Growing Up The Kind Way...

‘Oh, grow up.’ Or, ‘Hey, you’ll grow out of it’. Which do you prefer?  

I’d like to invite you to go to a pot plant in your home or garden, look at it sternly, and say, “Oh, grow up.”. Then a gentle, ‘Hey, you’ll grow out of it’. 

How was it to shout at your plant in a way so as to suggest it was failing in some way? How was it to suggest that it should be bigger and better than it is right now? That if it did not just ‘grow up, now,’ at your behest, you would throw it out?  Did you feel really quite silly because you knew it was a castigation the plant really did not need, want, or deserve? That it only needs the things it needs for life, for growth, is the time it takes to do so? An acorn cannot be pushed, coerced, or punished into being an oak tree.

Now, please, repeat to yourself the same words as you did to the plant in the second paragraph.... I rest my case. :-) 

The only thing that matters about your own growth on your journey from tiny to large pot is your own self-kindness - your very own water, light and attention. And remember, like plants, every one of us needs a different pot size; some huge plants grow slowly in small pots, and small plants grow very fast, needing massive pots. Select your own appropriate pot as you nurture yourself into growing out of old behaviours and ever more into yourself. 

But ‘grow up’ because you should be bigger than you are right now? Please, no! Nurture and encourage yourself on your natural journey to being the greatest you you are here to be.