Phase Five: Come Rain or Shine
Phases 1-4 in a season of growth are all about getting your garden established to give yourself the best possible chances for growth.
Phase One is all about learning what growth is being asked of you in this season of your life.
Phase two is about assessing your environments and whether they contribute or detract for your evolution.
Phase three helps you develop a plan to evolve in this season of your life, while phase four is all about establishing proper boundaries.
Think of phases one through four like the springtime—now you are moving into the summer, where the actual growth process gains momentum.
Once a plant starts to grow, all a gardener can do is establish practices that will help the plant continue on a healthy path.
Watering, pruning, supporting and pulling weeds are all habits that will support the growth of each plant. With consistent care and effort, a harvest is all but inevitable.
Whatever growth your intuition is trying to guide you towards, you must choose to be consistent in the care of your growth no matter what is going on in your life, no matter how busy you get.
On the path to growing deeper in you ability to trust yourself, the foundation of trust is built upon structure and consistency. When growing plants, it’s critical to keep an eye on everything that’s growing to check for signs of distress or disease.
When growing in life, it’s important to constantly check in with yourself and ask yourself what you need to stay on track in the form of self-care.
Self care in our culture is usually bubble baths, wine nights with girl friends or a day at the spa. While many of the activities mentioned are nice, they are more in the camp of escapism than true self-care.
True self-care is participating in habits that support your growth. This is usually in the form of consistency, follow-through and reinforcing boundaries. To care for oneself means to prioritize behavior that leads to a stronger root system—increasing the chances of a harvest with avoiding self-sabotaging behavior.
We all end up in the weeds from time to time, but when we get there— it’s important to get right back to the habits that will ultimately lead you to where you want to be.
What are some habits you can adopt in order to truly take care of yourself?
When you know the growth your intuition is asking you to confront, it’s often difficult to stay the course. The reason your intuition is guiding you towards this path is because you must overcome and outgrow fear in order to reach the goal you have been presented with.
In my experience, this part of the season is tricky because it appears that everything is going well and you can just sit back and watch your garden grow.
Passively watching your garden grow is an illusion. Everyday a plant grows in the garden a weed competes for nutrients, an insect finds a new food source, and the roots require a consistent watering and fertilizing schedule.
Once you decide you are ready to grow, you have to keep a close eye on your progress and stay the course in the most consistent way possible. If intuitive growth were easy, we wouldn’t have so many depressed, abusive, self-sabotaging humans roaming the earth.
Growth is an all out war; with yourself, your programming, your belief system and mostly your relationship with fear.
While growing food, a gardener must fight the insects, diseases, excessive sun, wind, drought and flooding. The process of growing food is almost identical to growing emotionally and spiritually.
The metaphor between growth in the garden and spiritual growth is so naturally linked, it seems like it is a secret that has been hidden in plain sight.
There is no way to grow a productive garden without consistent care. In a normal growing season, I do not go on vacation or neglect my garden for more than a day or two. So much growth (and potential threats to growth) happen every single day that I have to prioritize my garden over ‘fun’ for almost half the year.
To me, the sacrifice is so beyond worth it. The process of growth, learning and evolving is far more satisfying than sitting on a beach drinking a cocktail and ultimately more relaxing than several weekends getting massages and facials.
There is no substitute for working hard and reaping the benefits of your hard work—it is a natural cycle found in nature.
Choosing the hard, consistent work of not only trusting your intuition but prioritizing your growth by choosing true self-care is all but guaranteed to create deep and profound connections with yourself those around you.
A garden will grow best when it is cared for, studied and loved. The same goes for this season of intuitive growth in your life-you are likely to succeed if you apply the same dedication and awareness to your spiritual and emotional growth as a loving grower treats their beloved crops.
To Growth-
Ashley