right now. What if that’s connected?
My body, my practices
When anxiety rises, I notice it quickly, in the tightness, the restless nights, the sense that something is pressing in from the outside. Most people don’t make the connection. They just want to feel better, so they grab their phones, scroll social media, raid the fridge, pour another drink, or numb out in whatever way they can.
I’ve learned to pay attention instead. Like yesterday, there was a CME (coronal mass ejection, a giant burst of plasma from the Sun) a full moon, and an eclipse all stacked on top of each other. By the afternoon, after all that had passed, I was exhausted and unable to focus on work. So I did what not everyone can do in the moment, but what anyone can try at the end of a workday: go home, rest, maybe watch some TV, read a book, or just sink into the couch. But I do it with awareness, not as a way to escape, but as a way to listen to my body and allow recovery.
Zoe gets it instinctively, she loves to strip down to the basics and play in the dirt, completely connected to the Earth.
For me, practices like meditation, ceremonial cacao, incense, grounding in the grass, and solo retreats to Hocking Hills layer on top of that. And sometimes, on days like today when the KP index is 5, I wear flowy clothes to feel magical and connected. These things don’t fix everything, but they remind me to ride the wave instead of fighting it.
The big question
Back in 2012–2014, the Sun was at maximum, and that’s when my anxiety first really hit. Yes, moving to a blended family was stressful. But maybe it wasn’t just me. Maybe it’s not just screens or social media either.
For me, meds dulled it but didn’t heal it. Getting off them was a turning point. Cacao, nature, and awareness gave me real tools to recognize what was happening in my body, so here in 2025, I can see the pattern more clearly and ride the wave.
What if anxiety is also connected to the Sun? To solar flares, CME’s, the Moon’s cycle, even eclipses as we enter another eclipse season?
Sometimes the real answer is turning it all off and going to bed. Because when the Sun storms and the Moon pulls, the only thing we truly control is how we meet the energy inside ourselves.