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Ep.83 Three Lessons from Plants to Increase Productivity
45 Plays27 days ago
In this episode, I'm giving you three powerful lessons from plants that have transformed how I view productivity. We'll explore how embracing ecosystem thinking, being fully present, and fostering meaningful connections can help you align with natural rhythms and live a more fulfilling life.
These insights from my journey with plants have redefined my understanding of what it means to be productive, and I'm excited to share them with you. Join me to learn how you can apply these lessons to your own life and find a new way of being.
Topics Covered about Productivity
➡️ Ecosystem Thinking: Interconnectedness and adaptive cycles in natural systems.
➡️ Presence: The importance of being fully present and aware.
➡️ Interaction and Connection: Value of diverse and symbiotic relationships.
Resources Mentioned
- Reconnect with the Plant Kingdom and Plant Inspired Masterclasses
- Befriend Your Limiting Beliefs interactive webinar
- Become a Blooming Sprouts
- 1:1 Mentorship with Tigrilla and Plants
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Transcript
Struggles and Insights from Nature
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tigraya Gardenia. How are you? i um I am doing really well this morning. It's morning time for me. ah The only problem I'm having is um since I record audio and video, ah the light has changed because of the time of the year. And I still, after you know now all this time that I've been recording the podcast, in the fall to winter months, I'm still learning on how to get the lighting in here right. So it takes me a while to just set everything up.
00:00:35
Speaker
and just try to get a lighting that makes sense. Then after a while, I after trying to adjust it in several ways, I have because I'm in front of a window. I am when I work and we're going to get into this in this episode. But my desk is in front of a window that leads to a giant meadow with a river in front of it. And I have always had to have a view to the outside of you to nature in some way, shape or form, even if it's a tree and some grass near a parking lot. ah The way that I am most productive is throughout the course of the day if I can just gaze out the window a little bit and sometimes I just sit there and stare out and even before I started working directly with plants this had always been something that was important to me. As a matter of fact when I used to work in Microsoft
00:01:25
Speaker
um the way it was, I don't know if it's still like that now, but what it was back then is that you started off on an internal office. Luckily for Microsoft, everybody had offices, but you started an internal office, which obviously means I didn't have a window. And so I would often go to kind of the common areas and I would just sit there and stare outside the window sometimes. It's just the way that I had always processed things. And I'm not really thinking about anything when I do it, I'm just doing it.
00:01:53
Speaker
I just sit there and sort of gaze out and somehow that recharges me. So in all of my setups, every time I've always had a home office or any kind of office, my um my desk has to face the actual window or a way that I can easily look out the window. It's always been an important aspect for me. And in places where maybe I was near, I don't know, a parking lot or something, I would stare up at the sky, but usually it was towards the
Redefining Productivity
00:02:19
Speaker
plants. so My mornings, I have some mornings where what I dedicate myself to the plants and um but when I'm setting up to record because I want to record in the morning because I feel more energized, it takes me a while because I got to kind of close the window up and get the lighting right. And so if it doesn't look beautiful, I apologize, but I don't, you know, sorry, not sorry, because um I want to do
00:02:43
Speaker
You know, I want the information that I bring to you to be the most important aspect of this. And in particular, this conversation is very much tied to that because what I want to talk to you today is about kind of what what it means to be productive. And, you know, we oftentimes feel very overwhelmed by the demands of being productive. I have ah several of my clients of my one on one coaching clients where much of the work that we do at the very beginning is to, as we've coined with one of my clients that has become now um a kind of mean between us that we use, is how do I get comfortable sitting on the couch eating bonbons? The reason for this is because the hustle culture has been such a strong force in most of our lives, especially as women, especially as you know entrepreneurs, or even people who are trying to build up a career of some sort,
00:03:39
Speaker
The culture is so tied to the idea of hustle. I need to get more done. I need to move. And then that often time leads to burnout. And I'm glad that now there is a discussion happening around burnout. um When I was in the corporate world, nobody talked about burnout. You just you just did it.
00:03:59
Speaker
You just ran yourself to the core, and you know you did as much as you can. It's this fast-paced world. Now, you have to understand, from my perspective, um I started my career at the height of the internet, you know like the height. I don't know what you would call the height, but it was like where the internet bubble, the original internet bubble. So we were we were chasing. We were chasing to get things out as fast as possible. It was very common.
00:04:26
Speaker
to work, you know, to get to work at eight o'clock in the morning and to be there at eleven o'clock at night, if not midnight. I'm sure that there are many industries that are still doing that kind of schedule. Now, I have to give credit that that period of time especially also gave birth to like play hard. So we did have, you know, ah and So many types of activities that the company would sponsor real networks as well as Microsoft to help us sort of blow off steam, but that was because we were working so frickin hard and it wasn't like you were being told you have to be in the office, it's that you were
00:05:01
Speaker
working on releases that were coming out, software that was shifting and changing on a regular basis and you wanted to get it out there. So I really grew up in that fast-paced hustle culture. I always had a pillow and a blanket in my office because there was some times where I was just so exhausted that I would close the door and there was a period where I remember I didn't even have a luck.
00:05:24
Speaker
on my door so i would literally put my body in front of the door so i would close the door i would shut the little blinds on the little window that i had.
00:05:35
Speaker
And I would curl up with my back against the door with the pillow and the blanket on the hard floor. Yes, some people had ah little couches. I did not have an office that was that big. I actually never had, no, that's not true. I had one office that I eventually got a little couch for, and that was heavenly. But I would just throw myself onto the ground and sleep. I was so exhausted.
00:06:00
Speaker
and And everything was measured in your deliverables. Everything was about, how do I get things out? I remember that when I finally left that world, um i one of the things that i one of the promises I made to myself, or one of the experiments really was, I don't want to wake up with an alarm clock ever again.
00:06:21
Speaker
I want to see what it's like when I just allow my body to naturally wake up whenever it fits. And that lasted probably a good 10 years where I never had to wake up with an alarm clock. I wake up with an alarm clock now, but not so much because of the work thing, but because I'm trying i'm'm i'm testing out different parts of my morning routine between breath work and you know body movement and creativity and stuff like that. so it's It's, it's a very different thing it's an alarm clock more to ah stimulate my myself in a different way, and to work with my different allies in a different way, but, but the point being is like that hustle culture is still there and so.
Lessons from Plants on Thriving
00:07:02
Speaker
In today's fast-paced world, we often overlook the wisdom that nature offers us to to define, to redefine what is productivity. So in this episode, I want to share with you three very powerful, very important lessons that I've learned from the plants that transformed my approach to productivity. And and it really did change what how I looked at what it meant to be productive, what it meant to ah complete a project, and especially it gave it a very different, you know what, let's just get into this. This is episode 83, three lessons from plants to increase productivity and discover yet another way that plants teach us to really thrive.
00:07:52
Speaker
Welcome to Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. I'm your host, Tigria Gardenia, nature-inspired mentor, certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious share their practical wisdom to help you consciously embody the
00:08:18
Speaker
about the wondrous ways of plants. Together, we'll explore how ecosystem thinking helps you overcome limiting beliefs, understand the true nature of relationships, and live an authentic, impactful life. Okay, in this episode, I want to focus on three major, let's call them for now, lessons, okay? I don't really know the right word. We might figure that out together as we go. But after you've heard them, you tell me what you would call them. You can, you know, leave me a comment or posted in the Naturally Conscious community because I'm super curious as to what you would call it. We have such a limited vocabulary to our ah the things we learn. It's kind of like it's a lesson or it's, anyways, I'm getting caught up on that. And more than anything, I think of them as ways of being. I think of them as changes that I've made um thanks to what the plants are teaching me.
00:09:12
Speaker
ah about what it means to be alive and what it means to be a, quote-unquote, productive member of society. um And this has really changed. So yeah, sure, it's a lesson, but I think of it more as a way of being. I'll let you decide. You send me a message. You let me know ah what it is.
00:09:31
Speaker
So what we're going to go is we're going to kind of skim through a few these three different processes, because from ecosystem thinking to the importance of presence and the power of community, these lessons have really redefined what it means to be productive in a way that aligns with my natural rhythms, with our natural rhythms, and more importantly, even than that,
00:09:54
Speaker
is our true essence, like the authentic way that I express myself and the authentic way that this comes out. Now, these three points that I want to walk work focus on are going to be ecosystem thinking. And I use that term very, um very deliberately. I have studied systems thinking, for example, with Fritav Kapra and systems thinking and systems design and all these different aspects. And adding the eco element to it, eco as in an ecosystem, really did change the way I approach these. The second one is presence and really understanding what the difference is between things like patience and presence and attentiveness and all the awareness and all these different aspects.
00:10:38
Speaker
And the last one is really connected to, I guess the easiest way that I can put them is, um
00:10:49
Speaker
What's the word I'm looking for? Let me think about this for a second. Interaction and and connection. So it's really two words, I know, but it's it's it's one concept. And I use this even though it's similar to ecosystem thinking, but this interaction and connection is really another element that I think is extremely important. So interaction and connection, I'm joining them together. They're one thing.
00:11:12
Speaker
you'll see you'll understand why. By the end of this episode, I hope, I hope, that's my hope, that you're going to feel inspired to rethink of your approach to productivity and consider how working closely with plants and the wisdom that they share in their way of being will guide you towards this more this flow and this fulfilling way of not just working, although working is an element of it, but I think of doing things or of being. Much of this episode, not this episode, but much of this podcast and much of my work, my work, especially with my one-on-one clients, um as you know and you've heard in my different
00:11:52
Speaker
episodes where I've talked about when I shifted from different kinds of coaching and just decided to settle on life coaching. The reason I call it life coaching is because it gives me the opportunity to look at your entire life, to work with you to create a more harmonious life, a life that really fulfills you at 360 degrees.
00:12:10
Speaker
So sure, we can we talk about work and we talk about um specific elements because I do have a lot of experience as an entrepreneur and also as somebody who's been in many different types of business from the arts to technology. So we do talk about that and we do talk about family dynamics and family relationships and we do talk about trauma sometimes.
00:12:33
Speaker
I am not a psychologist, and when it comes to looking at that trauma as a backwards thinking, I always will recommend that you have a therapist with you. I am helping you apply what you and your therapist discover into your future life. Slightly different, but I just wanted to clarify that because it's something some people ask me when they start working with me, especially if we are going to talk about traumas or behaviors from the past and things like that. We look at them, but we bring them into the present and move them into the future.
Ecosystem Thinking and Productivity
00:13:00
Speaker
I do not work on the past anyways.
00:13:03
Speaker
um Just a slight clarification. But I i really want you to understand that about work that working with plants helps change, again, your way of being. We're talking about your plantness, your humanness, your animalness, your beingness, who you are and your authentic self and how you integrate that into your day-to-day life. But before we keep going, I want to take a moment to share with you one of our eco-conscious business partners.
00:13:31
Speaker
For over a decade, I've had the profound joy of working with the music of the plants, a musical instrument made just for plants. This very music is what's marked my own plant reawakening, guiding me to reconnect with nature in an entirely new way. Imagine listening to the harmonious melodies of your plant companions and feeling their wisdom and presence through the language of music.
00:13:53
Speaker
It's an experience that has transformed my life and the lives of so many other people. If you're curious about the hidden songs of plants and want to connect to your plant friends in a completely new way, I invite you to discover more at tigria.genia.com slash music of the plants.
00:14:11
Speaker
It's in the show notes. Plant music is great for healing, sharing, and personal connection. Let's continue our journey of personal evolution and plant consciousness together with the songs of plants.
00:14:24
Speaker
So with that said, let's get into the first one, ecosystem thinking. Now ecosystem thinking is an approach that views kind of systems in general, whether we're talking about natural or human made systems as interconnected and independent, interdependent, excuse me, interdependent networks. It really goes down to the heart of understanding how different components of an ecosystem interact and influence each other, leading to a more holistic perspective on problem solving, on growth, on sustainability, on regeneration.
00:15:01
Speaker
So the reason we think about ecosystem thinking different than maybe even systems thinking is that systems thinking is almost mechanical in nature. There's a lot of cause and effect. There's a lot of how these things sort of interact with one another. Ecosystem thinking takes it a little bit a step beyond that.
00:15:20
Speaker
I was just recently studying with one of the people here in Dom and Her. um they were I have two groups that I teach, two groups of initiates that myself, and I have another person that works with me on this who's amazing. She's so fantastic. And we are co-teachers or co-instructors, as we call them, of the School of Metadaction for one of the groups, and then I have another group by myself.
00:15:42
Speaker
And in one of those groups, we were talking about synchronicity and what does synchronicity look like and how one of the biggest elements of being able to read and work with synchronicity is to step out of cause and effect. In other words, synchronicity is not cause and effect. they're there um One is a law, a law of the of the universe of how things happen in a synchronic way. The other one is sort of a ah principle that can be applied in very limited circumstances. And I think of that as like systems thinking versus ecosystems thinking. Systems thinking is a lot of cause and effect, right? I do this and then this is interactive, so it's interconnected, so therefore this happens, and systems thinking really works on a more mechanical level for me. This is the way that I have applied it. Ecosystems thinking, being more holistic, is more about
00:16:35
Speaker
Capturing that synchronicity sure there are causes and effects like i do something and that affects the system in some way but it doesn't necessarily affect the system in a direct way it might apply itself and chronically in a very ah elongated way and so i think of it more as having a layer of.
00:16:56
Speaker
I have to understand ah the different elements in the ecosystem, not just from what they do, but what they experience. So a big piece of ecosystem thinking has been interconnectedness, recognizing that all the parts of the system are linked, and they're linked on multiple different levels. And so therefore, any change I make has a ripple effect throughout the system. Now, this is the same in biological ecosystems, but it's also in social networks and in business environments.
00:17:23
Speaker
in all kinds of different aspects. So when I am aware of that interconnectedness and that the interconnectedness as it does in an ecosystem is not just at the physical level, but it happens on multiple physical as well as subtle levels, then it changes the way that you interact with that.
00:17:40
Speaker
Another perspective that um you start to experience when you start to shift into an ecosystem way of being is that there are adaptive cycles, right? you have these the There are rhythms, there are cycles, there are phases of growth, there is moments of decline and of renewal. It really involves being aware and responding to all of these different natural cycles.
00:18:06
Speaker
much how like plants react to the seasonal changes. A very simple one is seasonal changes. But let's be honest, we know that moon cycles change the way that I experience things. um There are other kinds of cycles that even get created at a cultural level that change things. I've done a whole episode on this, which you can go back and look through, where I've talked about cycles. But once you allow yourself for yourself,
00:18:32
Speaker
into this type of cycle to recognize how these cycles are a part of who you are and of your life. Oh my goodness, there's so much freedom because, for example, I just came out, I'm coming out right now of a period, which is funny that we're talking about productivity, where from an external perspective, I was very unproductive.
00:18:55
Speaker
I was very unproductive. I spent large swaths of time in this cycle where I did nothing ah that was quote unquote for the external world productive. I would maybe watch TV or I would um sit on the couch and stare out at the at the at the scenery. i I just, I felt like it was really important for me to just sit. This wasn't a day. This wasn't even a week.
Cyclical Productivity and Planning
00:19:23
Speaker
This was a period of time. And in that time, my body was, you know, experiencing things. My mind was
00:19:32
Speaker
just randomly going over stuff. I kind of at some point about halfway through it realized that there was a goal, but I couldn't tell you, oh, I'm working on this in some ways. There was no rhyme or reason external other than in my bones, in my very body, and especially when I would reach out to my plant you know partners was rest just rest and i knew i knew that there would be a day where i would wake up and there was a lot of stuff that was just going to become clear i have experienced these cycles before and i trust myself so much
00:20:10
Speaker
that I know that these cycles for me, for the way that I am, come and go. And I know that these cycles are always productive, even if they don't feel productive while they're happening. So understanding from an ecosystem perspective, your cycles is not as easy as just saying, this is a rhythm like of the moon. This is the rhythm of the seasons. This is the rhythm. This is about getting to know yourself so much that you know your own rhythms.
00:20:37
Speaker
And these rhythms might have a cadence, like they happen at specific moments, but they could also just be things that happen to you and that you know that when you enter into them, for somebody else, they might have labeled it as depression. And it was a little bit, there was a little bit element for me of depression. I've had depression in the past, I've worked with therapists through it, but it was, how do I say this? I don't want to say feeding into it, because it wasn't that. It was allowing the depression to run through me not getting stuck in it, but allowing myself to go through it, knowing that there was light at the end of the tunnel. And, you know, again, this is the reason why going back to what I had said earlier, for some people, you need to work with a therapist to work through some aspects of it. And then with me to help you work on the future on how do you read those signs? How do you put things in place in order to ensure that going forward, it's going to be productive. like How do you really plan for these cycles? For myself, since I know that um these cycles are mine, I'll give you an example. Economically, I cannot rely for myself on just monthly income in a certain way, because when these cycles hit, I know that I'm not going to be as economically solvent as I usually am.
00:21:57
Speaker
So because I know this and I can think about my life as an ecosystem, I plan for this and ahead. I have moments where I make more. I have savings that I work through. I think about my life in the sense that this cycle is going to hit. And there is going to be a period of time where I am not going to be bringing in large amounts of money that is independent of the seasonal cycles that I know how my work goes with my clients.
00:22:23
Speaker
that i know so i plan that for the the case that because i don't always know when these types of cycles are going to hit i plan in advance for the ability to ride that to to let myself be in it without stressing myself out that oh my goodness i need to snap out of this because i need to um I need to make money. And so this goes to another principle, which is about you know diversity and resilience. That when you recognize that you yourself, as well as the people around you, and the systems that you're tied into, have a certain amount of diversity, they operate in different things, then you build up a certain type of resilience. Because your resilience is made up of the recognition
00:23:10
Speaker
of how to move in these different cycles. The resilience comes from knowing that because there's diversity ah within your own thinking, but also within the elements and the people and the ah opportunities around you, you can build up on what looks like an overarching resilience, even if you in a moment are in a moment of weakness. So basically recognizing and like an ecosystem, the diversity around you, having lots of elements of diversity around you. Remember, we're all multi-potentialists, we have tons of different strengths to pull from. I'm better equipped to adapt and to any kind of change or challenge that might come my way. Because I know this, again, we're going back to that authentic self because I
00:23:59
Speaker
I acknowledge to myself that I have depression, ah you know, moments that are depressive moments. I have my these types of periods that happen because I can accept that that's who I am. And because then I look for the diversity around me, I'm better able to adapt when things happen, either by allowing it and changing things ah in my in my circle, in my purview, in order to be able to go through it or because I myself can change you know what's going on in my life. Hopefully that's clear. Again, if you have any questions on this, you can always ask me. Just send me an email or you know book a call with me or you can find me in the Naturally Conscious community.
00:24:46
Speaker
So a few other little elements that I think are important when it comes to ecosystem thinking. um It's also that has helped me with productivity. Because again, what we're talking about in all this is that productivity, well, I'll get to that at the end. We'll get there. Because I want you to understand the concept so well, and then we'll put it all together at the very end.
Embracing Diversity for Resilience
00:25:08
Speaker
the other thing that we've talked about a lot in this podcast and i do encourage you if you haven't you know if you're new if you haven't heard it or even if you want to hear it again is to remember about flow flow is what you want to go through it is not about balance to create a static But it's about being able to move through states of balance and imbalance in order to create a harmonic flow. So in a system, when you're thinking about, again, your ecosystems, you're thinking about, I'm getting to know myself, I'm pulling in parts around me that do things
00:25:45
Speaker
or can experience things in ways that I don't necessarily know how to do well, or maybe that's just not my skill set. um I often talk about this relating to people who are very chaotic thinkers, who are people who, you know, they they just don't have a lot of those logical elements and how important it is to have people around you that have those logical elements, but also to remember that because of that, because one might have a preponderance of of of putting together things in a way that's outside the box and somebody instead might be very um can see all of those connections and can put them together and then what's happening is that you have a harmony that gets created between these two types of let's just say people or structures or stuff but in order for that to even grow there is going to be times of
00:26:35
Speaker
Strife, there's going to be times when you're out of sync and that's good because the out of sync forces you to reevaluate the system to see what it takes to put it in sync and more likely than not, the in sync is going to be an evolution, a growth, um a move in another direction.
00:26:51
Speaker
So all of this brings about a more comprehensive view that integrates multiple dimensions, environmental, social, economic, and all of this becomes part of your decision making and your problem solving so that your productivity increases, not because my output on a regular basis is the same, but instead because there is an overarching productivity. And in doing it in this way, the sense of satisfaction, the sense of beingness, the sense of being your true self enhances your sense of success in so that the productivity is not just about an output, a number, a product. It's not about that. It is, again, it goes back to a way of being. So my productivity becomes a state of mind. Feeling productive, even if I'm sitting on the couch doing nothing,
00:27:47
Speaker
Nothing from the perspective of the external world. But if I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, I know I am being productive because I know that this respite, this taking time for my own self in the long run is creating or even in that moment is creating a peace of mind.
00:28:06
Speaker
that overall means that when I do sit down to work, I am going to be able to just get things done physically. So my productivity doesn't come from the individual moments. My productivity comes from an overall state of being aware,
00:28:23
Speaker
that I am able to accomplish all of my goals while still taking care of myself, while still being present, while still being in it, in whatever way is in it for me for that moment. So by adopting this type of ecosystem thinking, individuals and organizations and you know um the things around you create a more sustainable,
00:28:49
Speaker
because now I can do this for a longer period of time. Unadaptable because I'm able to weather any kind of challenge that comes my way because I have this deep sense of knowing myself and of knowing the elements around me and my ecosystem and how I can lean on them or take on more or move through it or step out of it completely and then step back into it. I get to understand all of these pieces.
00:29:16
Speaker
And it ultimately leads to what is called flourishing. Flourishing is not an element of everything is amazing. Flourishment is what's called positive mental health. um Positive mental health is definitely a term we don't talk about enough. But when I'm flourishing, I have my moments of negative mental health. Like I was talking about my bout of being you know depressed and down and having... you know I did my fair share of crying and of getting things through my system and of experiencing.
00:29:47
Speaker
and not wanting to get up and stuff like that. But because I know that my overall state is in flourishing in positive mental health, this becomes just a part of a cycle. And I know that and i know inside of myself the things that I need to permit, the things that I need to allow and give myself,
00:30:05
Speaker
in order to go through it, learn from it in whatever way that learning is, and then apply that learning going forward. So it's about really seeing the big picture and working with the flow of life, with the capital L, like I always say, rather than against it. And this is really what productivity looks like for a plant.
00:30:27
Speaker
rhythms, cycles, reacting to changes, anticipating problems, adaptability, when to push forward and compete versus when to let go. you you know Learning about integrat and integrating all of these elements slowly over time has allowed me to redefine what productivity means for me. No longer is it just output,
00:30:48
Speaker
Now it incorporates my own health status and how that affects the collective that I'm a part of from the micro pieces all the way out to the micro. Wow, I spent a lot of time on that one, but it's such an important concept. Hopefully that makes sense. I'm going to take a sip of my wonderful hibiscus, Egyptian hibiscus tea.
00:31:13
Speaker
Luckily, I have a friend that brings it to me from Egypt, which is great.
Presence vs. Patience in Productivity
00:31:16
Speaker
Okay, the second element that I wanna talk about, presence. I love this word so much. I used to think that my answer, that what I was looking for and what I needed most was patience. Now, I'm a quick thinker, okay? That often means that I'm a quick reactor. I thought that part of what I needed to do and learn was how to sit with things longer, how to be patient, how to let things unfold.
00:31:42
Speaker
And while this is partly true, it is true, but what I realize more than anything right now is that without presence, that period of patience doesn't take anything in. Therefore, even when you do react or when something happens to you, you only have partial data.
00:32:02
Speaker
Being present changes the timeframe of things. Being present allows me to receive, even if it's in a passive mode or an active mode. In other words, patience seems to be thought of as I'm going to be passive, which is fine.
00:32:19
Speaker
totally necessary. And there are moments I definitely am one that over time, even with my quick thinking, even being somebody that loves to act, I now have, you know, a slower pace in life and I love it. So much. I definitely get lots of things done. If you ask anybody, the most common question I get from my clients and my students is, how the hell do you do so much? And I do so much because of everything I'm talking about. I give myself large amounts of time in order to just be, but when I'm inspired,
00:32:54
Speaker
Oof, I could work 12 hours a day, 14 hours a day, not from an external pressure, not because I have a deadline, but because I am so inspired. So I do that, ah that's my rhythm. My rhythm is to be present with my feelings and to allow that. When you're present, your timeframe changes, it allows you to receive and expand your view And then it also allows you to integrate and consciously choose the actions that take that are based on your authentic reaction, your authentic expression.
00:33:33
Speaker
And if you think about this, for for plants who are sessile, which means they don't move, this is crucial. And that's one of the biggest probably one of the biggest lessons that plants ever taught me. I've talked about it multiple times about how when I was in the woods, one time I was sitting and the plants really helped me anchor in how much was happening around me even in that moment of stillness, how stillness with presence is recharging and relaxing in so many different ways and yet still active and
00:34:10
Speaker
um invigorating while while being all calming. It's this interesting dichotomy. Now, when we think about it from a plant perspective, right we think about, for example, environmental awareness. right How do I optimize my resources? Because plants really need to be aware of their environment in order to use uh, resources like light and water and nutrients efficiently. How do I know when to grow and maximize my growth? And when do I step back? All of this is based on presence and presence in two different directions, presence external to myself. What is happening in the environment around me, right? We were talking about ecosystem thinking in order to get into that ecosystem thinking, I have to know my ecosystem. I have to be present and aware. I have to allow myself
00:35:01
Speaker
to sort of stop and take in what is happening. And not always do you know you're doing this. It's not, it can be an act of action, but it cannot be. When I was sitting there watching YouTube, you know, and and Netflix and and, you know, relaxing.
00:35:16
Speaker
I was taking in a lot. I was learning from the shows that I was watching, not because I was watching and ah educational shows, but because I was giving myself permission to be in it and to allow feelings to come up and allow expressions and even to distract myself. But in those distractions, things were always coming in. I didn't necessarily actively process them.
00:35:38
Speaker
But i was present with them and i allowed my mind to just go in whatever direction and needed to go because that's an important way of how i learn being a multi potential light with so many different. um Different passions and talents but also being a very alternative thinker with out of the box.
00:35:56
Speaker
I have to give myself permission to, I don't know, put together what ah the chilling adventures of Sabrina has to do with this court case that I'm watching and has to do with this lesson that I'm learning in spiritual physics. ah Those are things that might not seem for most people to come together, but in my mind, they can connect and I can find the union that helps me better understand this. Right now, I am watching the chilling adventures of Sabrina on Netflix, and we're talking about a rewrite inside of the plant-inspired masterclasses, we're doing a rewrite of the Garden of Eden from the focus of the plants and of the ah other characters. And its we're talking about Lilith. And so Lilith is coming up in both of these, and it's really helping me expand some of my thinking to bring these two elements together in some ways. And that ended up manifesting itself in a budding artistry, which is
00:36:53
Speaker
are once a month in the sprouts writing and creativity group it's a once a month where we instead of writing we actually draw and we brought lulith together in there and it was really fascinating because it was giving myself permission to be educated from all these different um stimuli that are coming around the aspect of Lilith and relation to plants and all these different aspects that then manifested itself in a very, very different theory of the Garden of Eden. like i I now have a very different perspective of the relationship between Adam and Eve. More than anything, Eve. Eve showed up really strongly in a way that I did not expect. ah Anyways, i don't i I digress. If you are interested in that, come into Blooming Sprouts. You can participate in
00:37:40
Speaker
the plant and siren master classes, as well as in the sprouts writing and creativity group. Okay, let's go back to presence. Another piece of presence is again, what we're talking about relating to cycles, adjusting my growth and my development in response to these different cycles. So when do I bloom? When do I fruit? When do I shed leaves? When do I absorb? When do I go into a more stillness? All of this requires Presence, presence again to the external cycle happening around me and presence to my internal cycles and how that relates. And again, patience sort of naturally comes from that because when I feel like I am within one of these cycles, it's not hard for me to kind of wait until the cycle has finished its course in order to move on to a different area.
Regeneration and Efficient Communication
00:38:37
Speaker
Another piece of presence is that it allows me to be more adaptable, to adapt to physical, to be responsive. I think that's a better answer. When I am present, it is easier for me to take stock of everything that I have and that I am and that I am experiencing.
00:38:55
Speaker
And therefore, I can adapt more easily to physical changes or to any kind of emotional or spiritual change that is happening in my environment. This is something that plants do really well, right? When does a plant um adapt to the growing environment, like I'm going to grow towards a water source or I'm going to grow towards the light, and when instead does a plant know how to create the environment that is necessary? And this ties into, for example, regeneration. When does a plant allow themselves to heal where they are, but they just heal um a piece that has been snipped off or something that, um when do I allow this piece, this this part of me, such as a leaf, when do I allow that leaf to naturally dry off because I'm going to regenerate in a completely different direction in order to adapt better or to be more in tune with my environment versus, no, I'm going to feed that um that particular leaf even if that leaf is not getting enough water because overall the direction that I want to take. i'm I know that something else is going to come when that leaf passes a certain area.
00:40:09
Speaker
so Plants have to be able to know when to heal and regenerate damage versus when instead to allow that damage to to let go and move into another direction. And this is what presence allows me to do. So when I'm present, I can do that same thing. Regeneration takes on a much broader understanding because regeneration now is connected to adaptability and as well as to integration of pieces. And I can then i have a wider breadth of reactions, especially when I'm looking at it going back to our first point in an ecosystem perspective. I might not so need to regenerate that particular thing because I'm going to get it from my ecosystem in that moment. But then in the future, I might not have that in the ecosystem, so I need to generate it for myself.
00:41:00
Speaker
so this This amount, this movement, this flow as we keep talking about happens when I step into presence. And of course then, I'm much more productive because I'm not spinning my wheels. I'm not wasting energy into things that might not be useful. I am very deliberately and very naturally putting energy into the things that work well.
00:41:24
Speaker
All of this, though, really works with extremely good communication. And we're going to touch on communication across all of these points. But I just want to emphasize it here in presence because many of us think that presence is only the passive piece of presence, right? The receiving of it. And that is definitely a part because a big chunk of communication is what I receive. So without a doubt, receiving is important.
00:41:50
Speaker
But don't discard the fact that presence is also about communicating your own needs, experiences, direction, action, and all these things. Plants, for example, communicate across multiple different um streams. They use chemical signals, electrical signals. They have many different ways, some of which we still haven't even discovered.
00:42:14
Speaker
So when you're thinking about I am being present or especially I'm present in an ecosystem, that two-way communication is so important. This is a reason and in in so many aspects. This is why I started my sharing of my work with plants,
00:42:31
Speaker
with the course Reconnect with the Plant Kingdom, which is all about learning two-way communication. Because when you learn this two-way communication with plants, two-way communication with humans becomes so much easier. Because I now see different types of relationships, I see different types of communication, I start to learn that as a plant, in my plantness, I have multiple ways that I can express myself, and it makes it easier for me to learn how to express myself with others in this way. So don't discard communication or think that it's just about receiving communication. Presence is very much about being able to be in um a state of receptivity, but also to be able to express out
00:43:19
Speaker
to whatever to whomever or whatever what is needed as well. It is about a two-way type of communication. So in essence a plant's form of presence really allows the plant to interact dynamically and interacting dynamically again increases the plant's productivity, or better said, efficiency. Because it's that efficiency with the surrounding that ensures survival as well as growth, as well as evolution, and very important for a plant reproduction.
00:43:52
Speaker
Very important for all of us, to be honest. Reproduction is not about only about children. Sure, that's one aspect of it, but reproduction is about reproducing or sharing out what you are in order to ensure that it becomes a part of the ecosystem and it can continue to carry on.
00:44:11
Speaker
And all of this is a kind of a sophisticated level of responsiveness and and adaptability, which serves as an inspiration for us to cultivate our own sense of presence and interaction with the world around us. And that is what leads to a sense of increased productivity, because now i am every interaction has its purpose, its place, its movement, its way of being, it's it's it's way its reason for existence. So that's why presence becomes such an important piece of productivity. The third one that I wanted to go into is going to be around interaction and connection. And in this particular case, we're talking, it's it's a nuanced aspect of
00:45:01
Speaker
the ecosystem because this is really about the fact that we are also, in in order to be productive, it's about interconnected growth. This is emphasizing how it is that both as a plant as well as as a human, we have to rely on our community, on the environment around us in order for us to grow and evolve. So It's almost impossible for us to do things, nor should we do things completely in a vacuum and by ourselves. So interaction
00:45:34
Speaker
can make can look many different ways. right the The relationships with others can take on many different forms. But plants, for example, require interactions with the surrounding to ensure that that they that can receive all the necessary resources and support in order to accomplish their goals. And you, having a part of plantness in you,
00:45:56
Speaker
also need that. Human connections of all different types. Some are going to be romantic, some are going to be business, some are going to be ah support, emotional support, some are going to be spiritual support. And even within each one of those big buckets, there are so many different levels. There's going to be spiritual teachers that you just learned from, there's going to be spiritual teachers,
00:46:18
Speaker
and spiritual people around you that you interact with and that you explore, you're going to share spirituality out. There's going to be relationships that are going to be temporary. I mean, it's a long term. There's so many different connection points. And all of these connection points, when with presence in order to not overwhelm yourself and try to do it all, which doesn't help, is what provides us with the emotional and intellectual nourishment that we really need to thrive. And in thriving, we're productive.
Symbiosis and Holistic Well-being
00:46:48
Speaker
The other piece of this is symbiotic relationships. So this is about how do we engage in more mutually beneficial partnerships, kind of like you know the mycorrhizal networks with the fungi, all these mycorrhizal networks that help plants.
00:47:05
Speaker
get their message out and spread their nourishment around. And they also can enhance nutrient absorption. queen It's just not just, I'm going to take things out, but or I'm going to move things, but it's also I'm going to help you be better. So for for as a human being, it's really important for you to build supportive networks and collaborative networks.
00:47:27
Speaker
Keep in mind something that I think is important to say. A symbiotic relationship can take on many different forms. Mutually beneficials, and I've done some episodes in this. I know I need to do many, many more ah episodes around relationships, and I'm going to, because it's such a, um the human definitions are so limited where the natural definitions are so much broader, and we're only just starting to reconquer or or rediscover a better word.
00:47:57
Speaker
what are all the different types of connections and relationships that we as human beings can't have. And as we as we reawaken our inner plantness and as we reconnect to our inner animalness, we start, and even our divineness, we start to see that relationships can be much more um much broader, much more expansive, but many more kinds than what we're used what we're used to. But at a minimum, take into consideration that a competitive or antagonistic type of relationship, parasitic types of relationships, all of these are symbiotic relationships in and of themselves, and they can be very supportive.
00:48:33
Speaker
So when I say interaction and interconnection, right, when I'm talking about connections, do not discount the fact that an antagonistic connection could be really productive in a limited time, in a limited form, that parasitic connections, either you being a parasite on someone, I rely on someone economically while I'm going to school, or um somebody relies on me while we're working on a project and they're in the learning phases.
00:49:00
Speaker
All of these different symbiotic relationships can be extremely successful and extremely useful in limited times. So go back through some of the old episodes to understand relationships, but just I just wanted to add that productivity requires me to allow space for lots of different types of relationships in their own period and cycle and longevity, rather than just relying on only making mutually beneficial relationships.
00:49:30
Speaker
The last two pieces that I want to touch on is adapting to your response, which is another part of interaction and connection. Learning how to adapt to what is coming at you from the environment, um whether that's because through by growing into it, by changing myself, by applying it, is not always bad. Yes, you always want to be true to your authentic self. to that ah core element of who you are, that part of it it that is your element, your deep pattern, all of your personalities will need things. But that doesn't mean that I can't adapt. And as a matter of fact, I should adapt to what's happening to me. I myself talk very freely, especially if you've done the Befriend Your Limiting Beliefs interactive webinar, you know that I talk really clear freely about periods of my life where I was very negative.
00:50:22
Speaker
And that negativity was very detrimental, but it wasn't detrimental just because I was negative. It was because my negativity was tied to my ability to be very critical and I didn't know how to use that skill. Now, as I've learned how to use that skill, I am sought after because I can be really critical. I'm sought after because I can get into nitty gritty details and I could break it down in a way that allows you to see where there's a problem or where there's something that needs to change.
00:50:51
Speaker
So adapting my response, I had to learn how to back off from certain ways of speaking and certain ways of thinking because they weren't giving me the ultimate goals that I wanted. I ended up mastering the skills that were important and then allowing the the the shape, the way that they get expressed to change based on what my overarching goal was.
00:51:15
Speaker
And that has been the productivity. Sure, am I different? Yeah, of course I'm different. But that's how we grow. We grow because these feedback mechanisms, we evolve faster together. So therefore, all these different mechanisms that I was receiving, this feedback, this harsh harshness that was coming after me,
00:51:34
Speaker
ended up teaching me how to use my skill sets better and how to present that skill set. And now I am much more effective in being able to show problem spaces because I allowed the elements around me, I allowed people as well as situations to sort of show me other and new ways. I spend a lot of time in presence listening to really good communicators to learn what are or to experiment with, I think is a better way of saying, with how does my own authentic voice, um how can it better express itself? And so that feedback mechanism from the community, that interaction and that connection that I have really helps me ah become a better version of myself.
00:52:21
Speaker
And all of this leads me to a state of holistic wellness or holistic well-being. Just as plants maintain their balance and imbalances and flow through that and health um and overall health through their ecological connections, sometimes taking in a little bit more damage than they can,
00:52:41
Speaker
But in order to overall help the ecosystem and then later on being nourished by some elements, we too can achieve that same level of he and holistic well-being by thinking of ourselves much more as cycles rather than a thing. I don't need to always produce a physical ah product or or a physical service or a physical output in order for me to be productive. Taking care of my health is also productive.
00:53:10
Speaker
taking moments where I'm parasitic to somebody or something can be very rewarding in a long term if that moment of being a parasite, whether it's because you're taking in knowledge or because you're resting or because you're taking economic help or whatever, is part of an overall flow and it is in its own way giving back to the overall ecosystem in some way, shape or form. That's what truly nurtures a relationship and stays connected.
00:53:39
Speaker
So all of this requires that I, one, get very much in touch with my my authentic voice, which means liberating myself from all kinds of different conditioning and evolving my limiting beliefs in order to find my true essence, because all of this requires me to truly know my true essence. And the thing is that when you apply these principles that I've talked about, the work is actually much faster and more complete because I allow the others around me, humans and other kin, to be a part of this process. They provide very, very valuable mirrors, nourishment, and also context.
00:54:19
Speaker
right? I see myself more clearly through the behaviors of others sometimes or through the ways others act. There are moments when I have a really visceral reaction to something somebody said and I realize that the reason I'm having that reaction is because I do that and that must be the way others interpret it too. That mirror is valuable and also on the other side when I see a person making a really strong connection with somebody and I recognize that I have those talents too and I can see how that person is applying those talents to create that connection. And I can be like, oh, let me let me play around with that. Now, in order to not be conditioned, I play with it. I experiment with it. I give myself space to find my authentic way of expressing myself. For it to pass, I take everything in and I pass it through my own internal essence. And this allows me to be to take much more decisive action
00:55:13
Speaker
And also to act with confidence, right? In general, we evolve better with others. We need to remember this. This is a principle of nature. Evolution is faster together. So working with plants as mentors, as models and as measure, you know, not only what would a plant do, but what would a plant not do,
00:55:33
Speaker
We expand our own capabilities to sense and respond to the world as a, as a being of nature in harmony with rhythms and needs, yet without losing ourselves in the process. So I invite you to reflect on these three lessons that we've talked about today. And again, I don't know if they're called lessons. I think of them as ways of being, but I want to hear from you and I want to hear how you can apply them in your own life. So share your experiences with us in the naturally conscious community.
00:56:03
Speaker
And don't hesitate to book a free call, a free discovery call with me to explore and let's learn and grow and evolve in together and also in harmony with our own true nature. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did remember to like, to subscribe, to leave a comment. And I look forward to seeing you next week. Thanks for tuning into this episode of reconnect with plant wisdom. To continue these conversations, join us in the naturally conscious community.
00:56:30
Speaker
your premier online ecosystem for plant reawakening and accelerated evolution and co-creation with other kin. Here you'll find expansive discussions, interactive courses, live events, and supportive group programs like the Plant Wisdom Book Club and the Sprouts Writing and Creativity Group.
00:56:47
Speaker
Connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life. Intro and Outro Music by Steve Schulie and Poinsettia from the Singing Life of Plants. That's it for me, Tigria Gardenia, and my plant collaborators. Until next time, remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. I'm out. Bye!