Lesson #46: Stay flexible

Each day I choose my lesson based on what calls out to me at the moment I am writing. The image above popped up and was my inspiration for today, particularly since it relates to my life right now and my post yesterday (on boundaries).

The quote in the image above, by Joanne Raplis, reads:

Be like a tree.

Stay Grounded.

Connect with your roots.

Bend before you break.

Enjoy your unique natural beauty.

Keep growing.

I love all the lines in this poem, but the one that jumped out at me was ‘Bend before you break’. And it made me think of my boundaries post because the ideal boundaries are flexible boundaries .. not weak or rigid or spongy.

This plant metaphor for flexibility typically uses bamboo, perhaps because it often comes from Chinese philosophy, and because bamboo is such an apt example of being flexible.

Right now I am in a stage of practicing flexibility as I explore different avenues of work while I get my coaching (and sculpture) business grounded and expanding.

I’ve been holding off seeking outside work out of fear it would divert my energy too much away from the process of creating my own vision. But having reached a level of clarity after yesterday finishing a draft video describing the Creative Evolution Journeys offering I want to take people on, I feel grounded enough to know that I can take time to develop and promote this offer while also doing work for others.

Rigidity is born of fear, and this newfound flexibility feels liberating and expansive. And so, I will ‘turn over a new leaf’, ‘enjoy my unique natural beauty’, and ‘keep growing’, expanding, and continue opening up in different ways.

Flexibility is a natural strength of mine, but in the past it came from weak boundaries and bending to the needs and desires of others .. an ‘over-flexibility’ perhaps. But with the stronger sense of self I have been developing over the past few years, I can be flexible without ‘losing myself’. And in this way, my life gets to expand in new and unpredictable ways.

Where in your life are you being rigid? How can you practice flexibility and expand your life?