Ep.94 Finding Your Center: Plant Lessons on Resilience Amid Chaos

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Hello! Hello! Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another episode of reconnect with plant wisdom. It’s me, Tigrilla Gardenia. How are you doing

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so? We are out of the Epagomenal days, and if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, then go back to Episode 88, where I talk about Epagomenal days and the intentions for the New Year. When I talk about these super special days out of time, these are days that are kind of protected from certain types of energies that can hold back your projects. So they’re the perfect moment for launching new things.

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And because of this, January basically felt like a million months, all squished together as you were stretching and trying new things, and the world is flipping and changing all around, and unfortunately the overarching theme seems to be uncertainty, both personal as well as global.

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But not all of that. Uncertainty is necessarily bad. Some of the uncertainty is because you’re trying new things, and that’s why resilience seems to be this topic that keeps coming back over and over again. It’s kind of at the heart of everything that I’m doing, and let’s face it right now. The world feels like anything but stable, so resilience is important. But here’s the thing.

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Nature shows us that even in the midst of all the chaos.

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There’s always a way to stay grounded, you know. Plants teach us how to navigate this type of disruption, not just to survive, but to find the peace and even thrive. And I think that that’s been a really interesting aspect of this, that even though there is global chaos, and there’s global destruction. It almost kind of feels like we’re not in it alone.

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We feel, at least for many of my clients as well as myself, is like that there is a foundation under our feet. There is something for you to kind of step on, and even if the stuff above you is changing, either by your own making, because you’re stretching into new areas, or either because the world is kind of

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chaotically falling apart. In some places it does feel like we’re going somewhere. It feels like all of this is going to showcase something I was, I was on.

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I think, threads or something, and and somebody just wrote the single line. The veils are thinning, and and I agree, I mean, and especially in the Pagomeno days. Those veils are super thin, and there is lots of moments nowadays where we feel these veils are super thin, where you can see the chaos, but the chaos. You also see that the chaos is a necessary step to pull down all of those faces and all of those masks that have been around in order to take us into something

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really profoundly different. It’s that massive paradigm shift. And sometimes you need to drive people to the very edge in order for them to finally realize that it’s time to change. And that’s I feel like where we are right now.

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So in today’s episode, I want to take all of these ideas a step even further, adding a personal and probably emotional layer to the conversation about how we find our center when everything around us feels overwhelming. How can we take Nature’s wisdom, and what the plants teach us, and use it to feel more connected, to feel more empowered, to feel more grounded in our personal growth.

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And so this one’s going to go deep. So let’s just get into it. And this is going to be episode 94.

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Finding your center plant lessons on resilience amid chaos.

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Welcome to reconnect with plant wisdom. I’m your host, Tigrilla Gardenia. Nature inspired mentor, certified life coach and the founder of the naturally conscious community. For over a decade. I’ve been known as a world ambassador for plant advocacy.

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working closely with plants to share their practical wisdom, to help you consciously embody the elements of life.

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Nourish your evolution. In this podcast I delve into ancient and modern knowledge, from biology to spirituality, about the wondrous ways of plants.

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Together we’ll explore how ecosystem thinking helps you overcome limiting beliefs, understand the true nature of relationships and live an authentic, impactful life.

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Okay, in this episode, I want to hit some major points. So I’m saying this so you can keep me, you know, accountable, and of course always add in the chat or in your comments, or come into the naturally conscious community anything that you want to talk about this? Because obviously, I want this to be a conversation.

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So the key ideas that I’m going to talk on today is going to be plants as model for grounding and stability. And so this is really going to be about thriving in chaotic or unstable environments, kind of like looking at mangroves, and how they adapt to tidal forces, which, honestly, is an amazing metaphor for what many of us are experiencing. It’s almost like this rush of a tidal force waters that are just trying to push you back.

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And you’re just in there swaying through them. And I’m even going to give you a little exercise. I want to start adding more practical steps that you can start doing, and these are things that I take my own clients through. Oftentimes, when I’m working with clients, we do a little bit of activities and of exercise, and especially in our group, calls for all of the different group activities that we do, because when I work with people, one on one, they’re also part of the flourishing sprouts in the naturally conscious community. So we get to work on both

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one-on-one stuff as well as group activities.

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And these really help give us a different perspective to take us out of the sort of human-based logic that we follow, and to step into something greater. So in this part, I’m going to give you a little bit of an activity that you can. It’s kind of a kind of a mini meditation that you can do in order to help you find that grounding. We’re also going to talk about the balance between resilience and rest.

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you know. And we’re going to use the example in this case of tulip bulbs and daffodil bulbs and bulbs in general who actively use cycles to avoid any kind of unnecessary stress, and only reemerge when the environment is optimal for survival. Now, mind you. They’re not

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hiding per se. We tend to think that when things are underground that means that they’re hiding. But what we’re going to talk about is the fact that what bulbs really do is grow in a protective space which is underground and look for as well as create the conditions in order to be able to emerge. So these are really important mirrors for that balancing activity, and also for recovery in our own lives, and the importance of being able to act as well as rest.

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And what can we learn from the importance of resting, conserving energy and allowing ourselves to regenerate when facing challenges? The last piece is going to be all around creating personal ecosystems of support in nature. Plants don’t thrive in isolation.

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They rely on overlapping layers of relationships and evolve and change based on the needs of the community, so some might even feel antagonistic or ambivalent in the case of some of the relationships that are being created yet these are the ones that can push you out of stagnation or provide much needed space while you process.

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So don’t take for granted, or don’t try to push away other types of relationships that might not seem like they’re supportive or mutually beneficial during chaotic times. Sometimes that push.

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like some would say, we’re seeing on certain types of political landscapes are the ones that are going to get you really moving. And so they’re the ones that are going to touch other kinds of emotions or experiences that get you to act in a different way. So really, this is about, how do you find nourishment in any direction

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in this episode. I’m not going to deny the chaos around us, or pretend that it doesn’t affect me or my clients, or any of us, because it’s really about learning how to navigate it with the grounded wisdom of plants that they offer us every single day. It’s about sharing how my plant partners, for example, have taught me to find peace.

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something I have to say. I never expected to be so important in my life. My mother had told me several years ago that at some point she made a conscious choice that she was going to go towards peace. That that’s what she wanted in her life, and at 1st I looked at it. And I was like, that sounds boring.

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Yeah, I am now learning the value of peace. I can be excited and passionate and thrilled, and still have peace. So by the end of this episode, I want you to feel more rooted, calm, and centered, no matter what’s happening around you. I want you to understand how resilience

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isn’t about powering through and like forcing yourself to do things and getting up every single time you get knocked down.

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It’s about working with the cycles of life. It’s about finding your strength in stillness, and it’s about letting nature remind you that even in chaos there’s a deeper order at play, and that if you find it you can flow with it. So let’s begin by exploring how the plants embody resilience, and even in the harshest conditions, even in the harshest conditions. What they can teach us about finding peace within the external world

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when it really feels

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overwhelming. I mean seriously, there’s no other word. Sometimes it’s just overwhelming, and that’s why that peace piece it’s so important.

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But before I start I want to share with you one of our eco-conscious business partners, because these are the organizations, groups, and businesses that are helping me build a better world

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for over a decade. I’ve had the profound joy of working with the music of the plants, a musical instrument made just for plants.

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This very music is what sparked my own plant, reawakening, guiding me to reconnect with nature in an entirely new way.

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Imagine listening to the harmonious melodies of your plant companions, and feeling their wisdom and presence through the language of music.

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It’s an experience that has transformed my life and the lives of so many other people.

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If you’re curious about the hidden songs of plants and want to connect to your plant friends in a completely new way. I invite you to discover more at tigrillagardenia.com slash music of the plants it’s in the show notes. Plant music is great for healing, sharing, and personal connection. Let’s continue our journey of personal evolution and plant consciousness, together

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with the songs of plants.

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So let’s talk about plants as models for grounding and stability.

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Let’s start with one of my favorite plant families.

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the mangroves seriously. You know that I grew up in Miami. I’m from South Florida, and mangroves are one of my favorite types of plants.

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They’re those plants that I just remember seeing all these tangled and otherworldly type trees along the shoreline, whether I was going out on the boat on Biscayne Bay, or walking along mangrove trails in the Everglades. These plants always feel like a force of nature. They’re rooted and resilient, and no matter what the tide brought in, including hurricanes.

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they always stood there kin were ready for anything. And it’s not just South Florida. Right? Mangroves are essential all over the Caribbean, whether they protect

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coastal city communities. For example, all these coastal areas, and they serve as nurseries for marine life. So it’s kind of like this combination. I think of them almost as what’s the right word. I don’t want to say, nurse, there’s a word. Can’t think of the word. I’ll figure out the word. But basically it feels like they’re those guardians that are there at a nursery, taking care of

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all of the kids and making sure that by the time the kids come back to their parents they’re nourished and fed and have taken a nap, and all those types of good things.

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and that’s probably why they’ve been called the Guardians of the Coast. You know, they’ve earned that right?

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So what makes mangrove such a perfect model for grounding and stability?

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First, st they grow in one of the most challenging environments you can imagine intertidal zones where land meets sea. So this is an ecotone. Now, an ecotone is where 2 separate ecosystems meet

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and ecotones are extremely important, because ecotones are super alive. There’s lots of movement happening. There’s lots of change.

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The species that are coming from one ecosystem don’t know if they can survive yet in the other ecosystem. So they come through the ecotone to see whether or not how they need to adapt and change in order to be in the other one. So ecotones are a place. We often use them when we do biomimicry for social innovation as an incubator for businesses, as a place for you to experiment with new ideas. The concept of an

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ecotone is where innovation really happens. These are areas that are constantly shifting. There’s high tide and low tide. In the case of these intertidal zones there’s salt water. There’s also fresh water, because again they’re moving from one to the other. Lots of storms happen here and mangroves thrive right in the middle of it all.

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and their secret.

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So you have to go check out a mangrove. So a mangrove has these iconic what’s called prop roots. They look like they’re sort of like you have a main trunk or main stem. And then these stem-like roots that reach out into the water. Now these roots anchor the tree into the shifting, muddy soil. It’s kind of a combination of sandy soil type stuff.

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keeping these plants, these trees that grow in large clusters. Oftentimes around an entire coastal area they keep them stable, and even as the waves and the tides move around.

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and it doesn’t even stop there. Mangroves are incredibly adaptable when it comes to dealing with salt. Their roots remember, their roots are in salty water right? And so they filter out salt from seawater, mind you, normally, if you try to take a plant that’s not an underwater plant which do exist which is different from seaweed.

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which is oftentimes an algae. But aquatic plants, of course, deal with salt water, but if you were to take any of the plants around and start putting salt water into the plant. Please do not do this that kills the plant.

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So these are species, that instead, when it comes to a mangrove, filter out the salt from the seawater, and some of these species even excrete out that excess salt through their leaves. It’s like they’ve evolved this water purification system. As a matter of fact, I worked on a biomimicry project with this group, fantastic people

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who had created an entire water filtration system that was mimicking the way that mangroves work.

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And so mangroves really have this amazing part of creating fresh water in the area in which they’re in so helping to move that cycle.

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And let’s talk about oxygen right? Because, believe it or not, their roots also breathe the roots themselves. Mangroves grow in this waterlogged oxygen. Poor soils! Right? It’s like a sandy soil. It’s silty. It’s got lots of different aspects to it. So they’ve developed these above ground structures. So you’ll see that there’s some that are deep into the actual soil, and then there’s some that are in the water, and then there’s some that are above the water, or at least

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constantly getting wet, and these structures

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are little snorkels that stick up out of the water to take in air. It’s like they figured out how to stay grounded and flexible, no matter what’s happening around them. And I always think back to growing up near mangroves, especially during hurricane season.

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Those these are the trees that are the 1st line of defense against the storm surge right as the storm water is coming up, mangroves end up, intersecting this water, taking the force, bending with them kind of like palm trees. Do it with wind right? Because the palm trees are, they look like, you know, can look like these big, long stems, because really they’re more stems

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that bend with the wind, and it’s the same thing with mangroves. I didn’t fully appreciate it as a kid, but now that I see them. They’re this incredible metaphor for me. For resilience. They don’t fight the water or try to avoid it right? They’re not stiff. They work with the water, adapting to the flow while staying firmly rooted.

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and in the Caribbean mangroves play an even bigger role. Right? Locals rely on them, not just for storm protection, but also for food and livelihoods, because there’s many different kinds of fish and crustaceans that start their lives in the tangled mangroves. All of these roots.

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because, again, of this combination of oxygen and air and filtration, and being able to be protected from storm surges. Lots of little critters then start their lives out there before moving out into open waters. Because, again, ecotones are a place of innovation, a place where things are birthed, where new things are happening.

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So really, they’re more than just trees. They’re ecosystems within ecosystems, thriving in the chaos and creating stability for everything around them. So with all that said, what can we learn from mangroves for ourselves?

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So 1st of all, of course, they show us how to find stability in the middle of shifting tides. Now

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there is always something going on around you, and it’s inevitable that things are going to shift. So mangroves remind us to root ourselves deeply into what nourishes and sustains us. Remember, I always talk about the most important thing that you need to have is your why.

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why? You need to know yourself, to understand what motivates you? Why are things important? What are the values that you hold most dear?

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And then from there you can stay, flexible enough above ground, right in the area of the water towards the air, right in the emotional to the mental parts, to adapt when things change. But if you are not rooted in that super nourishing why, and in that super nourishing values.

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When the hard times come, you’re going to get just thrown out of there.

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Mangroves don’t resist the water, they don’t try to block their emotions. I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine one day, and we were talking about going through difficult times, and she was saying, how you know, what she tries to do is mentally understand whatever it is that’s bothering her, and then get out of there as fast as possible, and I’m the complete opposite. I throw myself into whatever it is. I sit inside of it. I let it

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splash over me and knock me down, and then lift me up, and I tremble with it, and I just move

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all around every aspect of whatever it is. That is a trauma or an experience, something that is hurting me, or something that I don’t understand, and I try to experience it with every aspect of my body, because I believe that if I flow with it, and then I start slowly filtering out the parts that don’t serve with it. Then.

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even though the environment kind of feels overwhelming. I know it’s going to wash over me eventually. I trust

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in the idea that over time I will create fresh water out of all of this salt water that is maybe burning my wounds, and it’s hurting me a little bit. But I’m moving, and I’m so I don’t thrash against it. I try to flow with it. I try to be a part of it. So if you’re feeling like the ground beneath you is constantly shifting, maybe the lesson here is for you to root yourself in something deeper

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by allowing yourself also, then to bend with the flow, to trust in that foundation that you have built for yourself to trust in the fact that you know that once you go through it, you’re going to end up on the other side, and mangroves

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really do this so well, they don’t just survive chaos, they thrive in it, and you can, too. So I want to share with you a little mangrove, inspired grounding exercise that you can do anywhere. Okay? So again, I’m going to say it. Now. You can mark the time so that you know exactly when this is going to happen, and you can come back to this episode anytime you like.

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And so here’s what I want you to do. I want you to sit comfortably with your feet flat on the ground, and I want you to just start breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Now, mind you, I’m going to go through this a little bit quickly, just because I want to just walk you through it. But when you do this for yourself. Take your time right, take your time through this, really breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, and close your eyes.

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just close your eyes for a second.

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Now imagine your feet growing roots

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just like a mangrove’s prop roots.

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They don’t go straight down. They sort of wiggle through the sand beneath you, looking for the best way to hang on to the wet ground.

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So just feel yourself as your feet slowly grow out. These roots.

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they pierce through water, they go into the sand, and they just wiggle through there to find themselves visualize these roots, anchoring themselves deep into the earth.

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spreading wide for stability even in the soft, shifting soil.

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and with every breath reach out deeper and farther, exploring and catching hold.

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Imagine, when you are out on the beach, and you stick your hands into the wet sand. And now multiply that across dozens of roots coming out from below, you

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take a deep breath in through your nose, and imagine your roots pulling in fresh, nourishing energy from the earth

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as you exhale through your mouth, release anything that feels heavy or overwhelming, just like mangroves, are filtering out salt

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and leaving fresh water, and repeat this for 3 to 5 slow, steady breaths.

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you know, type of chronic flow in out.

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feel this circular connected energy you and the mangrove united.

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Now picture yourself standing in the shallow water.

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The waves are gently moving around you. All around your anchored roots.

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You can even stand up. If this feels good to you

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as the water ebbs and flow, let it represent

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chaos or the uncertainty in your life. All of those emotions that crash into you on a regular basis.

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Feel your body start to sway with the movement, and literally let your body move.

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Oftentimes, when we do meditation, we think we’re supposed to be still. And while this is the case for some, there are some meditations that are much more beautiful when you allow your body to move with it.

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If it feels right, let your body guide you that ebb and that flow, that tide coming in.

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and then pulling out.

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and your roots holding you there, not rigidly in place, but allowing you to weave and move and bend.

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instead of resisting the constant motion of the water, those emotional parts that are pulling you in every direction.

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Your emotional centers are bending and swaying with the movement, with the movement.

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They’re staying strong in some places, because they’re grounded from below, while soft and malleable all above you.

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The wind rustles through your body, your mental thoughts

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also coming and going and moving. That’s adding all of this that normally will thrash you, and especially in combination with those emotional waters. But now, like the soft, pliable, yet sturdy mangrove. You’re moving with it.

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You’re pulling out nourishment from the murky waters, while your body easily filters through the elements.

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Now bring to consciousness how soft and light you feel.

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This is your mangrove state.

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one that you can pull up any time that the chaos gets to be too much

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feel this state of groundedness and yet movement a flow.

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and when you’re ready, open your eyes, you can even take a moment to journal, or simply reflect

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what helps you stay grounded during life’s high tides?

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How can you more consciously filter through what comes to pull out what you need and let the rest float away.

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What does resilience mean when you are a mangrove?

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This is the simple practice you can come to whenever you feel unsteady, and like the mangroves. You can root deeply while allowing life’s tides to flow all around you.

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All right. I want you to take this energy that we just experienced, and I want to pull all of that back into the balance between resilience and rest. Because I think this is an important piece of the

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the fact that you are grounded, you’re going through it. You’re being resilient. But at the same time there are also moments when you need to rest.

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and another beautiful example of rust in plants is in bulbs going dormant during unfavorable conditions, like extreme heat or drought.

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so bulb plants like daffodils and tulips, right other what’s called geophytes retreat into their underground storage organs. It’s a bulb or a rhizome like your ginger or a corm, and they conserve energy and wait for the right time to grow again. So during dormancy, one of the things I love is that they’re actively photosynthesizing or growing.

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Excuse me, they aren’t. I just realized, I said that wrong during dormancy. They aren’t actively photosynthesizing or growing above the surface. Instead, they’re relying on the nutrients stored in their underground sculptures. This means that while they were growing they were also putting stuff away for a rainy day.

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It’s like a little hidden reservoir of energy until the conditions improve. It’s a perfect example of nature, saying, pause now, so you can thrive later.

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Now, in order for that to happen. That means that the plant was actively growing out and always putting something away. So this is an important consideration. That rest is not something that you just take randomly. It’s something you construct. It’s something you build. When we think about resilience, it’s easy to picture constant action pushing forward, staying strong. And during the storm all those things that we’ve been taught as humans that we’re supposed to do.

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But nature teaches us something completely different. Sometimes resilience looks like stillness, like rest.

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It’s a perfect example of how bulbs go dormant

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when I 1st came to Dumb and her we have something called the game of life, and the game of life is all about change, about movement, about calling you out of your comfort zone and moving you. And at the very beginning the game of life called me for several dynamics, and I would always say no.

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and they would look at me, and they’re like, I don’t understand. And they’re like, no, you don’t realize this

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for me at the time. By the time I had moved to Dominhur I was used to getting up and going. In other words, I had friends that would call me, and I would spend 3 days at their house or go away for a month. Even I knew how to be mobile.

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I didn’t know how to be rooted in place. It was terrifying for me to take to make a commitment to something that I had to be there every week.

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So you’ve got to try to understand? What does rest or resilience look like for you? And how do you build yourself up to those?

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How do you create a life that gives you the flexibility to be able to go, go when necessary, to even jump into something different, but also to retreat and create stability for yourself, and, of course, in different proportions, based on who you are and what it is that for you is most important in life, but still the ability to do everything, or at least to to be able to flow with everything is what creates that resistance.

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Resilience can look like many different ways. Think about plants like tulips and daffodils, or even lilies. These are plants that seem to disappear entirely for part of the year, right above ground. There’s no sign of life, no leaves, no flowers, they just disappear, they retreat.

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and it’s easy to look at that bare patch of earth and assume nothing’s happening, which is the same thing for yourself. I don’t go out or I don’t interact with a lot of people. Or maybe I’m not producing something. Quote unquote the very famous production piece.

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But beneath the surface. These plants are very, very much alive. Their bulbs, those underground storage organs are holding on to precious energy, waiting for the right conditions to grow. Their dormancy is not laziness, it’s strategy. So you, holding back and being still, is not about giving up.

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It is about being strategic, about where you put your energy

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bulbs know that trying to grow in harsh conditions, like the heat of the summer or the chill of the winter, would waste their resources. So, instead of forcing that growth at the wrong time, they retreat, they pause, they focus on conserving energy, so that when spring arrives they can bloom in full force. Now, remember, just like the mangrove they are rooted. They’re rooted in the location in which they are

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rooted in the sense that they’re in their environment. And in this case they’re rooted to themselves. They’ve created a perfect little shell to hold on to them, and that is their grounding. So you can pick up that bulb and plant that bulb somewhere else, and that bulb holds everything. So in some cases you’re going to want to root into the environment around you. In other cases, you’re going to want to create your entire grounding system within you. It’s up to you to be able to flow with what you need first.st

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Now, the idea of retreating to protect or conserve yourself isn’t just about plants. It’s also a deeply human thing for you to do. I think about how often we push ourselves to stay on all the time. Right? We want to meet our deadlines. We want to juggle all these responsibilities. We want to show up for everyone else. But just like the bulb, we need time to recharge. People often ask me, how do I get so much done?

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To be honest, I think I’m lazy.

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I not lazy in a negative way. I spend lots of time by myself.

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lots of time recharging my batteries, doing things that just nourish me sometimes with friends, you know. I went to do acro yoga the other day. I’m so excited about acroyoga now, or, you know, doing a beautiful breathwork in the morning by myself, or reading a really luscious book, or just sitting

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on the balcony with a roaring fire and a blanket in the middle of the cold and staring out between the river and Gary, the silver fern and the early evening hours. That’s incredibly nourishing for me. It decompresses me from everything it brings in a form of silence that I didn’t experience a lot of, because I’m a Chattermouth, as you already know.

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without rest, we burn through our reserves, and eventually we wither. So here’s a tangible example that might hit home for you. I’ve worked with so many clients who feel stuck because they’ve been going nonstop for absolute years. They feel like they should be growing, achieving, producing. But inside

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they’re exhausted.

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When I suggest that they take a break or slow down. Their 1st reaction is usually guilt. They feel like the rest, is the opposite of resilience. That rest is failing somehow.

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Actually, in a recent naturally conscious leadership group mentorship call. One of my clients shared that her dream is to sit on the porch reading a book.

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And yet every time she’s tried. She’s felt so guilty as if someone would judge her for not getting her self-imposed list of to do’s done right like. Got to do this. Got to do that. It turned into a fantastic conversation, where we all helped each other. Understand that the societal expectations that we take on

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really are nothing more than self-imposed restrictions meant to keep us busy.

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But they don’t actually produce results. When we look to nature, we see it’s the opposite.

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Rest is essential for resilience without pause.

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The bloom can’t happen, Jaina, right now, and Aloe is blooming, and it’s such a slow, delicate process because it’s wintertime, and that’s when Jaina blooms and

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taking little little steps, but in the end the bloom is beautiful with this vibrant orange color.

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One of my favorite thing about bulbs is how kin trust the process. A tulip doesn’t dig himself up to check. If it’s ready to grow, they don’t go and like Oh, let’s see, let’s see, he knows that when the conditions are right, he has created a feedback mechanism to signal when it is that it’s time to emerge.

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Tulip reminds me to trust my own cycles to listen to my body, to feel my inner plantness, to the rhythms of nature that are encoded within my own body, and to honor those times when I need to step back, even if it feels counterintuitive when I need to take a rest in order to allow things that that thrashing that I was talking about about being in those emotional waters to take over and to just emerge.

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So this is a really important thing for you to think about as you balance between resilience and rest. I want you to ask yourself, are you giving yourself permission to pause

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to retreat into dormancy when the conditions aren’t right, so that you can serve your energy for what it is

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like a bulb. Your rest is not an absence of action.

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It’s an investment in your next bloom.

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And with that, in order for you to comfortably do that, you need to create a personal ecosystem of support. I’m just going to touch on this so quickly, because I think that it rounds out the fact that you need to be grounded. You need to give space for movement and rest. But in order for all of this to work.

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you have to have a personal ecosystem of support around you in times of need. We often expect all of our relationships to be mutually beneficial. We think that if everybody isn’t there to just help me and for me to help them, then it’s not working that every connection should pour as much into us as we pour into them.

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And this is what we want for ourselves. We we feel like we’re taken advantage of if we don’t, or we give everything to the other person and expect none in return. But that’s usually because you don’t think you deserve it.

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So that’s another episode. And we are going to have more of those episodes, too.

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But just like in nature, diversity is actually what strengthens and sustains us. It’s what gives those cues to know when to grow and when to rest.

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A thriving personal ecosystem isn’t made up of entirely perfect balanced exchanges. Instead, it’s a dynamic web of relationships, right? I often talk about the fact that we have lost many of the archetypes for relationships. We think relationships are either family or antagonistic, or we have a very limited definition of what those relationships are. But in reality there are multitudes of relationships, each one offering something unique.

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Some may provide direct support.

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others may challenge us, test our boundaries, or simply exist alongside us without much interaction, holding space. You might say. A great example of this comes from the idea of a forest understory right, a small but powerful ecosystem, filled with diverse relationships that demonstrate how a healthy system thrives, how the individual gets the support they need from many different types of relationships, not just mutualisms.

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In this complex and vibrant space. Various plants, fungi, insects, animals, microorganisms. They all interact in ways that reflect the intricate balance of what the relationship that is necessary at that particular moment.

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That’s how you find the personal support system. It’s not just in who helps you, but it’s also in who pushes you. So let me break it down with a few of kind of like the bigger labeled, you might say, relationships that you should kind of keep an eye on.

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Mutualisms, of course, are the relationships most of us know about right. The idea of things like trees and mycorrhizal fungi, where the fungi attaches to the roots, and they extend down into the network of soil effectively, you know, accessing, giving

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access for the tree, for water and nutrients like phosphorus in return for the tree giving sugars. And through the photosynthesis right? We’ve heard all of this before. So a symbiosis is, of course, foundational to health in a forest, but also in your own life, right? You want to have relationships where you give something that you have an excess of.

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Never give what you don’t have an excess of, only give what you have an excess of, and you receive

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on the other side.

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But not all relationships are give and take. Some, like commensalisms are just takers. Commensal relationships often appear in a really subtle way, like, for example, mosses growing on tree trunks.

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The moss benefits from the structure and moisture that the tree provides, but the tree itself is pretty much oblivion.

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Ambivalent. That’s the word I was looking for. Oblivious ambivalent. I mix those 2 words together.

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This really mirrors the relationship of when someone in your support system may benefit from your guidance or from some resources without it taking anything away from you in return. The occasional call you get from a colleague’s child, asking you for advice and a problem. It’s not inherently bad. These relationships can add a whole other layer or texture to your ecosystem, so you can ask somebody who it doesn’t affect them one way or another for them to give.

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and vice versa. You can have somebody who takes from you, and you’re like me. Whatever. Go into the garage, grab that thing. I don’t need it. I don’t even know you took it. Just make sure it’s there when I need it. That’s a commensalism. They give you the opportunity to take without feeling the need to return the favor directly, and in the end you, being a healthy, active member of a community is payment enough for everyone else. So commensalisms are really great relationships to have in your arsenal.

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Even parasitism and predation have their roles to play don’t discount them just because they come with some kind of negative bad vibe, right? Not every relationship in an ecosystem is gentle parasitic plants, such as I don’t know, mistletoe latch onto trees and branches, and they draw out water and nutrients from the host right? So they’re literally sucking out the life of the host.

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and while this weakens the tree.

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mistletoe also provides berries for birds, and serves as a shelter for certain kinds of animals, so showing that even this sort of negative relationship between the tree and the mistletoe, which doesn’t ever kill the tree unless there’s very specific conditions. It just weakens the tree a little which is good because it keeps the tree in check.

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can have this broader ecological purpose so similarly predatory. Insects, right? Or animals like, I don’t know ladybugs, eating aphids can keep harmful populations in check. Right? This is the way we keep a harmony. They maintain a balance in the system. So in your own personal ecosystem. These more challenging dynamics might show up in relationships that put you outside of your comfort, zone, or force you to establish boundaries in that membrane that fluidly moves back and

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forth, they push you to be conscious of what is happening. They’re not always pleasant, but they play a vital role in shaping your resilience and growth.

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I often say that in every group dynamic there is always an asshole. Permit me for saying this. Sometimes I am the asshole. So I take full responsibility for this term. Sorry for the language, but there isn’t really a better way to explain it. This is the person that pushes your buttons at every turn. So you have a group, and there’s always that one antagonistic person who is pushing everything.

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And even if you try to eliminate that person. You reorg the person out. You have the person go into some other group. The person eventually decides that they step away from the project

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magically, without even meaning to

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someone, eventually steps in to fill the role, and somebody becomes the new asshole. Even somebody who was super sweet before, because, energetically speaking, it’s a necessary role. It’s a mirror, a push that gets us somewhere. We need to go. So open yourself to this person. I often use the example, when I have somebody like that, and I say to myself, what is the role that this person is here to play for me?

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How does this person’s antagonistic attitude. Teach me something about myself. How do I get to the place where I see that person’s value, even if they’re destroying the things that I’m building.

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The beauty of a forest understory is that it’s a constant flux. Relationships are always shifting. Trees grow smaller and shade out plants that once thrived, fungi, expand their networks to connect with new hosts, and even decomposers like earthworms or fungi, break down fallen leaves and dead matter right?

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There are those that build. There are those that break down. There are those that share. There are those that communicate. There are all kinds of different members of an ecosystem, all cycling nutrients back into the system in their own way.

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And this reminds us that our personal ecosystems aren’t static either. People come into our lives for specific reasons. Relationships change, and we evolve as individuals. Some connections offer deep mutual support.

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while others may simply provide a stepping stone or challenge us to grow a personal ecosystem of support mirrors this dynamic forest. You’ll have friends, mentors, and colleagues who enrich your life in mutual ways.

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There’s going to be people who are going to benefit from your guidance or resources, and you are going to benefit from the resources and guidance of others. And there’s even going to be relationships that are going to challenge or test you, or even try to hunt you down.

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None of these roles are inherently good or bad. They all contribute to the larger web of support that sustains you, and they all all are necessary to sustain the ecosystem at large, which in this case is you

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so call on them when the times are rough. A robust ecosystem of relationships is the best way to weather any storm.

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So as we wrap up this journey into resilience from mangroves to bulb plants to the natural web of relationships.

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I want you to think about how these types of plant lessons can offer you insight into how to find your own center. Even amid the craziest of chaos.

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like the mangroves which they thrive, they thrive in this like ever changing tides. We also can find ways to stay rooted

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even when life feels unpredictable. Grounding ourselves isn’t about being immobile. It’s not about holding steady, although it can be at times, but it’s about anchoring so deeply in what’s important in your whys and in your values while staying flexible enough to flow with the change.

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Then there’s the balance of resilience and rest. Right again. I can flow, but I also have to know when to take myself out of that game.

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When do I go deep inside of myself and rest just as tulips and daffodils rest in their bulbs, conserving energy until the conditions are right. We, too, can learn to pause and regenerate when life gets too overwhelming. Sometimes the most resilient thing we can do is give ourselves permission to rest.

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to conserve, to step out.

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and finally, we cannot forget that plants in nature do not thrive in isolation. We need a diverse network of relationships to support us, just as an ecosystem includes not only nurturing relationships, but also those that might push us out of stagnation and give us space for reflection.

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We need to cultivate our own ecosystems of support. They might not always look like what we expect, but that diversity is what keeps us growing so when life feels chaotic, remember the wisdom of plants. Remember you are an ecosystem. Stay grounded. Take time to rest and build a support system that adapts with you. It’s in these rhythms, in the ebbs and flows of life cycles where we find our strength, where we find our center.

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Now, putting some of these things into practice is going to take time. You’ve been conditioned to believe no pain, no gain, or that rest is for the wicked, horrible, horrible, horrible phrases we should eliminate from our vocabularies. So as you continue to nourish your plant, reawakening amid the delicious, unpredictable chaos of life. Because, seriously, who could have predicted some of the things that are happening right now?

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Here are a few questions for you to journal on, or even ask your plant partner to help you explore

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what roots, values, practices, relationships, keep you grounded when everything else feels uncertain.

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Where in your life are you resisting rest? And how might you benefit

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from going underground to conserve your energy like bulbs? Do?

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Who or what is part of your ecosystem of support? How can you welcome a wide range of relationships, including a life coach

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around you? There’s probably a resilient plant that’s just waiting to share keys wisdom with you. So I learned so much from Jaina and Zan, the aloe Wonder twins that are right in front of me every single day, so spend some time with plants in their environment, and reflect on what Key knows journal, or meditate on how to apply those qualities in your own life.

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And if you’ve been feeling a bit uprooted or out of sync lately, you’re definitely not alone. We all go through those times, and that’s exactly why the naturally conscious community exists

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to create a space where we can reconnect with Nature’s wisdom and support each other in finding our grounding and clarity.

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I’d love to work with you, one on one. Also. Together we can create a personalized approach that helps you reconnect with your center and start thriving, no matter what life brings your way.

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So if this episode resonated with you, remember to like comment and subscribe, you can also reach out to me. Everything you need is in the show notes. By sharing these ideas you’re helping to grow a community of like-minded individuals who are ready to live in harmony with Nature’s wisdom

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and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being a part of this space.

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We’ll continue to navigate these cycles of growth and change together.

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Nature teaches us to evolve, and when we evolve together we evolve with resiliency.

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So that’s it. For this episode. Remember to resist your urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance.

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Bye.

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Thanks for tuning in to this episode of reconnect with plant wisdom

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to continue these conversations, join us in the naturally conscious community, your premier online ecosystem for plant reawakening and accelerated evolution and co-creation with other kin.

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Here you’ll find expansive discussions, interactive courses live events and supportive group programs like the Plant Wisdom Book Club and the Sprouts, writing and Creativity Group.

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connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life. Intro and outro music by Steve Sciuliand poinsettia from the singing Life of plants. That’s it for me, Tigrilla Gardenia and my plant collaborators until next time. Remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. I’m out bye.