Tending Your Inner Garden | Self-Trust & Sustainable Growth — Sacred Vessels

A fertile analogy 🌱

Reader, what are your big, hairy, audacious goals?

What do you dream about bringing to life? What does your future look like in the gorgeous utopia of your mind?

I’d bet almost anything you have career and financial goals. Something you want to be doing that fulfills your sense of purpose in life, and a salary point at which you’d like to be doing it.

There’s probably a relationship goal or two in there. You’d like to get married, or perhaps you’d like to get divorced! Both are valid goals when they stand to improve your wellbeing and overall happiness.

You might also have goals around your friendships, your living situation, even traveling the world and experiencing it all.

And…you definitely have health and wellness goals.

Maybe you want to feel better in your body—whether that’s related to shifting your body composition, adjusting your movement routine or simply having more energy.

Maybe you want to change your eating habits or feel more ease around meal planning and prep. You keep telling yourself you’ll eat more veggies because you know they’re good for you (how annoying), but you’re not sure where to start.

Maybe you want to sleep better. You’ve heard that eight hours per night is ideal and you’re only an hour or so short so you think you could get there if you could…just…stop…scrolling…

Maybe you aren’t so sure on this one, though.

You’re happy with the way your body looks and feels. You eat pretty well. You manage to get a decent night of sleep most nights. You even like your job, thank you very much, and it doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out on the daily (braggadocious).

But I’ll double down on betting almost anything that, when you visualize your future, there are a few things you’re including that you might not have consciously considered as variables.

For example, I bet you:

Picture yourself growing into old age
Plan on maintaining your mobility and physical function
Imagine yourself with a sharp, lucid mind
See yourself surrounded by loving relationships
Hope to be engaging meaningfully with life

These are all…drumroll please…health and wellness goals!

I picture all of these things for myself too. And what getting cancer at age 25 taught me is that none of these milestones are actually guaranteed.

While we can’t control the future—we can’t even control everything in the present, damn it—there are some things we most certainly can control that will play a huge role in how these future visions play out.

The lifestyle we choose to live today dictates how tomorrow will unfold. And the seeds we plant with our beliefs and behaviors can blossom into very different types of flowers, depending on the quality of the soil and how intentionally the garden is tended.

Now I’m a sucker for a good analogy, so let’s unpack this a little bit more 🌱

Your life is like tending a garden. And your health and wellness-related habits and practices are the care and support your garden needs to grow and thrive.

Sometimes, you inherit a plot of land you didn’t choose—conditions shaped by upbringing, trauma, culture, circumstance.

Because of this, the garden may at first appear neglected and wildly overgrown—protecting itself with thorns and brambles.

Sometimes, the garden looks fine on the surface but, underneath, the soil is depleted and dry.

And sometimes, you inherit a lush plot, you’ve been doing “all the right things” to foster growth, and yet your seeds still aren’t blooming the way you hoped.

The work, then, isn’t about forcing growth regardless of circumstances.

But the work is yours to do.

It starts with paying attention. It’s about understanding what’s already there, identifying what needs nourishment, what needs to be pruned to encourage new growth and—perhaps most excitingly—what wants to be planted next.

Tending a garden takes time and effort. It can be hard work, and it can also be incredibly satisfying and rewarding work.

There will always be weeds to pull, pests to deter and occasional blights to treat. No garden is immune to the workings of the natural world. No garden is perfect.

And when the work feels like a lot, calling in support (read: a coach…like me 👩🏻‍🌾) is like a gaining a second set of eyes. An experienced companion who knows the seasons, the native flora, the soil composition—and who can help you see your own landscape more clearly.

Coaching is fertilizer, baby!

The natural world exists in seasons and cycles—and so do we. If you live in a body with a menstrual cycle, this is literally so true it’s not even funny.

When we honor that truth, the work of wellbeing becomes less about control and more about cultivation.

It becomes a ritual of tuning into and honoring each of our seasons—both those of growth and of rest; of outer and inner tending.

So whether you already have a clear vision of what you want to grow, or you simply know that the soil needs attention, there is expansive power in choosing to engage with your garden more intentionally.

And when you harness the flow of your inner cycles and seasons, over time, you can cultivate the garden of your dreams.

Your own personal Eden, if you will.