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Have you ever spent time in the tropics? It is lush everywhere. Abundant! Plant life cannot be stopped! It takes over in no time – even in the city. Everything is fertile, constantly changing and it is practically effortless to get things to grow.
Every summer, I spend several months in Southeast Asia, in Taiwan and Singapore. During this time I discover, again and again, some of Mother Nature’s secret teachings from these tropical environments:
Think about it: a tree produces enough oxygen for not one, but two people for an entire year. If you have just one fruit tree in your backyard, it produces more fruit than your family can eat and you end up sharing it with friends or neighbors.
Increasingly in modern day life, there are a few habits we engage in on a daily basis that hold us back from wild expansion and total abundance. By following the example of Mother Nature, along with cultivating a little more awareness, we can change those habits and embrace abundance in all areas of our life!
Abundance can refer to money, work expansion, attracting your dream partner, creative expression, being asked to speak in front of thousands of people or on TV, travel or anything your heart desires!
Here are the six main qualities of tropical environments that we can use in our own lives to magnify abundance:
Opening up our ability to receive can refer to two kinds of receiving: inner wisdom and outer support. In both cases, the method to ‘open’ to receiving is by taking more breaks. By consciously interrupting our activity throughout the day to take breaks (and do nothing! Leave your phone behind), we invite and allow more spaciousness. The result of having more mental spaciousness has two main results.
First, our genius has space to arise. We never figure things out by figuring them out. It’s always in the space between two thoughts, that a breakthrough or ah-ha moment arises. For example, we take a break to go and sit outside quietly for a couple minutes and, Zing! A thought arises of something we must do, and the related action that we take as a result has the precise timing to make something important happen.
The second benefit of taking breaks and having moments of mental spaciousness are that we get clear on our priorities and intentions, which can help attract external support. When we’re clear, the universe and the energetic environment around us has a way of reflecting back to us external support to help us get it done faster.
Sometimes when we get wrapped up in our own little worlds, we believe we need to do everything ourselves. Independence is a positive quality, but sometimes we take it too far. We can be stubborn. We think we can do everything ourselves – and we can – but sometimes that takes longer and makes things harder for ourselves. Instead, if we surrender a little by allowing others to participate in our lives and accept help when it’s offered, we can accomplish our goals 10 times faster, with 10 times less effort. For example, a friend shows up and offers to help us with something, cutting the time it would normally require in half.
To experience this magic in a flower essence, work with Red Cup Water Lily.
Recognizing specific strengths within ourselves is vital to embracing + respecting our own value. We must accept that we are not all the same, that some of us excel in certain areas, others in other areas. When we recognize each of us has unique talents + strengths in specific areas, we are able to truly value and respect them.
By fully acknowledging and respecting our value in the world, we are less prone to over extending.Overextension leads to fatigue and a busy, distracted mind that is not present to the ocean of opportunities around us. When we value our strengths and allow ourselves to rest + recharge when needed, we are more able to be vibrantly present and ready for opportunities as they arise around us at any given moment.
To experience this magic in a flower essence, work with Shower of Orchids.
We create our realities with our thoughts. To understand how we are doing that, we must observe ourselves like a hawk, so we can see how our mental, verbal and action habits play out.
In order to catch the subtlest of self-limiting beliefs in our programming, we must really listen to our thoughts, what we say to others and how we act. Are we operating from a framework of lack or abundance? Do we truly believe we can win the lottery, get that promotion, magnetize that relationship? How often do we catch ourselves complaining or experiencing scarcity of any kind?
This approach is about breaking down our resistance to miracles happening, breaking down hidden limitations that may have been embedded in our inner ‘software’ programs as a child or over the course of our lifetime. If deep down we feel that our dreams our not possible, it is inevitable that we will not work as hard to achieve them than if there is no doubt in our minds.
We can approach any limited mental and speech patterns with this question: Is this my belief or someone else’s? Oftentimes our limited thought patterns are the result of a societal or cultural beliefs/propaganda, or simply a loved one’s opinion of what is or is not possible. This is another reason why it’s so important that we surround ourselves with people who think and behave the same way we want to see the world.
Being aware of how we think, speak and act can show us what we believe is possible for us during this lifetime. Being aware is the biggest hurdle – when we identify limitation, scarcity, lack, complaining or negativity, we can immediately take chargeand shift how we think.
To experience this magic in a flower essence, work with Rose of Venezuela.
We are all in different stages of our lives ~ depending on age, progression within our career, relationships, projects we are creating. Each of these stages in life calls for different approaches + understandings of expectations.
When we’re young or in the first stages of a new project, we work on building, developing our ideas, processes, talents and ultimately, mastery of our craft. There are no shortcuts – we need to put in a minimum of 10,000 hours to approach mastery in particular area. As we get older + start seeing the fruition of all our hard work, we have more experience and wisdom to know what to do + when; we can focus more on expansion, scaling our impact and creating a legacy.
By recognizing + acknowledging what stage of life, project, relationship, we are in, we can let go of impatience and being hard on ourselves. It takes years of practice to move through these stages; understanding where we’re at helps us understand how abundance manifests within these different stages.
To experience this magic in a flower essence, work with Shell Ginger.
Being present in every moment allows us to be more of aware of opportunities as they arise.
And effectively being fully present, means having a practice of consistently being present to EVERYTHING, which requires a certain amount of vulnerability. Why? Because being present means not only being present to joy, success and comfort – but everything in between. When we find ourselves in situations of discomfort, we may feel inclined to avoid those feelings, distract ourselves or deny their existence, rather than facing them head on.
This habit of distraction and avoidance prevents us from seeing things as they really are, whereas when we can sit through discomfort + look directly at it and feel it, we develop an ability to be kinder, gentler more loving with ourselves. When we sit with challenges, we allow ourselves a spaciousness in which new perspectives arise more easily.
Developing the muscle of being present with discomfort, develops the muscle of being present in general, which opens up our field of awareness to the infinity of magical possibilities that surround us.
When we start to practice being present and give ourselves more space to be in the being (doing nothing) vs. doing (go, go, go), something very agitating arises which is a very good sign that we are getting somewhere. This agitation manifests as boredom, the inability to sit still and do nothing or a desire to distract ourselves (like pick up our phones, check social media or get something done).
We are so used to occupying our time, engaging in the habit of doing, doing, doing, that when we stop + slow down, we actually become physically agitated. When we can relax into situations, even if it means allowing nothing to happen, we suddenly are open to seeing things just as they are. And in those moments there is a richness, a creative fuel and an appreciation of life – exactly as it is right now. THIS is the kind of openness, being-ness and awareness of the present moment that expands our capacity for abundance and magic.
Here’s a fun practice: try sitting at the park or a coffeeshop for five hours straight without looking at your phone or engaging in anything other than hanging out {with yourself or friends – start with one hour if five sounds intimidating!} . Notice when any agitation arises and when it does, hang in there, acknowledge it and keep going. You’ll notice that it dissolves and when it does, something else happens. I’ll leave it up to you to figure that out yourself when you experiment with it!
To experience this magic in a flower essence, work with Jade Vine.
There is a natural rhythm within everything. Mother Nature’s seasons are one obvious example of that ~ things slow down and go dormant during fall and winter, and in spring and summer they sprout and grow into full bloom.
Our lives are very similar ~ there are unseen rhythms of life, projects, opportunities coming our way, with which we can move. When we rush and push ourselves too much, this is an indication of going against the natural rhythm. Slowing down gives us space to listen deeply and tap into the natural, perfect timing of all things.
Most of us have the habit of thinking too much, jumping to conclusions and focusing too much on future outcomes that do not yet exist. We jump to the future and try to anticipate too much – what is going to happen next, what they’re going to say, if this happens then I’ll do this, if that happens then I’ll do this … When we pre-construct everything in our minds, we miss out on what is actually happening right now – and we lose touch with our natural, fresh responsiveness to that.
By focusing on the here and now, taking it one step at a time, we are more in tune with the natural timing of everything. When we let go of planning so much and feel more at ease with taking everything moment by moment, we are more in tune with the wisest parts of ourselves – and can strengthen the habit of operating from that place consistently.
To experience this magic in a flower essence, work with Saraca.
The following habits create static and resistance to abundance:
All of us have habitual patterns and some of our daily habits hold us back in subtle ways. Sometimes these habits are elusive, and are too busy to see how they affect our lives.
Luckily, flower elixirs help accelerate this process, making our habits clearer to us more quickly, and in a gentle way, so that we can take charge of these patterns.
By ingesting the infusions of specific flowers that grow in tropical areas where plant life is lush and growth is effortless, we are able to more quickly assimilate these qualities and energetic patterns of abundance and expansion.
By learning to more fully receive, recognize our value, eliminate limiting patterns, embrace the stage of life we’re in, be fully present + work with the natural rhythms of life, we can accelerate our blossoming into total abundance and wild expansion.
Scroll back through this post + click on the photo that you're most drawn to, or the photo of the *tropical lesson* that deeply resonated with you, to be taken to the elixir you'd benefit from most!
Love + flower petals,
Katie
