JollyLife Coaching

What has been happening over the last few months

Hi again,
Keeping up with the blog is quite hard for me. Between looking after elderly parents, keeping in touch with grownup kids, of course coaching my gorgeous clients (always a joy) and trying to find time to improve my creative skills via my botanical art. Of course their was always that two weeks rest and relaxation that my husband and I had in June. That took up some time all that eating great indonesian food, swimming in the wonderful pool right outside our private villa. Reading lots of books and generally enjoying the wonderful climate in Bali. So as you can see I have had my hands full, well that is my excuse. I was going so well posting every week or nearly every week then life catches you up. Love to hear from some of my regular readers what have you been doing over the last few months.

The above post reminded me so much of the loves in my life gardens, nature, flowers and people. As I look very carefully at the nature that I am trying to create this reminds me so much of people I meet.

As you are drawing then painting a flower or bamboo or whatever it may be so many changes can take place in that specimen all in about half an hour. Once you cut the specimen from its roots it changes, just when you thought you had drawn how you thought that plant was meant to be you look at it again and so much has changed, the perspective you have looked from, the way it draws itself to the light. It droops when there is not enough water given to it. Sometimes we can try to draw nature without giving it the nourishment it needs to continue to thrive.

In my early stages I just wanted to draw and I didn't consider the environment the plant or specimen needed to be in. Needless to say it died before my very eyes and in a very small space of time.

This is not unlike us as people is it? We all need nourishment constantly. When we are cut from our spiritual roots how much do we survive. How much nourishment is needed for us to live our lives to the fullest.  So we are not unlike plants and the nutrition and nourishment that they need to blossom and gives us their best.

Would love to hear some comments from others about the similarities we have with plants.

love Elly

The Top 10 Similarities between helping People to Grow and Growing a Flower Garden

Analogies between the way in which plants and people grow are common. We say that someone is 'blossoming.' A child may be described as 'growing like a weed.' Perhaps the analogies are more than just metaphoric. The skills and qualities needed for growing plants seem to transfer to growing people. Most central of all is the need for patience.

 

1.  Plants need the sun the way people need love.

Some can live with less, some need more, but that's their nature. There is no point in telling them to 'toughen up.' If they need it in order to thrive, then they need it.

2.  Plants thrive in light, people thrive in the knowledge that they matter.

To know that their actions have some effect, that they have some significance to someone, somewhere is food that everyone needs.

3.  Both need to be able to grow and expand.

One constituent of fertilizer is nitrogen, essential for growth. This can be seen as similar to the knowledge and skills with which people's minds and abilities need to be nourished.

4.  Both need to establish themselves and know where they are.

Another part of fertilizer is phosphorus, which helps the plants to develop roots, flowers, and seeds. Just as nitrogen is useless to plants unless they have the roots that enable them to remain grounded and stable, so knowledge and ability are of little use to people unless they can develop the self-confidence needed to use them.

5. Plants need moisture if they are to stand upright. People need  encouragement.

Without moisture, plants cannot lift the nutrients into their cells. They become weak and cannot even stand upright, or they become brittle and break easily. Similarly, people need encouragement, affirmation. Even the most self-confident people eventually lose heart if there is nobody who believes in them. Without that they weaken and cannot hold up their heads in the world, or else they become bitter, cynical, and brittle.

6.  Both need room to grow.

Plants can be smothered by weeds and other growth that crowds in on them. People can be smothered by negativity, pressures, and boundary invaders.

7.  The early days are the most fragile.

When plants are new, having not yet established roots and strength, they need a great deal of tending and protection. People, particularly children, who have not yet learned to set boundaries and to deal with pressure and negativity for themselves also, need to be tended and protected by those around them.

8.  Less tending is needed as time goes by.

Stronger, tougher plants, well-established, can withstand more, so that the gardener can safely give them less time and protection. The same goes for people.

9.  Self-sufficiency comes with time.

These better established plants can even find their own nutrients and moisture, for they have learned to put their roots down deep into their environment, and their branches high to the sun, to seek them. People can also learn to find their own nutriments, to take responsibility for getting their own needs satisfied, create their own affirmations of worth.

10.  It takes time for both plants and people to reach their potential.

Plants take time to grow in beauty, to fulfill the potential given them by their genetic heritage and enabled by their environment. Given the right care and environment, and time, a stringy little sliver of a plant can become a strong, healthy and even useful contributor, a joy to behold. People also.