Moment of Inertia

In physics, moment of inertia is a measure of how easy or difficult it is to rotate an object around an axis point. To give you an idea of some real world examples, consider a golf club and a baseball bat. First, think about a driver with its long handle and bulbous end. If you hold the handle and swing it like a pendulum, you can feel the weightiness of it. Now hold the bulbous end and swing it. Notice how different it feels? With the baseball bat, all you have to do is consider the concept of choking up. When you hold a bat from the very end, it has one moment of inertia, but when you choke up, you lessen the moment of inertia.

Now I want to talk about a slightly different moment of inertia.

Inertia, in laymen’s terms, is synonymous to lethargy. It is the couch potato syndrome. Inertia is that tendency to put off until tomorrow what really doesn’t have to be done today.

So I would define moment of inertia, in real life terms, as that split second moment in life when you consider taking action: “Should I get up off my butt and do this?”

For a couple of days, monitor how many times you have a moment of inertia. Maybe there is that task in your in-box you’d rather not do. Maybe it’s when you think about going to the gym or for a walk. Maybe it’s when you walk past the kitchen and look at the mess you left behind. Funny as this may sound, living without a dishwasher has increased my awareness around the subject. Obviously, I overcome inertia frequently and then get my hands wet, but there’s often that moment I have to push through.

Exercise routines are the same. Once I’m out of the rhythm, the moments of inertia return.

One thing you might notice is today, your ability to overcome inertia is greater. That is because we are now just past the new moon in Libra. I always notice that it’s easier to take action right after the new moon. And with Libra being a cardinal sign, it’s that much greater still!

Yesterday, I wrote of Mars square Chiron as exemplifying being stuck. That’s a form of inertia. A strong Mars helps us overcome inertia. An overly strong Mars and we get down right impetuous. But a suppressed Mars can leave us stuck.

Now, I must say that being stuck due to inertia is not the same as being stuck due to fear. Fear can freeze us for sure. Yesterday, that’s more the form of stuck I was talking about. We hesitate to act because we’re afraid to act; we’re locked inside of some tight sphere of protection.

The moment of inertia is different. It is when we have the power and ability to take action, but have not yet decided to. It is the decision point.

Awareness of a moment of inertia allows us to more consciously choose. We’ll still opt to procrastinate plenty of times, but we’ll do it consciously. In this way, we take on more of our power. Do this enough and you’ll find yourself experiencing extended freedom and fluidity.

If you find yourself justifying a decision to not act, follow it with permission. “I give myself permission to opt out of action right now.” Often, I’ll choose not to do something simply because I don’t feel like it. What’s interesting is that through this honesty, I am better able to take advantage of those times when I do feel like it. The impulse will strike, and I’ll jump right on it. That’s how I felt about writing this post. I mostly didn’t have the time for it this morning, but I just had to act because it felt so right.

Enjoy your moments of inertia because those moments are reminding you of your power of choice. You are free to choose…

Spirit/Life honors your deciding far greater than your decision.