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Ep.75 Thriving While Being Stepped On
53 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, we take inspiration from one of the most overlooked yet resilient plant spirits: grass. Often stomped on, grazed by animals, and exposed to harsh elements, grass has a secret to thriving despite all odds. How does this humble plant turn adversity into an opportunity for growth and regeneration?
Drawing from a fascinating 2022 study on bison and their role in revitalizing grasslands, we’ll explore how large grazers like bison help enhance biodiversity—just as life's challenges can bring out our hidden strengths. Learn how grass's wisdom applies to your journey, helping you rethink "being stepped on" as a part of your natural evolution.
By observing nature’s adaptive strategies, we gain insight into how we can thrive even when life feels heavy. Ready to embrace your own transformation? 🌿
Topics Covered about thriving
➡️ Lessons from grass: resilience in the face of challenges
➡️ The surprising role of bison in increasing biodiversity
➡️ Viewing life’s “stomping” as an opportunity for growth
➡️ Exploring the deep connection between grass, ecosystems, and human resilience
Resources Mentioned
🌱 Find Your Spirit Wild Plant
🌱 2022 Paper on Bison and Grass
🌱 Limiting Beliefs Interactive Webinar
🌱 Get support from me and the Plants
🌟Connect with nature-conscious creatives, multipotentialites, and naturentrepreneursin the premier online ecosystem that nourishes plant reawakening and community support for accelerated evolution and co-creation with otherkin. >> JOIN OUR COMMUNITY <<
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tigria Gartenia. How are you? How are you? Sometimes the, no, that's not true, always, every single time. One of the things that I dislike about podcasting platform is the fact that I can't see your reactions right away. I want to see you, I want to see your face, I want to see who you are, you know, that's why I keep telling you to come into the naturally conscious community, because I want to know how you are and what you're thinking about. But for now, I'm just gonna have to do it this way. Eventually, I'll probably start recording these live, but I'm i'm not there yet. So
00:00:39
Speaker
um It's it's it's been been a pretty intense week. um I went down to the Bologna Modena area, which is about three and a half three three and a half hours down from where I live.
00:00:54
Speaker
last weekend to celebrate one of my really good friends birthday, to also meet with my spiritual, I don't know what they're called, I think, I think the official term is testator, but really testator is a horrible word. Basically, I am the spiritual heir of a woman. So in Dom and her, we have this thing called spiritual heirs, because when a person passes,
00:01:16
Speaker
You know, we have all these different mechanisms to ensure the person's good passing, to make sure that the person's soul moves on to the next leg of their journey, but also everything that that person has been, everything that that person has acquired, everything that that person has learned, everything that that person has experienced and done with her, we want to make sure stays in the popolo, in the people. So every single person has the opportunity to choose their spiritual heir. And it just so happens that my spiritual heir happens to be the mother of one of my really good friends. So it's wonderful. I get the opportunity ah to go down there and spend time with both of them and and really just enjoy. Plus, we also had this conference that we wanted to go to, which was
00:02:02
Speaker
um my friend and i went to a conference of a new posthumous book that was written by an esoteric author that she followed for many years and so it was a really great weekend and opportunity to just enjoy that area of italy which is something that i um was a pleasant surprise the first time I went. Okay, my my chair just dropped. Sorry about that. um It was a really pleasant surprise for me because um when I started to explore different areas of Italy, I wasn't sure what I was going to find. And Modena has been this tiny little gem. but It's not really tiny, tiny, but it is small. And a little gem as well as Bologna, and they're very close one to the other. And so it was always a great time. Plus I got to see a friend of mine
00:02:47
Speaker
that I went to college with just so happened that he and his wife were in Bologna that same weekend. And so we had lunch together and I can't be, you know, I couldn't be more thrilled to be able to spend time with um friends from college long time ago, yeah long time ago.
00:03:04
Speaker
But throughout this whole kind of experience, and and really actually lately, I've been thinking a lot about world events and recent experiences that my coaching clients and also my initiatic students keep coming to me. These experiences that they're going through have been kind of rumbling through my head. I think because I'm working on a new interactive webinar,
00:03:25
Speaker
which I'm going to be announcing very, very, very soon. So keep an eye out for that. So I really feel the need to immerse myself in this period of time in what's triggering certain types of feelings and understandings. I'm trying to get into the head of the head space of where, of what people are really struggling through right now around a certain kind of topic.
00:03:48
Speaker
And so I get into these modes where I just sort of immerse myself completely and ah at a headspace level, you know, at ah at a mind level, trying to get into the right wording technology, not technology wording,
00:04:03
Speaker
and techniques and thought processes and and all of that. And then I get overwhelmed in a good way. And I have to kind of take a step back and be like, let that all enter into my body. So I wanted to walk you through some things today. So um what I usually do when I get into these types of experiences is, like I said, I am a very passionate person.
00:04:27
Speaker
about everything i do so i immerse myself completely into something and then i take a step back and i let it kind of slide into the rest of my body so i experience it on multiple levels and i one of the ways that i can kind of.
00:04:43
Speaker
switch from one gear to the other is by taking a walk, um especially in the area where I live right in front of my house. There's a giant meadow within then a beautiful river and um lots and lots of cows all day long. I hear the
00:05:00
Speaker
Ooh, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink. You've heard me talk about this before. They're incessant cowbells, which drive me absolutely nuts. Honestly, I think cowbells are a form of animal cruelty and should be made illegal. They're also a form of human cruelty and noise pollution. But specifically, can you imagine being a cow with this giant cowbell right there underneath you? umm I'm serious. One day I'm going to go down there, I'm going to sneak down there, and I'm going to cut off all their collars. I'm going to hide all of those bells.
00:05:28
Speaker
So maybe they and myself can finally get some peace. um But when I do go down there, i i I say I'm going to go for a walk, but that's not usually what I do. I usually end up lying on the grass. um There's something for me that's extremely grounding about being on grass. I also find grass to be one of the most underestimated and under-connected spirit wild plants around.
00:05:55
Speaker
So lying on kin, lying on all kinds of different grasses, I feel like I i can absorb their their wisdom into this. So, I mean, Falco Tarasago, the spiritual founder of Dom & Her once said, he actually he said, grass can be considered a plant person. Well, of course it can. I mean, we already knew that part. but Bear with me for the whole thing. Grass can be considered a plant person in their own right with their own age and their own texture. Grass has a transformative vegetative part and the potential of regeneration, especially in the mountains. It is possible to achieve a deep contact with a meadow. Grass is one of the most powerful computers existing on Earth.
00:06:37
Speaker
And in this kind of headspace that I'm in right now, this immersive sort of headspace on what is triggering people, and you know you've heard it in the last few episodes of the podcast, I was walking and I was thinking,
00:06:52
Speaker
And the grass in the area that I lived in obviously has been stepped on and chomped on so much. you know we have We have all these cows, we have paths of people that pass, but specifically the cows and sometimes sheep and herders that come through on a regular basis. and And so there's also big horses, beautiful horses, beautiful cows too, actually, to be honest, the cows are quite lovely here. And yet, even though it is stepped on and chomped on, it grows so thick and lush.
00:07:21
Speaker
and this reminded me of a study i read about years ago on how grasslands um thrive when there are large bison trampling all over it and so given that many people feel like that's exactly what's happening to them like like right now the world is trampling on them And yet, grass tends to thrive in this. I decided that it would probably be a good idea for me to sit down with grass and ask these giant connected supercomputers ah that are constantly being stomped on by others, how is it that they can thrive? So that brings me to today's discussion. I want to walk you through my purpose, not my purpose, my process. It's the word I'm looking for, process. So today is episode 75.
00:08:14
Speaker
thriving while being stepped on. Welcome to reconnect with plant wisdom. I'm your host Tigri La Gardenia, nature inspired mentor and leadership coach. In this podcast, I share ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality about the wondrous ways in which plants can help you lead a naturally conscious life.
00:08:38
Speaker
So as you know, I'm a nature-inspired mentor, a certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious Community, and also that world ambassador for plant advocacy. So for more than a decade, I've been working closely with plants to share practical wisdom with you to consciously embody the elements of life that nourish your evolution. um My sole mission, I say it over and over again because I feel like it's just such a big part of who I've always been. I've always been this bridge. And so this bridge that helps you bridge that gap between who you are, or who you know, who you are, or where you are, and who you want to be and who where you want to be. So and I elicit the help of the client income to do it. So since I elicit the help of plants to do this part, I thought today might be a good idea to give you a practical example of exactly how I do this. So
00:09:31
Speaker
Imagine this, I'm taking a walk on this giant meadow, on this giant meadow, in this giant meadow, in this giant meadow, in this giant meadow that is constantly being trampled on by cows. And I've got you know my little bag filled with supplies and I decide I'm just going to go and lie on the grass.
00:09:53
Speaker
and ask the grass what it feels like and what it means to be trampled all the time. How is it that kin, that all these different types of grasses, right, manage to make this trampling a good thing? While we humans feel like the world is stomping all over us all the time. And for us, it's a negative thing. Like, sure, you can thrive in adverse situations, but you're filled with trauma and you're filled with all kinds of bruising, um emotional bruising and psychological bruising and all kinds of different aspects like that. And that's not exactly what I think that plants are going through. it
00:10:34
Speaker
I think plants are thriving in the situation as part of the situation, not in spite of the situation. And that's really the heart of what I wanted to get to. Because like I said, I'm working on this new interactive webinar. And as part of also my work and my studies, this is a big way of how I get into the better understanding, a more expansive nature inspired understanding of many of the situations that I hear from my clients and from my students. This is a constant kind of mechanism that I use, which is either working with specifically
00:11:12
Speaker
some certain that have expressed um either a desire to work in certain areas of my business or of my personal life or even ah other kind of more fixed um ah fixed beings.
00:11:29
Speaker
such as Gary the silver fur who lives right outside of my house and then also the meadow and such and then of course there's plants all over the place that I connect in with but I like long-term relationships with plants I find that the because plants speak or communicate in such a different language the more time I spend with a given plant the more I can understand the way the plant thinks and the more that plant also understands what I'm trying to say and we can start to find that bridge piece, right? Remember I say I'm a bridge myself, but I need to also create bridges with the beings that I work with. So in this case, I was working specifically with grass and grass
00:12:15
Speaker
um is one of the most interesting plants to work with for me personally because it's very different from like Gary the silver fir which I can identify and I always look like that because gar Gary is right outside the window that's in front of me. Gary to me is one bean.
00:12:31
Speaker
So I can, you know, even though Gary has decentralized parts and there's so many different aspects to Gary, Gary is one tree. Many of the house plants that live in my house, the ones that are in a pot, even though when I'm looking at, for example, Zan and Jana, who are aloes, you can see that there's lots of different um There's lots of different sprouts that I could eventually put into a different pot. As a matter of fact, there is one plant that is a child of ah Jaina who's living up here and who is now an emanation on their own. Or you've heard me tell the story of of No Name Drosenia here sitting behind me, who's actually a piece of No Name Drosenia over there.
00:13:14
Speaker
And the I've had lots of discussions with both of them about who's who, like who's no name Drosenia now that theyve that that can have been split. And that's another conversation for another time. But grass is even beyond that because you have all these individual blades, you have all these different types of grasses even all living together. And yet for most of us, you have So not only that, you have grasses and sedges and all kinds of different other types of plants. And for us, it's just grass. we just Most of us will use this term. So I'm using this terminology grass as kind of a one generic term to um to name everything that is this beautiful meadow in front of me. But I just want you to understand that it's not one being I'm speaking with.
00:14:03
Speaker
there's a cacophony of voices, and sometimes those voices kind of speak in a unified tone, and other times they instead have a more distinctive personalities that kind of appear and allow me to best understand this. Basically, when I work with a plant, or in the case of this, a grouping of plants, like I said, I approach it from three different directions.
00:14:27
Speaker
I approach it from the science, trying to understand what is it that the plant is doing in reference to whatever it is that I'm asking, relating to the way that the biology works and what that biology might mean at ah at a different level or at a human um kind of ah understanding. So really taking the the the social aspect or of the behavior, or putting a kind of human spin on it a little bit, so a little bit of biomimicry, you might say. I also then approach it from a spiritual or an esoteric which could um direction, which could mean knowledge, so relation to myth, or to social, I mean, not social, excuse me, spiritual or esoteric understandings, or it could be the way that I communicate with the plants, you know, the direct sort of communication that is coming at frequencies and wavelengths and densities and all kinds of different terminology.
00:15:22
Speaker
That is not exactly what the scientific world can measure today. And then the arts. And the arts to me usually is my interpretation mode and my receiving mode. I ah sometimes can use it to share or to express to the plants, but oftentimes the arts is really about the way I receive. So in this particular case, when I sat down to work with plants,
00:15:47
Speaker
to work with the grasses. The science part I was really focusing on was this 2022 study that is all about the reintroduction of bison in long running and resilient increases in grassland diversity. So reintroducing bison results in long running and resilient increases in grassland diversity so this is really where i was my starting point because i was trying to understand the whole trampling phenomenon the understanding of being stomped on of being trampled on of being stepped on on a regular basis
00:16:24
Speaker
And how is it that the grass are able to thrive from this? So you have to imagine for some foremost bison, right? These giant animals, which are pretty much these monstrosities of the animal world from the way that we think about animals today. And so obviously they have a huge impact on nature. And for a long time, we didn't really understand how they affected grasslands in particular, because, well, they weren't around. um We had substituted them with cattle thinking that this is the same, and it turns out it's actually not. And the reason why I go to the bison specifically in this scientific study, i and I was so excited about kind of asking the plants directly about this experience, is because bison are so large. And many of our problems or what who we think is trampling on us
00:17:15
Speaker
feels sometimes so incredibly large in with respect to who we are, whether because it's a group like a um ah government or a corporation or you know or a theory of something that's so ingrained in society, and we feel so small kind of like the grass.
00:17:34
Speaker
so I found that this was from a scientific perspective gave me kind of a good base because when they brought back bison to the prairie lands, to these giant grasslands, it turned out that it was like hitting, I don't know, a biodiversity jackpot. Like basically the plants went wild. They were doubling in their variety and in their health.
00:18:02
Speaker
from being stomped on. And not just really any plants, but the local ones. Like the plants that were local to the area that had been around forever, that they had even, um they found that they were even doing, that the kin did better in drought, in variety, in all these different aspects. Now you have to remember that in these, many of these locations of the study, this was all about places where cows had been using the place So instead of bison, there had been cows who are smaller in nature. But it turns out that you would have thought that adding bison would have made this all worse because there's more trampling that happens. Because we think with our human kind of perspectives, the more I'm trampled on, right, the worse off I am. But it turned out to be the opposite.
00:18:51
Speaker
It turned out to be that the bigger the trampling by the bison, it turns that that the better the grassland grew. It turns out the grasslands were they were much more colorful, much more filled with diversity. They had all these different species that were growing and that the health, the overall health,
00:19:12
Speaker
of the grasslands as a whole of all these different diverse species coming back and of the quality of the land was actually improved when the bison roamed freely. So the more the bison had also their ability to roam into whatever direction, and this is an important fact to keep in mind, as long as that the bison were able to roam in many different directions following their own flow,
00:19:42
Speaker
yeah The grasslands responded accordingly, almost as if they had been waiting for that return, and and to show us how many species were actually waiting. Remember I talked about light gaps in a previous episode about how sometimes there are species that are just waiting for a disturbance. They're underneath the surface.
00:20:07
Speaker
prepped and ready to go, as soon as there's certain kinds of disturbances, in the case of a light gap, a tree that falls in an old gold forest and creates light, then those seeds that are right underground that have been waiting for light can now start to sprout. In this case, it seems to be something kind of similar, where the disturbance of these large bisons, where they stomp on the ground with such who such strength, you might say, because of their size, right? And in addition to having ah a large amount of movement, because the bison roll around on the ground, they create these divots where um other kinds of speed where water can pool and things like that, made it so that these species that were right under the surface were now able to actually grow.
00:21:03
Speaker
So it actually turned out that having a larger disturbance in the form of the bison actually made the prairies tougher and more diverse in order to be able to handle it. So let me try to break down a little bit the...
00:21:19
Speaker
the science behind this so that you can kind of understand why, because it seems very counterintuitive to us, right? are it To us, the idea that the bigger the disturbance, the better it is, sounds wrong, right? We try to make small little changes. We try to keep things stable. We've talked so much about stability versus instability in this podcast, and I highly encourage that you go back and listen to those episodes because We need to completely change the way we think about disturbance and that sometimes big disturbance can be better because in this case, the bison kept unwanted grasses and trees in check. So by the bison being able to roam freely, what they would do is eat up
00:22:07
Speaker
all of these grasses. Now, the native grasses, like I said, especially those waiting under the surface, now have area and space to grow and a land that is much more connected to the original way that this land was when these plants first came here. Therefore, they co-evolved and they're more adept to what is that space, this type of disturbance.
00:22:35
Speaker
where non-natives and plants that just arrived then get eaten up by the bison, but they can't reproduce as fast because we know that species that are not adapted to their environment, one of their characteristics over time is that they can't breed or they can't breed as well. And so therefore, by the bison eating these plants,
00:22:58
Speaker
And we'll get when I get to the more kind of spiritual talk, I'll give you my ideas of why it is that so many of these unwanted plants are the ones that get unwanted in the sense of non-adapted to the environment plants are the ones that get eaten, but also small trees. Now, grasslands obviously need lots of sun because grasslands are used to having these big open areas with lots of sun that comes in. So when trees start to grow, it starts to change the grassland into something else. So the plants, the trees that maybe blow in, like the seeds that blow in of trees and maybe small trees start to sprout, the bison ends up eating those too. Now, because those are slow growers, they never get to be a huge, a big size because the bison will most likely eat them before they get to be a big size. And therefore, there's a checks and balances that's happening Some may be sprouts, they may even turn into small bushes or smaller trees, but the bison are most likely going to step on them, and again, they don't have the ability to regenerate from that being stepped on the way that maybe a grass does or a sedge does, and therefore that keeps the trees in check and it keeps the overall um grassland open and wide in its intended place.
00:24:16
Speaker
So without this type of movement from bison, also from the cows to a lesser extent, there would really be one type of grass that would probably just choke out all the rest, right? Some very invasive type species that would take over.
00:24:32
Speaker
But instead, by constantly being eaten, it ensures that there is always open space for lots of diversity to happen. So that also spreads out the diversity in different ways. It gets caught in the legs. It gets stomped into, deeper into the earth. They eat up and create space for these seeds. So it really makes a lot of room for wider variety.
00:24:57
Speaker
And also, like I said, the bison likes to roll around in the dirt. Again, big, big, big animals that roll around on the dirt. And this may seem like it's messy, but it's actually quite genius because this rolling around the dirt that cools their temperature, that scratches them, that all these different characteristics actually makes these little pits these kind of um ah ah little indentations or craters into the earth and that catches water and that water creates many homes for different types of plants to grow up because those plants can pop up from that wetland from that space and that water and then as they grow they get stronger and they connect into the sun and they start to adapt and such
00:25:46
Speaker
So these divots of water give the opportunity for, again, more species, species that without that water, because, again, grasslands, heavy, heavy sun, lots of arid climates. And so these little indentations that get created from the weight of the bison ends up being a perfect breeding ground for more plants to come back.
00:26:09
Speaker
and for a wider mix of plants to come up. The whole setup is really a win-win if you think about it. The grasses get to win and so do the bison. So more types of plants mean also more types of bugs and insects that are bugging. that are bugging bugging around. They are bugging around, but they're also buzzing around. That was the word I was looking for. And these little critters also munch on the plants. So you have more insect diversity. And we know from many other studies that insect diversity increases the overall health of whatever system that they're in, depending when there's a variety of different types of insects.
00:26:47
Speaker
right We have from bees to all kinds of pollinators that come up. So this really enhances the overall experience of the wild land, of these meadow, of all these wild flowers that are growing up. It really becomes a vibrant, bustling community, isn't it? And I love that. You don't think about a giant animal like a bison being able to actually enhance so many little beings such as the grasses and and all of the different um insects that are growing there. So this got me to thinking. But before I share what I was thinking, I want to share a message from one of our eco-conscious business partners.
00:27:32
Speaker
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00:27:56
Speaker
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00:28:12
Speaker
such as this bamboo M. There are also all sorts of fun extras such as downloadable interspecies music and plant music merchandise. So click on the link to the music of the plants in the show notes to discover how you can start making music with your plants today. Okay so I want you to take to to imagine the bison as nature's kind of Bear with me for a second, okay? Sometimes these metaphors take me a minute before they settle in. Think of them as like a big boss, right? A government, a corporation, something that we think of as really large that shapes the overall prairie, so they shape the society in which they're in. They're not just munching on grass, they're they're making decisions, right, of who stays in the society who gets pulled out. They're squishing some down. They're basically changing the entire landscape to match what they're doing.
00:29:10
Speaker
So by choosing certain grasses to eat, it's like they're making decisions on what kind of business or what kind of ideology can thrive. And when they kind of wallow and and create these these dirt baths, they're like they create these these craters, like I said, that's really setting up new opportunities for growth.
00:29:31
Speaker
right? Because these allow for water to fill. So it's kind of like you can think of it as a new policy or some kind of innovation that opens the door for the people to create something new and amazing, right? It opens a space. They they stomp down on things which allows a mixing up of the environment and so with their stomping sometimes they're actually creating opportunities and with these large kind of craters that they create they which could be a policy shift it could be a clearing out of an area for new business to come in it could be so many different aspects where it it's sort of smooshes away competition or some kind of obstacle that existed there in order to make space. The result is that you have a prairie, you have a society that's buzzing with life. You have this mix that's coming in, this relationship that's coming in between this corporation or this um or this this government that you know constantly kind of mixes things up and makes space.
00:30:38
Speaker
and lets all these pieces kind of float. Now, you know that the prairie is much bigger than the individual bison, so there's always areas that are growing wild with kind of, you know, space, and then there are areas that are getting mixed in together. It's really all about the balance, right? No one, not even the bison themselves, get too much control because that's what makes up a thriving ecosystem, right? Where Everything is constantly going into balance and then going out of balance. Everything is stabilizing and and and becoming unstable, where everybody really has a chance to shine based on their own characteristics and and there's room for them and then the room gets really filled. This is the kind of movement. Now, all of that is beautiful in its ideal form, so that's where we use the science to understand, but
00:31:29
Speaker
We know the human reality can be a little bit far from natural. like When you apply this to human, unfortunately, when we go to humans, we have fears that take over. We have conditioning that comes into play. We soon, rather than having kind of regular size bison stomping around and eating only what's necessary and then lying around when they're not hungry, if you were to apply this to human, you have bison that are triple in weight and hoarding just in case.
00:32:00
Speaker
So we know that we cannot take the scientific understanding of what is happening, the biological understanding of what's happening between the bio bison and the grasses completely, literally, if we're going to adapt this to our human understanding. Because if you do that, you take that would only work if we humans reconnect to our authentic selves, reconnect to the fact that we are nature,
00:32:26
Speaker
And we allow all of our fears, our consistent fears and our consistent conditioning that um puts us into automatic mode rather than being able to flow in my environment. If I was able to evolve past these, then it would work beautifully because we're um we're elements of nature too. So this model would work beautifully for us.
00:32:50
Speaker
We would allow ourselves, even if I was a grass, to get a little bit stomped on from the perspective of like looking at it more like a massage than as being kicked. And this making space, I would look at it as my own, whatever, projects or ideas, either you know coming to light and then going into the shadows. I would see it all as flow.
00:33:11
Speaker
But, you know, I have my own fears and my own limiting beliefs and my own conditioning that hold me back. So this is why I have to ask the grass directly. And here's where I go into kind of a more spiritual ah relationship with the plants. In this particular case, what I ended up doing was spreading out all of my drawing materials because grass can be a little quirky with their answers. so I can't really just sit there and write. Journaling is not enough. ah So I have drawing materials as well as my journal. And I lay down on the grass and I ask, what does it feel like to get stomped on all the time? What does it mean to get stomped on all the time? Remember the quote by Falco that I was mentioning at the very beginning where he states that grass is one of the most powerful computers existing on earth?
00:34:04
Speaker
that's what I ask to tap into. okay I ask as I lay there in connection with the grass to connect into that supercomputer that goes beyond any specific culture, any specific ideal that really goes to what is happening on the earth right now and to explain to me, to share with me the vision, the understanding of when I tap into my true nature, but taking into consideration that I do live in a world where it is still so many fears and so much condition driving the people, how does it what what does it mean to get stomped on and how can I apply that to my own life, much like the relationship with the giant bison and the small grasses?
00:34:50
Speaker
And Kin took me on a wild ride. I went across prairies and meadows and in route systems buried underneath the cities. You know, people think about the internet as being connected. Please, it's nothing compared to grass. I mean, grass is everywhere, whether we see grass or not. Trust me, kind of like the mycelial networks are everywhere. All of these, the fungi world is everywhere. Grass is everywhere too.
00:35:18
Speaker
And in that connection, I learned some really important things. First and foremost, grass is patient. Grass doesn't get caught up in exactly what's happening day to day because grass thinks long-term. Little movements every day eventually crack through even the toughest impediment or obstacle.
00:35:41
Speaker
Grass goes one piece at a time, one movement at a time and relies on the fact that there's a giant network that's been created for kind of sustenance and for um being able to be nourished and for being able to continue to grow even when when maybe one specific section is not getting any sun. Grass is very, very patient in this perspective.
00:36:11
Speaker
Present even is probably a better, which is something I learned from the plants always. It's one of the first things that always comes up whenever I connect with a plant is presence, awareness of the current.
00:36:23
Speaker
connection out to everyone else, and the understanding that I need to take this one step at a time based on the environment. Do something, evaluate the environment. Feedback loops. Do something, evaluate the environment. Do something, evaluate the environment, and make adjustments. So grass really adjusts itself based on the needs of the environment. Grow tougher blades over here because You need to be eaten less for whatever reason that needs to have. You need to cover more ground in this area, or you need to kind of weed out, for lack of a better term, somebody else. So grow thicker and tougher over here.
00:37:06
Speaker
Grow softer over there because that's the direction the bison should be eating next. Maybe there's you know some other plants mixed in here that are not good for the environment. Therefore, grow yourself a little bit more delicious and a little bit more appetizing over in this area.
00:37:23
Speaker
of this place a little bit more root cover to compensate for extra wear and tear you know we know that the bison moves around here a lot so really focus on spending energy with the roots instead of on the shoots right or relax over here and allow yourself to grow really high because This is in an area where the bison and other trafficking is not happening as much and so this is where you're going to go to seed more often and then that seed is going to get the wind. There's really good wind cover that happens. Mix in with others in this location because this is where we need more variety in order to withstand drought or other kinds of environmental
00:38:04
Speaker
constraints that are happening. It's a constant partnership with the beings of the area. So you need to look at your environment, the environment you're currently in, as well as the environment you want to create, and think about the little movements that you want to take based on that environment. And this really includes humans as well when it comes to the grasses. That was one of the things that was important. It's like we don't leave anybody out. We have to think about anybody that passes through here. We have to think about all the elements, all of the beings.
00:38:32
Speaker
in order to create the best environment possible. And for us as humans, that means I need to look at all of my relationships with other people, other human people, with other non-human people, but as well as also with all the different parts of myself, my relationships with my personalities, my relationships with my talents, with my skills, with my limiting beliefs. Like that's a very important aspect, but What about the stomping? How do I deal with that? Because to be honest, that's the big piece here stomped on. And look, I could give you some fancy answer, but and and all I can do is show you a picture.
00:39:20
Speaker
Like for those of you that are watching in the video, you get to see a picture because I'm still working on exactly the answer. The grass couldn't really put it into human terminology. Why it's healthier for kin to be stomped on. I got the information that the study gave me. So I had that and I can kind of extrapolate the more idealistic pieces from there and and the grass confirmed many of the ways I had interpreted and corrected a few other little pieces that I had understood ah incorrectly because you know, studies are studies and they have their pieces. That's a part of it.
00:40:00
Speaker
the There's also a part of seeing the stomping as an opportunity to learn new things, to ask yourself if you're really being stomped on in the negative definition that we've given as human beings. Or is that really just my conditioning or my fear?
00:40:18
Speaker
that is kind of coloring or tainting what's actually happening and what's going on. So there was another part of it that was really about redefining the word stomping and looking at the actions without any of these implied definitions and reevaluating the utility. So things that we might have thought, might my mother used to use this expression every once in a while when she was really, when she felt like she was getting at it, she was getting it from every side from, you know, my brothers, from myself, from work, from anything she was involved in, she says, say, meran pattai pattarai pattaas you're just kicking me and kicking me and kicking me, kind of like kicking me when you're down. And
00:40:58
Speaker
While this can be the case, sometimes we're in the middle of so much overwhelm, we get an opportunity for a clearing, kind of like the light gap I was talking about, or when the bison trample on the grass and that makes space or create the indentation. Sure, they got to flatten a lot of of grasses and other kinds of plants that are growing there in order to create that crater. But that crater is going to fill up with water. and so look And that water is going to nourish the ability for more plants to grow and thrive. So the question that I was given was, are you sure that your definitions are always sound?
00:41:34
Speaker
are you giving um a pause Are you taking a pause to see if whether or not this stomping that you're feeling is actually negative? Or if it's just your conditioning, your fears, and your limiting beliefs that are amplifying and redefining that stomping?
00:41:51
Speaker
And then there was that other part that, like I said, this this part over here, that all I could do was draw the part of of my design, which I'm still working on understanding. It's it's the part that the grass passed to me in a way that really only grass can, and that all I could do is capture in this design, right? It's more about feelings and sensations about what stomping means and what to do and how plants subtly control the bison in ways that you can't really test. You can't really um quantify in a study. And so it doesn't come in linear thoughts and like super neat little characters, um categorizations. It comes in things like this, you know squiggles and lines and individual words that are like create the world you want to see and everything has its place.
00:42:44
Speaker
and everyone has their space and then it goes through other elements of chaos and order and stillness and repetition and adaptation and individuality and a lot of different stuff. There's no real good or bad or One specific thing I can give you as a point of advice, it's really about finding your own path. And really in this case, it's about finding your own well-worn path, about tearing up root structures that need to be aerated and planting them back on the ground to see what grows from them. It's about manipulating animals sometimes and taking action in directions that may not seem obvious, but that are there.
00:43:26
Speaker
um And this is really a great example of how and why I focus so much on drawing or on any other kind of thing. Sometimes it comes in movement. Actually, it always comes in movement for me. So as I'm lying in the grass, I don't just sit there and only lie on the grass kind of like in a meditative state. I oftentimes will, in the drawing process, get very animated because all of this information is passing through my body.
00:43:51
Speaker
But you need to discover your path for this. You need to find the way that you get the answers from the plants. And that only comes with exercise activities, working it out, doing it. You need to give yourself that space to find out what is it that the plants want to share with you and also recognize that just like this drawing, that it's not going to come in one fell swoop. This drawing isn't something that I did. And all of a sudden I looked at it and I said, whoa, I get it. I understand it all.
00:44:21
Speaker
No, this is a drawing that becomes another piece of the tool that I use both in connection with grass. So sometimes I might go back to grass with this drawing and like stare at the drawing and ask the grass for clarification, probably add to the drawing, create new drawings as my understanding kind of grows and as I evolve into what it is that the plant wants to share with me.
00:44:44
Speaker
And at the same time, the tool, it becomes something that I can use here where I can stare at it and kind of use it as a mandala, where I can maybe just hold it and reconnect into that energy, where it becomes something that I actively work with and process in different ways. So the only way that you're going to get this piece of it is to go out and do it. And so giving yourself that space to do it is really crucial if you're going to get these kind of big Answers that are not just directly science and not just directly the plant told me this. Yes that happens the science also like a biometric approach shows you path as well.
00:45:29
Speaker
But there's still a lot of stuff that's just going to be coming through other ways. And this is why I encourage all of my clients to use drawing, to use dance, to use song, to use the arts. And we incorporate this in all of the different programs that we do. Hopefully that makes sense. So my question to you is, when was the last time you went out and spoke with the grass?
00:45:57
Speaker
Maybe it's time to try, right? Just to see. and And when you do it, can you let me know what comes up? I really, really want to know. I want you to come into the Naturally Conscious community and post about your experiences. You know that I founded this community.
00:46:13
Speaker
to nourish plant reawakening and to so commute to support this type of accelerated evolution and accelerated understanding that can only be done when we co-create with other kin. So this is the place for you to come in. We will understand your thought processes, or in this case, lack of thought processes, because we still don't know what the... ant I still don't know what the answer is.
00:46:38
Speaker
so And if you need help making the connection, I encourage you to join Seedling Sprouts. It's really only three yeah three dollars, three US dollars a month. And you get so much stuff. You get access to the mini voyages with spirit wild plants. You get also the sprouts writing and creativity group. And each mini voyage alone takes you through three different activities or exercises to help you connect with that plant guide.
00:47:05
Speaker
and the instead the creativity group instead and and just an and the sprouts writing and creativity group we meet every wednesday and we either write or draw from prompts to really help you expand your connection with other kin using the arts and it's very open and free flowing there's no critique there's no feedback it's it's a really great time across ncc in general you're going to find really expansive discussions, multiple courses, and also an active and flourishing community with plant-inspired support. And we'd really love to have you with us. Plus, it's a great way to support this podcast and everything that you hear here can be discussed further there.
00:47:48
Speaker
So I hope you've enjoyed this journey with um grass and that you now have a little bit of a different understanding of what it means to be stomped on and to kind of take it with the positive intention that it could be. Not saying that you should accept anybody abusing you. Very, very clear on that. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that there are cases when it's good to reevaluate what does that stomping look like and maybe other cases where it's just better to pack up and leave.
00:48:17
Speaker
But the only way that you can figure that out is if you have the experience yourself. So, go off and talk to the grass and let me know what comes up to you. That's it for this episode. Remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. That's all for me. It's me, Tiggera Gardenia. I'm out. Bye.
00:48:38
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom, intro and outro music by