I do not have a green thumb, but I appreciate the beauty that is created when someone cultivates a garden full of beautiful flowers and plants. There is a tree in my front yard (it is actually more like a stick with some branches supported by two posts). I have tried for years to get this stick to grow into its full potential. I have seen other trees like this grow tall and beautiful so I know it is possible for my stick to stand on its own. One year during December when the branches looked dead, I decided that I would help the tree by trimming away all the dead looking branches so that the trunk of the tree could get more nourishment. At the time I had a neighbor who was an amazing gardener. Her yard was full of beautiful bushes, flowers and vines. She would spend hours cultivating her garden. After chopping and hacking up the branches on my tree I asked her advice about what I should do to get this tree to grow. As I stood there in front of my bare stick with my clippers in hand, she kindly recommended that I let the tree grow and stop cutting off all the branches. The tree needed to grow and expand its branches into wider spaces and I kept narrowing its ability to do this by cutting off its limbs. What I should have been doing was make sure that the roots of the tree had wide space to grow where it didn’t have to fight for nourishment.
We need to create wide spaces in our lives to grow and strengthen our inner being. Wide spaces are times when you free from the constraints and pressures of the world to reflect on the deeper realities of life. These open spaces are crucial for you to experience and grow all the amazing aspects of your personhood. Wide spaces allow for us to pull back from the narrow messages of the world. “Do this. Think that. Feel this way. Be this kind of person. Success is measured by the amount of stuff you have. You are only significant when you achieve…” You get the idea. There are a lot messages that we need to become aware of so we are no longer controlled by them. Wide spaces allow for freedom to discover new ways to think and feel that are more in alignment with our true intended self.
Weeds create narrowness around a flower that prevents it from growing. The flower may never realize its full beauty with the weeds growing around it. The flower needs wide space away from the weeds so it can receive all the nutrients it needs to grow.
Our daily lives have many narrow spaces. Life tends to push in on us. Life confines us. The confinement narrows our beliefs.
A narrow space may be when you are with someone who is demanding you conform to their idea of who you should be. You are in a narrow space when you find yourself lacking the confidence to speak up and share your opinion or idea. You are in a narrow space when you aren’t allowed to offer ideas about improvement and innovation. Those who work hard to keep the status quo fear the wide space. Status quo is the narrow space.
Be intentional about creating wide space in your life. You may happen to stumble upon wide space once in a while, but it is rare. We have to cultivate wide space in our lives otherwise the narrow space will confine us to the point that we only no longer believe we have any freedom to grow, to think creatively, to become the person we are intended to be and to realize all our unique one of a kind gifts. Here are some ideas and activities to create more wide space:
- Create times of solitude.
- Disconnect from everything during your solitude. Be alone. Turn the phone off. Shut down social media. This may seem easy but it requires intense discipline to do nothing. Spend time becoming mindful of all that stirs in you.
- Discover your core values.
- Create a list of values that define you. These values will help you think, feel and act in ways that are in alignment with your true self. Don’t let the world define you, spend time defining you.
- Gratitude
- Each day write down the things you are grateful for. Each morning I like to reflect on and write down the things I was grateful for from the previous day. It is amazing to see how the discipline of gratitude creates wide space.
- Breathe
- I am learning to breathe. After many years of life and holding my breath, I am finally learning to breathe properly. My body is experiencing the benefits of oxygen. Breathing is one activity, no matter how difficult the situation, creates wide space. During anxious situations our brains shift into flight or fight mode, which does not produce the best or highest level thinking. Breathing during stressful moments and circumstances creates distance from the stress by allowing our brains to calm down and think better thoughts.
Please share some of the ideas that help you create wide space.
Stand in the wide spaces.
