Hello my adventurous friend,
In a recent newsletter, we explored “getting grounded.” This week seems like a great opportunity to “get moving.” Are you dreaming about or getting ready for some summer travel (winter for those of you in the southern hemisphere
)?
Travel is exciting and fun when everything goes as planned. But even when things go in an unexpected direction, the journey offers us new perspectives and life lessons.
Where are you traveling this week or this summer? What’s on your dream list? The mountains or the beach? Europe? Zimbabwe? Peru? Bali? Or are you feeling really adventurous and ready to shoot for the stars?
Let’s take a quick trip…into space!
Here are 3 ideas for planting and 1 question to help you dig into your week ahead…
A Simple Seed
“The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart.” —Andrew Bennett
Space Travel
Knowing something is an issue vs. owning it are two different things.
Knowing happens in the head. Owning our issue—being invested in the actions and outcomes—happens in the heart.
Our knowledge is irrelevant until we transform it into actions. And those actions then transform our lives and the lives of those around us.
The secret sauce to transforming “knowledge into wisdom” and “feeling stuck into making a lasting change” is this: investment and emotion.
Both can only be found in the heart. We know we shouldn’t watch “one more episode” on Netflix, but we still do. Why? Because we aren’t invested in the outcomes and consequences of our decision. And we can only become invested when we feel the results.
Does that mean we have to “live” the results before we can feel them? Sometimes, but not necessarily. Instead, it requires us to take a trip—the distance between our head and our heart. How do we do that? We pause and feel the results before they happen. How do we do that? We visualize the expected results and ask ourselves the tough questions. These questions help us identify the potential consequences. For our Netflix example, ask yourself:
- What does being overtired feel like the next day?
- What does forgetting a meeting because you’re operating on five hours of sleep feel like?
- How will you respond to requests or feedback when you’re not at your best? What does that feel like?
No emotion means no investment. No investment means no transformation. No transformation means we’re stuck in our head and missing out on opportunities for growth, change and wisdom.
It all comes down to choice. Will you decide to commit to space travel and make the trip between your head and your heart?
A Note from My Garden of Life
The other night, I walked into my garden to look at the stars. I’d been thinking about the “seedling quote” for this week and began wondering what the distance was between the heart and the soul. What do you think? How far would you guess it is?
At first, it seemed too vast to measure, because I wasn’t sure where the soul resided. It didn’t have a clear location like my brain or my heart. I didn’t imagine it in my big toe, although I guessed it’s probably there. Then I imagined it in every cell of my body and that felt closer to the truth.
But I also felt my soul’s connection to something outside my body. Suddenly it felt immeasurable, like the hard-to-imagine size of the universe. I felt an energy pulsing in me that was also connected to an external energy. One that connected me to the stars, the earth, and to the individual souls on our precious planet. It felt like the thinnest layer separated and connected my soul to the universal soul.
I have no answers, only more questions. How far do you need to travel from your heart to find your soul? How far is the journey for you to connect to the universal soul? What connects you? Stars? The earth? Or, is it simply a matter of taking a single step and committing to “space” travel?
Garden Game Challenge:
Reserve 10-15 minutes for this challenge. Begin by reflecting on a “known” issue for you—I get angry too easily, I talk too much/too little, I judge others too quickly. Next, think about how you feel when this happens. Name the feeling(s) as best as you can. Write the feeling down and/or describe where it shows up in your body—in your gut, your head, tightness in your chest.
Commit to yourself to pay attention to that feeling in the next week. When it appears, notice it. Thank it for helping you to bring awareness to the issue. Then tell yourself, “I can choose to act differently this time.”
Be patient with yourself. Take the journey from head to heart, from knowledge to feeling. Transform the feeling into a new wisdom-based decision. Plant the seed and experience the transformation.
1 Question to Help You Dig In
Besides experiencing low-energy feelings (shame, guilt, anger, insecurity, heartbreak), we also experience high-energy feelings (love, joy, calm, trust, compassion) and we don’t want to miss their signals either.
Where do your high-energy feelings show up in your body?
Thanks for joining me in the garden. If you enjoyed this issue, sign up below to receive my weekly newsletter.
