Spring has finally arrived here in Pennsylvania, and the world is an orchestra of beautifully colored blossoms. As a photographer, I know that when something is in full bloom, I had better hurry to capture it on camera because it won’t last long. ‘Tis the nature of a flower to bloom for just a short time and then give itself over to something bigger…whether it be the fruit of the tree, the growth of life sustaining leaves, or nourishment for the ground below. But also, one gusty day, one bad spring thunderstorm, or one unusually hot day can cause all but a handful of those blossoms to give it up for the year.
It’s hard to stay open, to be all out, heart to the sky, wildly exposed…and I’m not just speaking of flowers anymore. You have to have crazy amounts of courage and hard core trust in the bigger picture to love openly, live freely, and allow yourself to be vulnerable. Just like one perfectly timed downpour can bring down the brightest petals, one harsh comment, bad experience, or one little taste of apprehension can cause us to close our hearts off to everything. I’m so glad that flowers don’t feel fear, that they worry not about the gusty days or heavy spring rains. And I’m glad that the bigger picture is enough for them to offer their whole lives for. Life would be far less colorful, spring would be far less enchanting, and the goodness that a plant’s blossoms bring to life would cease to be if they worried about such things. Worse yet, life would stop moving forward and things would become very dark and grey.
I believe that we, too, need to keep our hearts open amidst all the inevitable possibilities of life. Fear, worry, hurt, anger…they have the potential to keep us from moving life forward in beautiful and enchanting ways. Our vulnerability is what allows us to connect with each other. We need to have crazy amounts of courage and hard core trust in the bigger picture. And it will most likely be hard…but it is so incredibly worth it.
This month, we encourage you to notice how different feelings and situations cause you to want to close off the parts of pieces of you that are vulnerable. And when you’re noticing yourself starting to close, try really hard to be brave and stay open instead. You win, fear/hurt/anger lose, and life is more beautiful.
You can print out this month’s mantra and hang it somewhere in your home or workspace to remind you daily of how important it is to Stay Open. Then snag the web version to share online and motivate your friends and contacts to do the same!
Here are some journaling prompts to help you uncover some great inner tools to help you stay open…
- What instances/people/places trigger the impulse to close off?
- What emotion is at the core of these triggers? Anger? Fear? Envy? Hurt?
- What would it feel like to breathe more space into these feelings instead of closing off when they surfaced?
- Is there a visual or a phrase or a poem or a song that you can keep tucked away in the quiet parts of yourself to help you keep your courage when you most want to give it away?
- Do some free writing around why it is important to stay open, loving, vulnerable, and honest…both personally and within the world. And perhaps also explore what would happen if none of us were able to do that.
This article was written by Maegan.