Heal Your Soul with Nature

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Embrace your inner dirt digging child

Our soul. It's a very powerful influencer on the rest of our body and mind. If it is in crisis, or malnourished, we are in deep trouble. You've felt it, I know you have.

Let me tell you a story. A young lady I know has a very successful career as a CEO of a major national corporation. She was approved to work remote, travels frequently with all expenses paid, earns a great salary, and has no troubling relationships with friends or family. She expressed to me one day that there was something missing and in her words, "It's weird. I'm incredibly happy, and proud of where I am in life, but I feel a void, and I have not the slightest freaking clue where the void is." Grrrr... frustrating right? After some conversation, and a little introspective digging, she realized that she was just blowing by her surroundings and not really practicing the art of doing something by herself, that has seemingly no long term purpose.

Let's direct that a bit more: no long term purpose. Honestly, I get it. We are trained from little on up "if you work hard at school and get good grades you will have a good job" or maybe "if you play a sport, and practice hard you'll get a scholarship to a great university". It has been engrained in use that our choices affect our future, and for the most part this is true. For example, you may start working at a different company where the salary is higher, because you want to retire with security. No problem with that of course, but what if instead of thinking that far into the future, you start that same job because you ENJOY performing those tasks? Hmm? What if kids simply played sports to just ENJOY the sport, with no future plans at all? Interesting point of view on that, don't you think.

This young lady had realized that everything she chose had some long term purpose or outcome, and nothing, NOTHING she did was for "short term gratification" or what I like to call, enjoying the present just because. She was missing out on all the little things- smelling flowers, enjoying the sunshine, watching a dog run around in the yard- that though the joy provided may seem short lived, it nourishes your soul little by little.

The challenge here is how can we incorporate more of those little things in our lives, to nourish our soul little by little, instead of crashing headfirst into shutdown mode or worse, numb. Let's start off by channeling our inner child yes? Here are a couple things you can do by yourself, and I'm even going to give you several options incase one doesn't suit your fancy.

Plant something small: Find a pot. Find a small plant. Throw in some dirt. Do it with INTENTION, and enjoy doing it. Then stick it somewhere you go every day- office, home, outside- and when you see it, just admire its beauty, its ability to grow, the colors of the leaves, how each leaf or flower pops out.
Go digging in the dirt: If you have a shovel, great! If you don't, I always fancied my mom's good (and expensive) kitchen utensils for digging. Tear something out- weeds, that old rusty post, that bush that you've hated trimming since day one. Really get your hands in the dirt, and feel it. Watch it fall through your fingertips. Make mud out of it and play with that in your hands. You'd be amazed at how much of a release you get when tearing something up. Bonus: whatever it is that your tearing up, associate it with any singular thing you want to remove from your life, and when you throw it out, really let it go with intention.
If you really are doubting your green thumb, how about just sitting outside somewhere nice? A park, your front porch, backyard, in a pool or hot tub? While you are sitting there, actually enjoy it. Don't think about anything else. This is also a great time to practice our 5 Senses exercise when you sense your mind wandering. Enjoy the sun, or even the beauty of the overcasting clouds. For that time, sit in quiet, and enjoy everything around you. Challenge yourself to see the beauty in something you didn't notice, or even something you've always thought was ugly.

Try one of those three things. Do it once per week. If you're starting to add up the plants you might have you can opt to take care of a small quantity, and use that time to intentionally water and care for it, instead of drowning it with a water can. Be present in the moment, and enjoy it.

Do things that make you truly happy, that seemingly have no long term purpose, simply because you enjoy doing them.

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