I have a confession to make. There’s no doubt about it. I am currently totally immersed in a love affair with flowers! Just this week, I have fallen head over heels in love with flowers. Yes – flowers!
Monday morning, I was feeling low, stressed and tired. I found myself full of self doubt, worry, anxiety and fear. Fear, mainly because I recognised a dark cloud looming in the distance. Well it wasn’t exactly in the distance actually, I felt it was seeping through the walls of my home, creeping up the stairs and filtering into my bedroom through the night, to the point where it would soon consume me. I needed to do something to stop it. But what?
I’ve been working hard lately. Too hard probably. I love the work I’m doing with The Mind Sanctuary, I love the people it connects me with on a regular basis and I love discovering awe inspiring stories and insights through the research I carry out. But sometimes I can allow it to become overwhelming and all consuming. In addition to that, as I get closer to achieving my aspirations for The Mind Sanctuary, I come up against bigger and bolder challenges and barriers, which are all largely created by my own mind. I read a lovely article by Luitha Tamaya of The Living Sacred, which reassured me and comforted me to know I’m not alone, nor ill to experience this – Perfectionism, Pressure and Recognising Resistance.
Monday morning I reached a cusp. I know from experience that from this point my mood and mental health can go two ways. Things can spiral out of control and accumulate into a monster of a thunder storm, or they can gently disperse in a nice light shower, refreshing everything and encouraging new growth. Which way things go depends largely on the action I take at that moment. Mindfulness has given me the insight to recognise this point, experience has given me the wisdom to know what works for me as an individual.
So, I resigned myself to let a few things take a back seat. To have faith that everything would be okay. To take time to nourish myself and replenish my energy. I didn’t have any appointments to get to. I had some deadlines to meet by the end of the week – but that was a whole week away. There were LOADS of other things I wanted to get done during the week, but I reminded myself that I could only do what I can do. The most important thing is to make sure that I am healthy – otherwise, I’ll never get anything done!
So, what does all this have to do with flowers? Well, on Monday morning, while out on my usual walk with the dogs, I made a point of stopping and actually looking at flowers. To make an extra effort to notice them and appreciate them. To consider how awesome it is that nature creates all of these amazing shapes, textures, colors and scents all by herself. I picked some flowers from the garden and put them in vases around the house. I wore a flower behind my ear. Having discovered that some flowers are edible, I picked honeysuckle from the garden and added it to my salad.
All week, every time I passed the flowers in the vase at the bottom of the stairs, they made me smile. By the middle of the week, I picked a clematis while walking and put it behind my ear, and I felt like singing, so I did. By Thursday afternoon I was singing my way through the washing up, and in awe of the power of flowers to lift my mood.
I read a beautiful article by the lovely Amy Palko on Roots of She, which validated the feelings of joy I was experiencing from the beauty of flowers – An Invitation To Sensual Pleasure
This morning I woke up thinking – oh my god – flower power! I’d always thought that term was simply a couple of words coined together to describe the hippy culture of the 60′s, but actually, I realised – there was indeed something in it. Flowers do have power. Amazing power. The journey of my emotions from the beginning of the week to the end proved it to me. So as I always do when I have one of these “awakening” moments, I googled the power of flowers and came across this wonderful video, which reassured me further. I am allowed to feel this way about flowers. It doesn’t make me crazy or whacky. You see, when I look back my relationship with flowers started a long time ago, but it was a relationship I found difficult to accept – that’s another story…
This is such a beautiful post Tina, thank you for sharing.
That point is so familiar to me as well…and I loved what you said about how “experience has given me the wisdom to know what works for me as an individual” – that has to be the best medicine I know of!
Interestingly, we’ve been working with Back Flower Remedies for the last couple of weeks, and the power of plants is once more right there for us.
From a shamanic perspective, each plant, each flower, has a spirit and medicine all of it’s own. When we can take the time to be really present with them, and open to the gifts they’re offering to us, they can have a tremendous amount of healing power.
Luitha xx
Tina, this made me so happy to read this! I loved the way the flowers made you smile :-)
I am utterly persuaded of the power of flowers to change things for the better. Mainly through taking photos I’ve got to spend more and more time with flowers over recent years, wild flowers in particular, and I’d say this is the single biggest thing that has changed, maybe even transformed my life.
They are so unerringly cheerful and welcoming, however low I might be feeling, they don’t worry, just smile back :-) (They also *love* having their photos taken!)
Here’s a pretty stunning quote by Eckhart Tolle on flower power, words I found, appropriately enough, via Amy’s dad :-)
http://heroesnotzombies.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/flowers-the-enlightenment-of-plants/
Thank you for reminding me that sometimes we do just need to stop and look after ourselves for a little while. It’s amazing how convinced I can become that everything on my insanely long to-do list is urgent and critical! That’s usually one of my warnings that a massive anxiety episode is on the way…
Thank you for your comments ladies. I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. It was one of those pieces that I woke up in the morning with an impulsive, unstoppable need to write. All other plans for the morning were totally hijacked until I wrote it. Sometimes you just have to answer the call to write when it comes – don’t you think?
Emma – I’m so happy if it gave you permission to stop for a while :-) Especially if it is also a warning sign for you – as it is for me – when everything seems so urgent and important…