Planting seeds of intention, literally

Last week, I was talking about what actually happens when I’m being creative. I was exploring this idea of taking the thoughts, feelings, and emotions I’m working with internally and externalizing them into something that can be experienced - like a collage, a dance, or a song. When I respond to that, it initiates this back-and-forth process of taking something internal, making it external, and then causing yet another internal reaction (and so on). This is what it means to be in dialogue with myself and over time, to build self-awareness.

That felt like a huge ‘aha’ moment for me.

As an extension of that, what I’ve been mulling over this week is this idea of layering meaning over my life through metaphor.

As longwinded as I am, I’m a big believer that more isn’t better. I believe that keeping things simple can create space for unexpected, delightful things to happen. And so instead of adding more to a to-do list, one of the biggest habits I’ve grown over time is layering in different creative, artistic, and spiritual practices that make everyday activities feel more significant. This gives me opportunities to be in that ongoing conversation with myself to build self-awareness, and to more fully digest what I’m thinking or feeling.

To give you an example, I’ve been doing a lot of learning around resources lately. The resources I want and need to build my dream life, and the courage it takes to advocate for that. Underneath are fears aiming to keep me in my comfort zone; to please others so that I don’t need to face any rejection. So, when I realized I needed a haircut this week, I brought my old fears to the hairdresser with me. And I cut them off. My haircut became a metaphor for letting something go. So while I left with a smile on my face because I had this great fresh cut, I also felt lighter emotionally, because I had layered meaning onto something I was going to do anyway. 

And of course, I don’t expect it to be that simple. Cut it off, POOF, gone. But it’s a way of practicing choosing something different than whatever is habitual. I took the time to get familiar with the fear, sensed it in my body, and imagined releasing it so that I could walk out out of my appointment differently. And I’ve gotten better at how effectively I do this with repetition over time.

As another example, my partner is an incredible gardener, and I’m going to follow along and learn this year as we grow our own food on a bigger scale than we ever have before. I had this idea that we take all the types of plants we’re growing and set a different intention for each. So there is a 'tomato' intention for our home life, an 'eggplant' intention around health, a 'herb' intention for our careers. As we monitor, observe, and tend to these plants, we are also metaphorically and literally tending to those intentions. And I can’t wait to harvest some of these things, to consume them, and to see the cyclical relationship with them play out through the meaning we’ve layered on top.

So, I suppose the thing I’m really jazzed about this week is the idea of metaphor making more meaning out of everyday life. The idea that there are simple, creative ways to bring inner experiences into the physical world and attach them to things I can touch, observe, or interact with. And in doing so, find ways to engage with the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs that it’s hard to know what to do with sometimes—especially if there’s a desire to change them—and to create opportunities to see them from new perspectives.

There are so many ways to layer meaning onto life. I’d love to know—what are yours? Maybe you don’t even fully realize you’re doing it. So take a moment to pause and reflect:

What parts of yourself might you be expressing or organizing externally through your everyday life?