Ep.124 Live Like A Plant: Finding Your Essential Nature with Mary Rothwell

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Hello, hello, hello, everyone.

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Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect With Plant Wisdom.

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It’s me, Tigrilla Gardenia.

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Hello.

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I am so pumped.

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I know, you know, we all get exci-

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Look, when you do a podcast, what I have learned is that 98/99% of the time the guests you have on the podcast are freaking amazing.

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Amazing.

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I don’t know where they come from, I don’t know how I bump into them, how they come into my world, but I am so incredibly grateful for the fact that they come into my world and that I can bring them into your world.

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And Mary Rothwell is definitely high on the list of that.

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And it all started because I was on her podcast, which as you’re gonna hear has a great plant-inspired name, and when we were talking, when we finished, I was just

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I knew, I knew, I knew that I had to have this woman on my podcast.

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And I am so delighted that we were able to capture such a broad range of topics that is all about this essential nature.

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What I call your true nature, which is that part of you that just is, right?

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This is the way I am.

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And I am flexible, and I can change, and I can modify, but in the end, I also still have to accept that this is my true nature and this is from the, the root, the root, to use another plant metaphor, of my authenticity.

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And that’s why I’m so excited to bring this episode to you, which is episode 124, Live Like A Plant: Finding Your Essential Nature With Mary Rothwell.

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Enjoy.

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Welcome to Reconnect With Plant Wisdom.

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I’m your host, Tigiri Gardenia, nature-inspired mentor, certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious Community.

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For over a decade, I’ve been known as a world ambassador for plant advocacy, working closely with plants to share their practical wisdom to help you consciously embody the elements of life that nourish your evolution.

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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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Mary, I am so happy to have you here, like, uh, you know, because I was on your podcast, and as we were talking on your podcast, at the very end, I was like, You know what?

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You should be on my podcast, cause I felt like it was such a conversation that we, you know, shared so many things.

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But before we jump into all of that, can you just tell the audience, like, who is Mary Rothwell?

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Yes.

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For sure.

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And actually, you were one of my favorite guests because- Ah.

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it was such a w- being able to talk plants-

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which I know we’re gonna do

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was so awesome.

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So yeah.

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So I am a trained therapist.

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I’ve been a therapist for 35 years, and I worked mostly, it, with college students, and I loved it, I really loved it, but I hit a situation where there was a, some personnel changes with supervisors and I decided to take early retirement, and then I was sort of adrift.

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And I’m like, What am I gonna do?

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And there’s so many things I love.

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So I have been sort of on that journey for the last, I’m gonna say, 3 years, trying to sort of

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I do too much, so-

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um, so I still have a private practice, but I have been a me- I was a master gardener for 15 years, because plants are like my love and I’m a nature geek.

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So I’m now in the process of sort of combining that.

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And I’m also a certified functional nutrition counselor.

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So I’m pulling all these things together because I really believe that we are a whole person and w- and nature

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we are nature.

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So I think connecting to that has always been part of my therapy.

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And I realized, in my years as a gardener, that plants adapt, but they also all have their own essential nature just like we do.

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So that’s really been my framework.

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It’s been now about helping people recognize that you have an essential nature and it is totally okay to be whoever you are, and y- that’s informed by our nature, how we were born, and what we went through.

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And sometimes how we’ve adapted no longer works in the environment, and sometimes we have to change the environment.

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So I just love all of those, um, sort of analogies and combining wellness.

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And I work really mostly with women, so now I’m sort of combining all of those things and I have a podcast called No Shrinking Violets, and I’m hoping to publish a book early in the year called Live Like A Plant.

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So that’s- Wow.

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where I’m at in my life journey.

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I really

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Well, I remember when I came across your podcast and I saw the name, I was like, No Shrinking Violets, that’s so great, because I feel like, you know, for anyone, especially in the plant world, you get this, this sensation right away of like, Oh, this is somebody who’s gonna help me think about how not to, like, hide, how not to, you know, put myself behind something.

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And, and in fact, I mean, a lot of your work is about authenticity, right, living your true essence and the fact that you are a being of nature and you also have a series of characteristics that, unfortunately, especially working with women, I’m sure, you know, so many of our chara- of our natural characteristics, of the things that make us us, kind of have been told that something is wrong with it.

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And I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine at lunch right before, you know, we’re here recording, that we were talking about how even in the world of conversation where we talk about, you know, like, enter into your feminine, we actually kind of, in the modern world, don’t really have a good definition or a good image of the feminine, because I feel like we’re coming out of an era where, you know, being a woman was about dainty and shrinking and all these pieces.And

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we don’t want to be the, like, strong woman that really is just a male in w- in a female body, and there’s this whole spectrum in between, between masculine and feminine that we’ve just never explored as archetypes.

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And so, I can imagine that in therapy, a lot of, you know, the authenticity issue is not even just, Oh, this thing happened to me, but, I don’t even know what this thing is supposed to look like.

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Like, what does it look like when I’m authentically me?

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I mean, do you find that these are some of the situations that you’re in?

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Yeah.

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So that is really an issue and I think it really is a sp- well, I’m gonna

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I don’t like to stereotype gender stuff.

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But- Right.

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I think for women, a lot of times, we get such strong messages about what we’re supposed to be that we get so lost.

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And I

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And so when we talk about authenticity, and it’s so i-

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I just did a little mini episode on this this morning, um, but it’s h-

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I think sometimes, we have an idea who we are or what we wanna be, or what message we have, or how we wanna be in the world, and then we second-guess it.

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Mm-hmm.

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And it

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And I think now, that the world is so much louder and there’s social media and we, we

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You know, I grew up in a time when there wasn’t social media, so your comparison, or your

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You

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We check ourselves.

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Like, Am I okay?

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Like, Here, I’ve done this thing, we look how other people react to us.

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Mm-hmm.

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And that’s how we sort of decide, Am I okay?

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Am I alienating people?

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But now, we are in this world where everything is public, or we feel like it should be public, or

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You know, so it’s this next layer.

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And there’s so many more messages coming in that I think it’s even more confusing, or we see other women and they look happy and healthy and they’re doing these things and it’s like, But I don’t feel like that, but we don’t know how much is actually true.

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Right.

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So I think, as a therapist, when someone comes to me, i- they’re often saying, Something’s wrong and I have no idea what, it’s typically a disconnect between their essential nature and the person they’re trying to be.

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And so then we can start to tease out, what do you naturally want?

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Who are you naturally?

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And how do we, um, start to connect to that and really validate that you’re okay just as you are?

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It doesn’t mean maybe you don’t wanna make some changes, kinda like, a plant might be okay, right?

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They might be surviving, but they wanna thrive, so maybe they start to

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They might flower less for a little bit, or they might reach toward the light, or they might want more shade.

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So, it’s really thinking about naturally, in your gut, what do you want, and then how do we make that happen and sort of separate that from

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And then here’s a therapy thing, the irrational belief.

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Right.

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Which is part of cognitive therapy, because our irrational beliefs are typically informed by society’s ideas, our family’s ideas, and they are, we call them irrational, and that word, I think, has been historically connected to, you know, women.

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You’re irrational, your emotions are irrational.

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So I try to qualify that word, that irrational really means something that isn’t based in fact.

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So I combine sort of that nature analogy with these different underpinnings of, let’s look at cognitively, is there evidence that your belief is true, that you’re too much for someone?

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Or you’re too loud, or you’re not producing enough.

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So that’s

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I s- it depends on the client, really, how mu- what I use.

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How we pursue it, what we, what we look at, but I, I always bring in that idea of nature to validate that you’re okay just exactly as you are.

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Right.

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Yeah, and I think that’s su- such an important part.

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I talk about

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I use the metaphor of the idea that, you know, these, these irrational beliefs, these limiting beliefs, uh, anything that is of that nature tends to be

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I call it the bodyguard that you put in, in place to protect you of some- from something and then forgot about.

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And then you went on and changed and modified and evolved and transformed and grew, and the bodyguard still remembers the old you.

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And so the bodyguard’s still doing what they were supposed to do.

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So probably there was some very short, small period in time where that belief maybe was useful for something or it was accurate, but it’s not accurate today and now you’ve gotta go and befriend the p- p- the bodyguard, so I always sc- I call it befriend your limiting beliefs.

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Like, you’ve gotta go and befriend the bodyguard and slide up to the bodyguard and say, Hey, why did I put you here?

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Like, What did I tell you was the danger?

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And when the bodyguard then tells you the danger, you’re like, does that danger still exist for me?

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And if it does, great.

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You stay.

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I need to go work on that.

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But if the danger doesn’t exist, then you can be like, Hey, I can now let you go.

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And the bodyguard’s like, You never told me when to go.

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And now they’re like, I know, that was my problem.

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Like, I, I, I put you in to protect some part of me that in reality today doesn’t need to be protected anymore.

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And I think we’re so out of touch with ourselves that we, we forget that, you know, as you said, I, I love that you brought up the analogy of, you know, there are times when a plant will stop blooming for a period of time because that plant is restoring energy, creating the right conditions, moving into a new space, uh, healing from a trauma.

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Like, there’s lots of reasons why a plant might not bloom temporarily.

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That doesn’t mean that the plant will never bloom.

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The plant has the opportunity to bloom in the future, but in that moment, the plant has evaluated, No, I’m not gonna put my energy into blooming, because I need to put my energy in other places.

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And I think that this is an important aspect for us to remember for ourselves, that as I’m doing this work of sliding up to that, you know, bodyguard, if that bel- belief bodyguard, or as I’m doing something to heal myself, it is okay not to bloom in that period of time.

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It’s okay for me to conver- to conserve my energy and focus it on other things.

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I don’t have to be always on, because like you said, always on is for some audience thing, and that’s, that’s not authentic.

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That’s not real.

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Reality is, we have cycles, and those cycles can be not just seasonal but also periodical.

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Like, the season of growing is very different from the season of restoring, like, or the season of adjusting.

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Like, these are all different periods of time, and I think it’s really important for us to focus on that kind of piece.

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For sure.

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And, you know, when you talk about the bodyguard, if we talk about our brain, that’s our amygdala, and our amygdala is, you know, part of our limbic system.

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It, it serves wonderful purposes, but the amygdala is a drama queen, and, uh, it’s the overprotective friend, kind of like you’re saying, that it’s very good at, when we’re young, looking at where’s the danger.

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Right.

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And then the amygdala generalizes, so then anything that slightly resembles maybe a way we were treated in our family or something that hurt us in the past, it reacts like the smoke detector going off when the toast is burning.

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The house is not- Right.

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burning down, but it overreacts.

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So, you know, one of the ways I think about putting that in context, because I tell people often, many people end up in therapy because what worked in the past doesn’t work anymore, and I look at people through positive psychology.

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So you’re not broken, you just survived what you had to survive in a certain way and it doesn’t work anymore.

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So- Right.

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to me, in the plant world, that’s like a plant growing in the shade and then we cut the tree down.

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And it’s like, Holy hell, like, what am I gonna do now?

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Because- Ha ha!

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oh, yeah.

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I, what I did to survive is not gonna work.

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Yep.

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Yeah, and- What is this thing that is burning me?

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Exactly.

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Oh wait, that’s what gives me food.

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Hold on.

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Yeah.

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Let me adjust.

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Give me a minute.

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Burn this piece over here while the rest of me figures it out.

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Sorry, I just got- Yeah.

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this image.

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Yeah.

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So, but yeah.

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For sure.

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For sure.

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And we keep trying to do the same thing and we’re dying, you know?

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And it’s, and it’s until we, some people have to burn so much of themselves before they realize, Oh, I- Mm-hmm.

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have roots, but I can also ambulate, so I’m gonna go to this other environment- Exactly.

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where, where I can thrive and just learn to do some things differently.

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Yeah, I love that and, and I can also imagine, too, like, we, we forget, once we start to study and understand how plants in particular react, we start to see a whole series of different capabilities within our own bodies.

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For example, we know that if you have a plant that, uh, grew up in a drought environment, they’re going to code that into the seeds.

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So if the plant has discovered how to deal and thrive in that more drought environment, even though it might, might have originally been a, a waterlogged plant or a plant that grew in like a rainforest or an area with a lot of water, that next generation will know what to do inherently.

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But what happens is that if you take then that next generation seed and put it back into the environment that originally existed, at first the plant’s gonna be like, Whoa, what’s with all this water?

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I don’t know how to deal with this water.

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And the plant’s gonna originally th- start to grow thinking that it’s in a drought environment, and it’s gonna take a little while before those extra genes, those, those past memories of, Oh wait a minute, my, my parents grew up in a drought but my grandparents didn’t, so therefore let me rather than”

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work with the, what I have turned on in this because this comes directly from my parents, I gotta reach farther back into what was good for my grandparents and turn that back on.

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That plasticity actually exists in us a lot more than we as humans think about, and it’s amazing how we’ve forgotten that we have that plasticity within us and that we can reach back into different parts of ourselves, that our genes are not all expressing themselves at once, that everything is not as it seems, but in reality, over time and with conscious, uh, awareness and with a focus, we can move things and

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adjust in different ways, even biologically speaking.

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And so, um, so it is this beautiful dance between the plasticity of our mind, which is way more flexible than we think it is, we’re just unfortunately very much focused on, like you said, the drama queen who takes over, because, you know, everybody gives attention to the drama queen.

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We don’t know why.

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And instead of really kind of reaching back and being like, Wait a minute, you know, this is, okay, this is who I am today, this is what is expressing itself in me today.

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Fine, I accept that.

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Now what?

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Now where do I go?

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And I think this goes back to a conversation we were just having right before I hit record, which is, um, kind of the, the places where there is an overlap between something like what you do as, as a therapist and something like what I do as a life coach and I know you also do coaching and so, you know, you have the benefit of being able to even be on both sides of things.

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But I think it’s really beautiful to share with everyone the fact that these 2 are not a or.

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You know, these can be an and type of stuff because people like me who do, you know, life coaching, I love helping you think about the future, but sometimes that future has pieces that are not just in the past but also, like you said, in the cognitive space that need to be evaluated with a certain level of expertise.

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And that’s when it’s better to work at that, with a therapist and you can work with both at the same time so that you can work through all of those cognitive pieces and those trauma pieces and whatever it is that it’s coming from in that world that might be in the past or might be still sitting in the present and then have that work be sort of handed off consciously from, you know, between yourself with the coach and the therapist to the coach to say, Okay, now how do I put in mechanisms to help me integrate

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this into my future in a way that is good for me and that helps me express myself, and all these types of things, where the coach is really thinking more about, Let me help you critically think about this.

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Let me help you, uh, explore it in a really wide present context.

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And I think that this is a really, um, important sort of partnership you might say, or throuple because in reality the person is in the middle, that we don’t talk about enough in our professions.

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We think we have to be a one-stop shop that does everything, but there is a lot of benefit to having both and to being able to focu- you know, focus in my sessions on this piece over here and then, you know, manage the overlap between the 2 in order for you to be able to flow between, you know, these aspects that need to be explored in one way and these that need to be implemented into the other.

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Do you find that also is something useful and that happens in your own practice?

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Oh, for sure.

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And, you know, we have a saying in therapy, Insight does not equal change.

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So, you know, I think sometimes there

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first of all, there are so many different, um, approaches to therapy and coaching, and so now that coaching is much more prevalent, I think at first it was sort of like, What, what’s going on with this?

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And, you know, the important thing to me is that somebody has training.

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You c- anybody can call themselves a coach, so I like to put a little asterisk there that, you know, anybody can say, I’m a coach, but you want to look at what are you getting?

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Like, what is the certification?

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How were they trained?

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But when we’re talking about this exploring the past versus the future, I’m gonna say it’s really specific to the client.

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You know, my biggest thing is when you’re looking

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So sometimes

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L- we’ll use w- we’ll look at trauma.

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When you’re looking at trauma, for me, the most important thing is somebody, first of all, understands how that informed who they are now.

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And there, of course, is a lot that can go with that, the- the offshoots of that, and again it goes back to the amygdala overreacting, is, do you have anxiety now that’s keeping you from doing what you want?

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So in therapy you can explore that, you know, and I think it also goes back to this idea of, who are you really?

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So if we look at, like, the sensitive plant, which is Mimosa pudica, that plant will

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If you touch it, it shrinks and it shrivels because then it doesn’t look appetizing to predators or somebody that might wanna eat it.

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So, you know, I have clients who often have shame around how they reacted when the trauma occurred.

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I should have done this, or, All I did was stay small.

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And, you know, I frame that like, you could no more change that trauma reaction in that moment than you could change your eye color right now.

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There is something built into us, and you talked about w- epigenetics, really, like, our genes are changed as we go through generations.

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It doesn’t mean we have to be that.

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It just is some

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You know, it’s changes that express themselves or not.

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So if we put it in that context of just appreciate that you did what you had to, you know, unlike jewelweed who, when you touch it, the seeds explode outward.

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So maybe you are a fighter, maybe you’re a fleer, maybe

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So there are ways that we react, but as- as humans, the beautiful part is, we can decide the next time, we are going to do something different.

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So that’s where this, first of all, understanding and helping a client or a student or wh- whomever you’re working with understand that what they did was okay, they did the best thing in that moment, and to have that grace for themselves, and then going forward, what does this mean?

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Are you keeping yourself small in certain situations?

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And then when we can tag team with a coach, because you would never have 2 therapists at a time, but I

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People can have a therapist and a coach.

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The communication is the biggest thing, because you wanna make sure it’s congruent.

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You’re sort of

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You know, or you can go back and forth, and I think that’s the beautiful thing.

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I know people that coaching works better for them than therapy.

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So I think it’s, you know, first of all, accepting that there’s no one right way for anyone to feel better and to sort of learn new skills, but then understanding that the insight doesn’t create the change, but a really powerful coaching situation and therapist work on future change too, but I think coaching is so goal focused, and that can be really, really impactful and powerful for certain clients.

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I love that.

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I love the whole way that you describe it, and I like that you bring in one of my favorite words, which I- I

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Which is grace.

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Giving yourself grace.

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I used to say permission and permission is still an important aspect of it, but I feel like grace is even more encompassing, because it is kind of giving yourself that- that space to say, Okay, that’s who

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This is who I am today.

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Who do I wanna be tomorrow?

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And not looking at it as in something is wrong, but more of just an awareness.

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Where am I?

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Because this is the only place I could be, right?

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It can’t be anywhere else than where I am right now.

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Whomever it is that I am today, I’m not gonna wake up tomorrow and magically be different, and like you said, insight, which I think is a beautiful way of saying it, doesn’t- doesn’t mean change necessarily.

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There are plenty.

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I always talk about how, you know, in my own progress even, and- and I see this in so many of my clients, we start off with the idea of getting to the comfortableness with the awareness, right?

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I am comfortable with this awareness.

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Oh my goodness, this is who I am.

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Like you said, I’m a jumper or I’m naturally anxious, or I’m somebody who instead, uh, immediately is contrary.

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Like, I tend to be contrary.

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I’m walking to a meeting and I’m already thinking of all the things they’re gonna say to me that I’m gonna be against.

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And- and then again, over time, as I got to a comfortable understanding that that’s how my mind works, I could then say, Okay, I need to build these pieces into my meeting, to the way I listen in the meeting to ensure that even if my mind is reacting with, Screw you, we’re not gonna do that, that’s not what’s coming out of my mouth, and it’s not what I truly believe.

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That’s my- my initial reaction.

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And so, for example, I have techniques like I write, I’ll often write as I’m

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I take a lot of notes or I doodle or something like that as I am in a meeting, and it helps me, 1, with retention, but it also helps me to process through, Okay, what’s my

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Because I’m a critic, my- my primary kind of dominant personality is critical, but the critical can come out like, No, but it can also come out as, I hear what you’re trying to do and now I get the project.

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Have you seen this situation over here?

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Could that be a- causing a problem?

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And then it comes out in a different way.

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So it doesn’t change my nature, the fact that I am critical.

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I can’t say to myself magically tomorrow, Do not react badly, but I can change the way that I use that information as it comes up in me and f- give it a direction that is useful, and I think that that’s one of those things we learn from plants, that every single way that we are, and I love the example of Mimosa pudica versus, you know, other types of explosive, you know, plants or the- the different ways we

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the, the different mechanisms for seeding out, that some are gliders and some are exploders and some are this, and the same does- with defense mechanisms.

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Some give you a burst of c- of compounds.

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Some of them instead will call in friends.

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Some of them instead are going to, like, shrink.

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And once we know what our true nature is, the way that we just naturally without any kind of thinking react, we can put pieces in place to understand, how do I use that going forward?

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And if it is a trauma response, I always tell people that there’s a very big difference between something you do to get away, to, like, avoid, versus something that is the way you are and that you use it towards another direction.

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It could be the exact same characteristic, but if you’re doing avoidance, then you need to work through that, why am I avoiding, versus, huh, this thing is not actually good for me so I’m gonna go and do this, but I’m coming out of it from awareness rather than fear.

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Ab- And so I love these examples that you’re giving with the plants.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, and it’s strategy.

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I think, you know, sometimes we get so busy feeling ashamed or, Why am I like this?

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I don’t wanna be like this, it’s like, but you are.

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So it serves you somehow.

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So as we go through life, sometimes we can think taking up my space means being defiant and stomping my foot, and maybe every now and then, but mostly it means, like you’re saying, I have this core, I know what I believe, but sometimes, like, leading with that isn’t going to get me where I wanna go.

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So I think once we sort of befriend that, we befriend that reaction, we understand, like, this is who I am, then it’s like, okay, now how am I gonna strategically use this to get what I need?

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I mean, we- we’re all trying to get what we need, but there’s ways to do it, and I think that, to me, is strategy.

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Mm-hmm.

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And so then it becomes not sort of I’m powerless, you know, against this essential nature.

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It’s like, no, this is a really cool part of me, but sometimes, you know, the, the cactuses spines don’t keep away things that we don’t want to keep away.

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Right.

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So yeah, I think that- I love that idea of as we learn, we do things.

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Like, you s- you write.

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Like, that sort of a buffer or taking a breath or as you’re sitting in a meeting, just recognizing, okay, my shoulders are in my ears.

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I’m just gonna let-

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them drop and nobody knows I’m unclenching my stomach-

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and just recognizing, like, what’s going on in my brain right now cause I am ranting at this person inside of me?

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Let me let that flow away and let me start to, to really focus and be in the moment and be strategic.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And u- and use it.

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Like, you know, in nature, everything has a purpose, right?

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There is no dump.

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There’s no place where I can just get rid of something.

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Everything gets used by somebody.

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And so the question is to learn how to use it, right?

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How do I master the fact that this is what I am?

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If I’m not good at this, how do I partner with somebody that is good a- with the- at this?

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If I have this reaction innately, how is it that I create those buffer zones so that then

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And then what am I getting out of that?

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Like, why is it that I react in this way?

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Obviously, there must be something that’s happening and that maybe there is a scin- a, a scintilla somewhere of truth or of understanding or of knowledge or maybe some sense that, that is picking something up that I still can’t understand, and so therefore, you know, if I tap into that plantness of my

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How do I see this through different eyes?

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And I think that this is one of those places where the line between plant as metaphor and plant as partner becomes really interesting to kind of fiddle with, where as metaphor, there’s a lot I can learn, right?

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There’s a lot of different techniques of, of different ways of looking at things, understanding how ecosystem dynamics work and why is it that these plants

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You know, why is it that parasitism can be useful, or when is the actual example of a predation being something that’s super important?

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of those.

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You, you’re right.

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And, uh, you know, I think to me, it’s just common sense, but again, let’s go back to what, what were we hundreds of years ago?

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We didn’t have

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first of all, we didn’t have all of our artificial light, but we also didn’t have screens.

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And what we don’t understand is, or what many people don’t understand, is that our hypothalamus is reacting to light when it’s helping us create melatonin.

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And we think, “Oh, I can get melatonin in a bottle.

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I’m just gonna take melatonin.”

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Ehh, no.

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Doesn’t work.

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first of all, the dose is usually wrong and your brain already makes it, and all you need to do

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And I don’t mean to make, to simplify this ’cause I know many people struggle dramatically with getting good sleep, but I can tell you simply how to start is get morning sunlight in your eyes, go out for 5 minutes at noon and try to see the sunset.

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Just try to, you know, get used to being out and getting that natural sunlight, and then start to kind of what you’re saying, like, “What is my natural rhythm?”

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But recognizing that first of all, you can’t just randomly go to bed whenever you want and expect to just

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I mean, in college I could do that.

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I can’t do it now.

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So, I think that is the first thing, and the other thing is n- nature is naturally an antidepressant.

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There’s antidepressant properties in soil.

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So, you know, again, we’re afraid.

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We, we hear these stories about bacteria in the soil and whatever, but I think starting small if you really wanna move toward that, there’s a great book called Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.

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And- Richard Louv’s the best.

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Yeah, and it talks about

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‘Cause I worked a lot in public schools when I first started my career, and we saw this increase in attention deficit, attention deficit disorder, and it’s like, duh.

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Like, now we have kids on phones changing what they’re looking at every 7 seconds.

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Your neurons are not made to process that.

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So, if we think about, again, hundreds of years ago, or even when I was a kid, I was outside most of the day doing one thing, being bored and finding something to do, I was in the woods.

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I found a patch of woods and I would just be there under a tree reading a book.

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I naturally did that.

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I didn’t have social media telling me, “You’re so weird because you’re doing that.”

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It was just what I wanted to do.

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So, I think trying to reconnect to that even if you find

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Go to a public garden and walk through that garden, breathe, and look at what i- what flowers do you identify with?

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Because I can tell you every gardener has a color palette, they have a flower shape, they have some, uh, uh, you know, a growing habit.

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What does the foliage look like?

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I have my favorite plants and they’re not always the easiest to grow as a gardener.

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Sometimes they’re a pain in my ass-

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but there’s something that I respond to.

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So, I know you have people

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I think I’m gonna

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I think I’m right about this.

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You sort of have them get a plant companion, right?

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Mm-hmm.

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And really observe that.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I think we can start if, especially if there’s some fear with nature or, you know, whatever it might be, but go to somewhere that’s “a little bit safer.”

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Go to a public garden.

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Just walk through and observe, and, like, pay attention to your gut.

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What do you look at that you respond to?

349
00:39:50,980 –> 00:39:57,300
Are you in a shade garden with a bunch of ferns and you just, like, decompress when you see that?

350
00:39:57,300 –> 00:40:03,960
Or do you go to the sun garden and see these echinacea and the Shasta daisies and it’s like, “Oh, my God.

351
00:40:03,960 –> 00:40:06,099
I love this bright, hot color.”

352
00:40:06,099 –> 00:40:12,920
That starts to give you some clues about what do you need to build into your life more.

353
00:40:12,920 –> 00:40:18,174
Mary, let me just take a very quick pause and introduce one of our eco-conscious business partners.

354
00:40:19,900 –> 00:40:26,384
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.

355
00:40:26,960 –> 00:40:33,840
This very music is what’s sparked my own plant reawakening, guiding me to reconnect with nature in an entirely new way.

356
00:40:34,434 –> 00:40:41,328
Imagine listening to the harmonious melodies of your plant companions and feeling their wisdom and presence through the language of music.

357
00:40:41,980 –> 00:40:47,184
It’s an experience that has transformed my life and the lives of so many other people.

358
00:40:47,860 –> 00:40:59,820
If you’re curious about the hidden songs of plants and wanna connect to your plant friends in a completely new way, I invite you to discover more at tigrea.com/musicoftheplants.

359
00:40:59,820 –> 00:41:01,180
It’s in the show notes.

360
00:41:01,180 –> 00:41:06,060
Plant music is great for healing, sharing, and personal connection.

361
00:41:06,060 –> 00:41:12,222
Let’s continue our journey of personal evolution and plant consciousness together with the songs of plants.

362
00:41:13,320 –> 00:41:13,881
Ooh, I love that.

363
00:41:13,881 –> 00:41:14,740
I love that.

364
00:41:14,740 –> 00:41:15,540
I love that.

365
00:41:15,540 –> 00:41:18,180
Especially since I’ve got cactus and

366
00:41:18,180 –> 00:41:20,000
cacti and aloes.

367
00:41:20,000 –> 00:41:20,840
Like that’s just

368
00:41:20,840 –> 00:41:22,280
that tells you something about me.

369
00:41:22,280 –> 00:41:24,400
I’m like just all freaking green.

370
00:41:24,400 –> 00:41:25,280
There’s a very few

371
00:41:25,280 –> 00:41:31,380
there is, there are a few flowering plants in my house and most of the ones that flower are either, you know, white or like I said, aloe

372
00:41:31,380 –> 00:41:32,440
Actually that’s not true.

373
00:41:32,440 –> 00:41:35,800
Jana flowers in orange, so the, the aloe.

374
00:41:35,800 –> 00:41:37,340
So but, but I totally

375
00:41:37,340 –> 00:41:40,620
I love that and I do think it says so much and it helps us so much.

376
00:41:40,620 –> 00:41:46,768
I think about that sometimes my own when I go to like botanical gardens, I always end up sitting kind of in

377
00:41:47,680 –> 00:41:59,440
I, I realize like you said, we all gravitate naturally to certain areas and, and I love sitting there and consciously saying to myself like, What is this, you know, what is this reflecting of me?

378
00:41:59,440 –> 00:42:04,920
Um, and I just recently in July taught a class called Enhance Plant Communication.

379
00:42:04,920 –> 00:42:06,240
It’s a 3hour workshop.

380
00:42:06,240 –> 00:42:08,620
It’s a series I do called Reconnect with Plant

381
00:42:08,620 –> 00:42:15,070
with, um, Plant Kin and they’re at the last Saturday of every month I do these 3hour workshops.

382
00:42:16,098 –> 00:42:20,020
And the one of enhanced plant, um, plant communication we had

383
00:42:20,020 –> 00:42:22,600
I had a person in the class who was an animal communicator.

384
00:42:22,600 –> 00:42:23,239
I didn’t know this at the beginning.

385
00:42:23,239 –> 00:42:23,600
And it was so cute because at the end she was like, You know, I came here expecting this to be, you know, very similar to the techniques that everybody’s talking about, you know, drop into your heart and I’m not like that.

386
00:42:23,600 –> 00:42:25,760
She was new to our group.

387
00:42:35,400 –> 00:42:37,360
I don’t, I don’t do that, that kind of stuff.

388
00:42:37,360 –> 00:42:48,140
Instead I was like having them, taking them on these deep journeys through other worlds and ending up in what are you, my plant ally that I’m working with, what are you reflecting of me?

389
00:42:48,140 –> 00:42:51,620
Like what am I seeing in myself when I look at you?

390
00:42:51,620 –> 00:42:53,680
And I think that’s very connected to what you just said.

391
00:42:53,680 –> 00:43:00,440
If you gravitate naturally to some plants, what is it that those plants are, are reflecting back to you?

392
00:43:00,440 –> 00:43:14,684
What parts of your understanding of self, your psyche, your, your way of doing things, your, your deep understandings can you understand or can you come into contact with that you might not be able to safely come into contact by coming into the human side?

393
00:43:14,684 –> 00:43:24,260
I often talk about how what I love working with plants is that it sort of takes me out of my animalness, my, my human animalness for a second.

394
00:43:24,260 –> 00:43:36,320
It allows me to kind of walk into the presence of being of my plantness and then come back into my humanness from a different angle and it just gives you an opportunity to see things in a completely different way.

395
00:43:36,320 –> 00:43:46,280
And I like the idea of if you’re naturally being pulled to, you know, more, uh, temperate areas and you love really going into these types of part

396
00:43:46,280 –> 00:44:02,340
or every time you go to the park the first thing you do like I do, which is take my shoes off and, and it doesn’t matter, there could be beautiful like trees of all sorts and I’m like on the ground staring at the grasses going, Hmm, how many different kinds of plants are down here?

397
00:44:02,340 –> 00:44:04,160
Like that’s just who I am.

398
00:44:04,160 –> 00:44:07,040
I look at the small and that’s how I am in real life.

399
00:44:07,040 –> 00:44:09,320
I love looking at the details.

400
00:44:09,320 –> 00:44:10,720
Get me into the details.

401
00:44:10,720 –> 00:44:13,140
Show me how these things fit together.

402
00:44:13,140 –> 00:44:24,160
Help me understand how is it that you’re all getting along, what are the relationships between you that you’re all sitting here squished up together and you’ve got like a little daisy over here and this beautiful

403
00:44:24,160 –> 00:44:26,040
like all these different wild grasses.

404
00:44:26,040 –> 00:44:27,380
They’re not the same species.

405
00:44:27,380 –> 00:44:30,340
I love that and it, it is a reflection of who I am.

406
00:44:30,340 –> 00:44:40,656
It’s what I, what I gravitate towards the more mixed up the group is and that’s why even in Damanhur I’m one of, you know, the person responsible for the international, like the whole idea of how do we really be out in the world as initiates.

407
00:44:40,656 –> 00:44:56,660
And so I think this is such a great exercise to, to just sort of play into and to, to be a little bit more, um, playful in the way that you look at yourself, understand yourself like you said.

408
00:44:56,660 –> 00:45:02,020
And I think that’s probably, I’m taking a wild guess, why you said live like a plant is the direction that you’re doing.

409
00:45:02,020 –> 00:45:05,800
Can you tell us a little bit more about your philosophy around like live like a plant?

410
00:45:05,800 –> 00:45:09,300
I know you even now have like a little quiz that you’ve created around this.

411
00:45:09,300 –> 00:45:10,580
Tell, tell us more.

412
00:45:10,580 –> 00:45:11,360
Yeah.

413
00:45:11,360 –> 00:45:20,176
So as I developed as a gardener and started to really see how different plants adapted and had their own

414
00:45:20,800 –> 00:45:34,080
um, ways of being and I just started to introduce it into therapy and talk to people about it and it seemed to so much resonate and I would find myself often saying, So like a plant

415
00:45:34,080 –> 00:45:36,620
and I would give these examples.

416
00:45:36,620 –> 00:45:40,540
So I got it into my head I’m gonna write a book called Live Like a Plant.

417
00:45:40,540 –> 00:45:48,140
And so I’m in the process of writing, which is a bear, if- um, so, you know, trying to be consistent with that.

418
00:45:48,140 –> 00:45:53,300
But it’s basically, first of all, looking at defining what is essential nature?

419
00:45:53,300 –> 00:46:07,920
And talking a little bit about some of the things I talked about that, you know, we all have instinctive ways of reacting to the world that are informed by our genetics, but also a little bit by our environment, and then it’s broken down into ch- into 8 chapters.

420
00:46:07,920 –> 00:46:11,060
So I look at, like, what are your roots and nutrients?

421
00:46:11,060 –> 00:46:13,500
And so we have, like, a dandelion with a deep tap root.

422
00:46:13,500 –> 00:46:24,320
Do you go deep into your environment and, you know, you’ve, maybe you’ve lived the same place for 30 years, or do you have more, are you, do you have adventitious roots?

423
00:46:24,320 –> 00:46:29,180
You know, do you sort of get things from the environment in a different way?

424
00:46:29,180 –> 00:46:31,520
Or I look at, um, pollinators.

425
00:46:31,520 –> 00:46:34,279.99999999953434
Like, what sustains you?

426
00:46:34,279.99999999953434 –> 00:46:35,720.0000000004657
Um, your bloom time.

427
00:46:35,720.0000000004657 –> 00:46:37,180
How are you unique?

428
00:46:37,180 –> 00:46:39,220.00000000046566
So if we look at, like, the corpse flower.

429
00:46:39,220.00000000046566 –> 00:46:46,660
You know, the, the big, huge, 12-foot tall that smells like rotting garbage but people come from miles around when it blooms.

430
00:46:46,660 –> 00:46:48,080
It hardly blooms.

431
00:46:48,080 –> 00:46:50,040
You know, every few years.

432
00:46:50,040 –> 00:46:51,779.9999999995343
But we don’t say

433
00:46:51,779.9999999995343 –> 00:46:54,420
We don’t look at that and say, Oh my God, it’s so lazy.

434
00:46:54,420 –> 00:46:56,279.99999999953434
It blooms like once every

435
00:46:56,279.99999999953434 –> 00:46:58,080
We see it’s gargantuan.

436
00:46:58,080 –> 00:47:12,300
It’s amazing, and so if we can apply some of these things to our own lives, like, we need specific nutrients, we wanna attach to our environment in a unique way, we have a specific way we give our gifts.

437
00:47:12,300 –> 00:47:23,400
You know, I have plants that will bloom all summer, but then we have bulbs who do an amazing display and then they die back and we don’t see em for months and we don’t say, Look at that tulip.

438
00:47:23,400 –> 00:47:24,779.9999999995343
It’s not doing its thing.

439
00:47:24,779.9999999995343 –> 00:47:26,700
It is i- doing its thing.

440
00:47:26,700 –> 00:47:36,000
So it’s really looking the whole 360 view of a plant and helping, first of all, people identify, What is my essential nature?

441
00:47:36,000 –> 00:47:39,120
And then, Are there things where I want to adapt or I need to adapt?

442
00:47:39,120 –> 00:47:41,340
Is my climate zone okay?

443
00:47:41,340 –> 00:47:48,320
You know, a dandelion can grow and grow in, like, zones 3 to 11, but does it grow the same in all of those zones?

444
00:47:48,320 –> 00:47:49,220.00000000046566
Not really.

445
00:47:49,220.00000000046566 –> 00:47:53,260
So maybe we have a tropical zone and you sort of talked about temperate.

446
00:47:53,260 –> 00:47:56,900
Are we trying to grow in, you know

447
00:47:56,900 –> 00:47:58,38.99999999953434
I’ll say United Stated.

448
00:47:58,38.99999999953434 –> 00:48:02,100
We’re trying to grow in an Alaska zone when we really are a Florida plant.

449
00:48:02,100 –> 00:48:10,340
So different things like that really helping people with examples not just from the plant world but from my clients, from my own life.

450
00:48:10,340 –> 00:48:11,538.9999999995343
Just a fun

451
00:48:11,538.9999999995343 –> 00:48:18,860
Even if it’s not somebody who’s like, Oh, I love plants, I think it’s in our bodies to respond.

452
00:48:18,860 –> 00:48:20,860
So that’s the book I’m working on.

453
00:48:20,860 –> 00:48:21,720.0000000004657
So I just

454
00:48:21,720.0000000004657 –> 00:48:22,120
It’s

455
00:48:22,120 –> 00:48:29,700
I put together a little quiz looking at all of those areas and it really, it’s not one of those with there’s a big answer key and here’s what you have to do.

456
00:48:29,700 –> 00:48:40,559
It’s really to help people look at all this different, you know, the way these things express themselves in their own lives and then is there one area I wanna start to focus on?

457
00:48:40,559 –> 00:48:48,080
If I feel like I’m in a job where there’s a lot of attention, the heat is very high, there’s

458
00:48:48,080 –> 00:48:50,060
You know, it’s a lot of pressure.

459
00:48:50,060 –> 00:48:57,140
Some people respond to that and they produce and I think of that like a sunflower who can get 10 hours of sun in a day.

460
00:48:57,140 –> 00:49:03,540
But other people, they need some coolness, they need a little bit of shade, they need some distance from people, they

461
00:49:03,540 –> 00:49:14,040
Maybe they’re more introverted, but they’re trying to live in a way cause, again, we get a message that if you’re an introvert you’re weird and that’s so not true.

462
00:49:14,040 –> 00:49:17,779.9999999995343
It’s so opposite of what an introvert really is.

463
00:49:17,779.9999999995343 –> 00:49:28,819
So just looking at all of these ways of being and honoring them just, you know, because that’s who you are but then looking to s- like we talked, strategically, is there one area?

464
00:49:28,819 –> 00:49:30,300
Like, do I wanna have

465
00:49:30,300 –> 00:49:32,279.99999999953434
Do I wanna develop my root system?

466
00:49:32,279.99999999953434 –> 00:49:38,400
Am I feeling like I need to reach out more to different sources of sustenance or nourishment?

467
00:49:38,400 –> 00:49:39,699
So it’s kinda that.

468
00:49:39,699 –> 00:49:42,560
It’s a f- it’s really fun for me and it just

469
00:49:42,560 –> 00:49:49,840
It echoes, like, so congruently in my heart with what I wanna do and what I feel like people respond to.

470
00:49:50,860 –> 00:50:11,880
And one of the things I really love is that, um, in the way that you’re describing this is that one part of it is finding your essential nature and the other part of it, which I feel like you’re well qualified to do, and I think that this is important to do it with somebody who’s qualified, is, okay, what of that do I want to modify and why am I wanting to modify that?

471
00:50:11,880 –> 00:50:13,880
Because again, if I wanna

472
00:50:13,880 –> 00:50:17,180
If I’m a, a naturally introverted person and

473
00:50:17,180 –> 00:50:19,180
Like, for example, I’m an extroverted introvert.

474
00:50:19,180 –> 00:50:20,960
Like, I am

475
00:50:20,960 –> 00:50:26,813
I love to be i- in public for, for a period of time and then I have to retreat.

476
00:50:26,813 –> 00:50:31,980
I definitely have those super sensitive sort of principles in me, and- and I can go.

477
00:50:31,980 –> 00:50:38,860
And I can even go for a fair amount of time, but- but the longer the time, the more my alone time afterwards needs to be.

478
00:50:38,860 –> 00:50:53,100
And that alone time is usually spent in a very kind of, you know, i- very, very lazyish, intimate sort of way for me, you know, because I’ve learned over time that that’s who I am and I’m very comfortable with.

479
00:50:53,100 –> 00:50:58,820
Now, that being said, there are moments when I recognize, okay, even though today is a day where I need to, you know

480
00:50:58,820 –> 00:51:04,280
where I’d love to just be at home and not go anywhere, I know I need to go over there, so what are the skills that I wanna learn?

481
00:51:04,280 –> 00:51:29,340
But, you know, doing that because I feel like the benefits of whatever it is that I’m supposed to go do outweigh what I would feel, um, if I stayed home and I didn’t do anything versus really understanding myself and saying, No, no matter how cool this thing is to go out, today is definitely a day where I should just stay home, because again, the benefits are gonna outweigh, you know, the- what I- what I will feel and experience afterwards if I don’t listen to myself.

482
00:51:29,340 –> 00:51:49,460
I feel like this is the delicate world where having and working with somebody specifically, as a therapist or somebody even like me who is, you know, a- both a certified coach as well as somebody with deep experience in these types of things, is really important, because it is a small fine line.

483
00:51:49,460 –> 00:51:52,820
You have to first break through the conditioning.

484
00:51:52,820 –> 00:52:12,760
You have to get to the place of complete self-acceptance to then be able to evaluate the things that are happening and put the strategies in place that are not coming from a sense of guilt, or because society tells me to, or because, you know, something is gonna go wrong, or whatever that might be.

485
00:52:12,760 –> 00:52:19,980
Like, it’s just such a delicate balance, and I feel like that’s why something like what you’re talking about is important.

486
00:52:19,980 –> 00:52:49,040
When you start to get to that understanding, when you feel like you can’t see why you’re doing things, when you can’t see your motivation clearly, when you- when you’re- you’re feeling like you’re in the grips of that conditioning, why it’s better to work one-on-one with somebody who can help you just explore that in different ways, so that your essential nature truly does shine through, and then the strategies you put in place are because of that plasticity, right?

487
00:52:49,040 –> 00:52:51,520
Like, Let me mess with my epigenetics.

488
00:52:51,520 –> 00:52:57,968
Rather than, Oh, but society tells me that introverts are bad, so therefore just wanna learn how to not be an introvert.

489
00:52:59,460 –> 00:52:59,629
Doesn’t work.

490
00:52:59,629 –> 00:52:59,629
No.

491
00:52:59,629 –> 00:52:59,956
No.

492
00:53:00,390 –> 00:53:00,880
No.

493
00:53:00,880 –> 00:53:01,500
Doesn’t work.

494
00:53:01,500 –> 00:53:02,920
No.

495
00:53:02,920 –> 00:53:02,954
No.

496
00:53:02,954 –> 00:53:02,954
No.

497
00:53:02,954 –> 00:53:03,760
No.

498
00:53:03,760 –> 00:53:04,320
And I think

499
00:53:04,320 –> 00:53:09,720
You know, we- we talk about climate change, and I think sometimes our climate’s changing in our life, but it

500
00:53:09,720 –> 00:53:11,560
sometimes it happens so gradually- Mm-hmm.

501
00:53:11,560 –> 00:53:12,580
and plants

502
00:53:12,580 –> 00:53:22,160
When the climate changes, there are plants that can’t grow anymore in that climate, and if they do well, they can actually migrate through seeds- Right.

503
00:53:22,160 –> 00:53:31,020
or different things to different areas, but I think when we recognize that, and it’s sort of like putting the lobster in the water and turning up the heat, it doesn’t even know.

504
00:53:31,020 –> 00:53:40,740
So sometimes I think when we can step back with someone like you’re talking about and say, Oh my God, I’ve had so many losses in the last 3 years, that’s why I’m not thriving.

505
00:53:40,740 –> 00:53:51,000
And many plants, they just try to survive, but we can look at plants, especially when we know what they’re supposed to look like, and be like, Oh, that’s really struggling, but we don’t always

506
00:53:51,000 –> 00:53:55,883
We know how we feel, but I think being able to look at, Oh my God, all these things have changed, and then when we start to address it, what you’re talking about, this capacity to make judgments about, What should I do?

507
00:54:04,600 –> 00:54:07,080
instead of just, I’m avoiding the whole world- Right.

508
00:54:07,080 –> 00:54:10,500
it’s like I’m- I’ve nurtured these things now.

509
00:54:10,500 –> 00:54:14,240
I’m in a- in w- a more solid soil that’s giving me what I need.

510
00:54:14,240 –> 00:54:17,031
Now I have the capacity to choose- Mm-hmm.

511
00:54:17,031 –> 00:54:23,820
to sometimes say, I’m not engaging here, but this is where there’s gonna be some things that outweigh- Right.

512
00:54:23,820 –> 00:54:27,760
maybe this sort of instinct to- to hide or retreat.

513
00:54:27,760 –> 00:54:29,580
And that’s really important to realize.

514
00:54:29,580 –> 00:54:31,860
You won’t always feel this way.

515
00:54:31,860 –> 00:54:38,174
It’s just getting the information and finding somebody to help you figure out how to make the changes you need to.

516
00:54:38,690 –> 00:54:38,919
I love that.

517
00:54:38,919 –> 00:54:40,460
I love that so much.

518
00:54:40,460 –> 00:54:44,279.99999999953434
Mary, this has been such a delightful conversation.

519
00:54:44,279.99999999953434 –> 00:54:48,260
Before we s- wrap it all up, I’d love for people to know, h- how do they get in touch with you?

520
00:54:48,260 –> 00:54:55,024
How do- how do they hear about your podcast and the work that you’re doing and maybe if they wanna reach out to you about potentially working together?

521
00:54:55,540 –> 00:54:56,440
Yes.

522
00:54:56,440 –> 00:55:02,460
So my website is maryrothwell.net, and I’m guessing it’ll be in the show notes, so they can click on it.

523
00:55:02,460 –> 00:55:03,620
Absolutely.

524
00:55:03,620 –> 00:55:04,752
Absolutely.

525
00:55:04,752 –> 00:55:11,680
Um, and my podcast is No Shrinking Violets, which you can find everywhere, but there is a podcast tab on my website.

526
00:55:11,680 –> 00:55:26,460
And if you wanna go directly to my little plant quiz, it’s L-L-A-P quiz, so it’s maryrothwell.net/ for Live Like a Plant, L-L-A-P quiz, and you can access that there.

527
00:55:26,460 –> 00:55:32,048
And there’s also a link if you wanna schedule a consultation with me to talk about working with me.

528
00:55:32,600 –> 00:55:33,200
Beautiful.

529
00:55:33,200 –> 00:55:37,800
I will make sure all of that is in the show notes, so that people can find you quickly.

530
00:55:37,800 –> 00:55:41,980
And I just want to really thank you for this conversation.

531
00:55:41,980 –> 00:55:54,200
I feel like these are the types of conversations that for so many of us we need to be having, and I love the idea of getting into your, you know, I call it your true nature, you call it your essential nature, but I think it’s the exact same thing- Yeah.

532
00:55:54,200 –> 00:56:01,831
which is who am I at a deep level and how do I accept who I am, and then from there decide the direction that I wanna take?

533
00:56:01,831 –> 00:56:05,920
And I love that you’re taking your clients through this journey.

534
00:56:05,920 –> 00:56:06,161
Thank you so much.

535
00:56:06,161 –> 00:56:06,161
Mm-hmm.

536
00:56:06,161 –> 00:56:15,140
And for everybody listening, if you enjoyed this conversation, as I said, go find Mary and her podcast, uh, in the show notes.

537
00:56:15,140 –> 00:56:21,000
But also, if you wanna have a place where you have these types of conversations, come into the Naturally Conscious community.

538
00:56:21,000 –> 00:56:34,380
We all need a safe space for our nature-inspired exploration and as well as a place where we can bring plants into the conversation and go deeper and explore wider than we can on we own.

539
00:56:34,380 –> 00:56:35,360
W- we need community.

540
00:56:35,360 –> 00:56:36,760
We all need community to do this.

541
00:56:36,760 –> 00:56:45,900
And if instead you feel like you’re at a place where you really wanna have that one-on-one support, please reach out either to Mary or to myself, depending on what you’re looking for.

542
00:56:45,900 –> 00:56:48,060
I’m sure we would love to help you.

543
00:56:48,060 –> 00:56:49,840
So that’s it for this episode.

544
00:56:49,840 –> 00:56:50,760
I hope you enjoyed it.

545
00:56:50,760 –> 00:56:54,736
Remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance.

546
00:56:57,120 –> 00:57:00,496
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Reconnect With Plant Wisdom.

547
00:57:00,962 –> 00:57:11,376
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 otherkin.

548
00:57:11,960 –> 00:57:21,360
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.

549
00:57:22,020 –> 00:57:27,240
Connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life.

550
00:57:27,240 –> 00:57:32,420
Intro and outro music by Steve Shouly and Poinsetta from The Singing Life of Plants.

551
00:57:32,420 –> 00:57:35,920
That’s it for me, Tigress Gardena, and my plant collaborators.

552
00:57:35,920 –> 00:57:40,144
Until next time, remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance.

553
00:57:40,740 –> 00:57:41,260
I’m out.

554
00:57:41,260 –> 00:57:42,046
Bye.