Lessons From Nature – I’ve been a reverent fan and observer of the natural world my entire life.
As a child, I remember my mother taking me out to the forest to run through the meadows, play in the rivers, and look for fairies in the tree trunks. I remember running along beaches and looking out at the vast stretches of ocean and feeling a stirring of poetry and passion in my soul as I began to notice how the natural world and the patterns of humanity are interconnected in so many different ways.
Nature has an endless supply of wisdom to offer us if we just slow down to listen and observe. Just like in the heavens above us, human beings go through alternating periods of sunshine and darkness in our lives.
In the same way that a snake sheds its skin, we, too, go through many transformational periods in our Lepersonal journey where we throw off old habits or identities and adopt new roles and new beginnings.
And just like the climb up a steep mountain is the toughest and most challenging right before reaching the summit, our life paths can also be the most challenging when we are on the verge of a tremendous breakthrough.
In addition to mountains, the sun, the moon, the forests, the ocean and animal behavior, I have also been a keen and lifelong observer of the seasons, and how they stand as a metaphor for our human journey through the world.
Every year the seasons change from one to another like clockwork, and we don’t fret or get anxious about what is going to happen in a few months or a year down the road. We know that a full year goes through cycles that may look and feel different from an aesthetic and temperature perspective, but that each season serves a purpose and works in tandem with the others in a beautiful, cyclical pattern of growth, flourishing, withering and death.
When I apply the metaphors from nature to my own life and journey through the world, they serve as a wonderful reminder that there is order in what can seem like chaos. There is design and purpose in both the struggle and the victory. There is a season for growth, a season for flourishing, a season for stillness, and even a season for withering and death so that something new can be reborn.
It’s human to want to live on the mountaintop and to avoid pain and discomfort, but challenge and struggle are a part of the design of nature and of life. Our humanness and inherently emotional nature cause us to fret over uncertainty and circumstances that are out of our control, but I’ve learned that one of the best ways to cultivate peace and purpose in my own life is to remember that there is a season for everything, including suffering and pain, and that even the things that I would rather not experience in life have a function and a place if I will humble myself enough to search for what they are.
Remembering the seasons and the other lessons that I’ve learned from nature have helped me the most with my fitness journey, self-love, and self-talk. A season of stagnation, withering and “death” are what caused me to go on my fitness journey in the first place. I was only in my mid-twenties, but I was already overweight, unhappy, and addicted to mind-numbing substances as a way to mentally escape from the situation that I had created for myself. But being sick and tired of being sick and tired is what ultimately motivated me to begin thawing out my heart and my own expectations of myself, and the discomfort of this personal “winter” was the catalyst for me to change this stagnant part of my life!
My personal “spring” was just as full of life, flowering and beauty as the physical spring that we all experience each year. As I began to move my body more and stopped loading it up with harmful stuff, my mind and self-esteem began to heal as well. I began to look better and feel better because I took the initiative to punch my little flower head through the snow and the grass of my own limitations. I was growing up even though it was hard, and it was happening in some harsh circumstances!
Showing myself that I had the capacity to bloom and grow even in tough conditions led me into an incredible summer of flourishing in my 30s. I began getting published in major international magazines well after my “expiration date” as a model, my physique and mental health continued to improve, I was running a successful business, and life was good.
Then, divorce came for me.
Anyone who has ever been through a divorce can attest to the personal hell that it puts a person through. Mine was no different. But in this new challenging season of life “winter”, I was able to remember that sadness and heartache- just like joy and flourishing- never last forever. Spring was on my doorstep even in the face of bleak cold and darkness, and like clockwork, the sunshine and flowers came again for me before too long.
My favorite thing about nature is that it teaches us peace, humility and stillness. It teaches us that everything has a purpose, a place, a function and a season, even the things that we may not like or look forward to in life. Everything works together and there is nothing to fear. We only need to have the courage to live our lives and strive valiantly, and the universe will weave it all together in a tapestry that is even more beautiful and perfect than anything that we could have designed for ourselves.
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