Have you ever found yourself so busy doing lots of actions that just don’t seem to be giving the results you once hoped for? Whether in terms of inner fulfillment, a sense of accomplishment, joy and contribution, or monetary fulfillment?
There is a beautiful quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that brings to mind the necessary action when we are not finding our way to express our highest potential.
Here’s that epic quote from Emerson.
As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few points.
Why is it necessary for you to do that?
Because as you remove the dead and even many of the living vines that seem to have inadvertently come in to choke out your creative energy, you have more power to focus on what is truly important to you!
During the winter, nature is more dormant, allowing for deep nourishment to occur at its roots. As humans, we’ve lost connection with this inner healing time and thus are devoid of much of the needed nutrients and deep rest the restores our souls. We see it show up as early burnout, writer’s block and getting stressed out very easily, because we are so depleted.
This is why it is all the more important to prune and release anything that is not beneficial for your highest and best good.
The springtime of our lives arrives and with it the potential for significant blossoming. If you’ve pruned the vines then the new saplings can get the food they need to thrive. If not, they may get choked out and buried as they suck the food.
What better analogy than that of nature and gardening to describe the creative process?
Let’s look at what you are giving your attention to, is it what you want to blossom? After all, isn’t your creative process really just like tending the garden of your life?
- What are you nourishing in your life?
- What are the daily actions that you do, even down to the mundane?
- Are they pulling your energy, sucking the life force away from the important things you wish to have blossomed in your life?
- Are you doing any random actions (I know I have) that are a distraction to your most beautiful gifts?
- What are you doing that is not allowing you to concentrate your energy and love toward what you would deeply desire to create?
For me, I’ve desired 3 things, but I’ve spent my life to this point scattered with the many random seeds that blew my way, without a thought of how or what might fruit in my garden. And they have nearly choked out the most precious of my fruits.
I assure you though, it’s never too late to get your creative energy back, after all, you are part of nature and so resilient.
The act of pruning might feel daunting if you’ve let it get well overgrown, but I assure you it will be worth it. Severe pruning may seem essential, but it will allow for the creative energy that is YOU to flow to where it will truly be appreciated.
Once you’ve got it nicely pruned and it’s been nourished, take the time to appreciate, celebrate and enjoy what you have cultivated!
Then get those shears out to maintain that beautiful garden, knowing that it is, after all, a process.