Dandelions seem to have an excellent attitude about life's limitations. Let's talk about resilience and how we can be as tough and ingenious as life's most hardy little flower.
Episode Highlights:
01:30 We adapt to our situations and environment in order to survive, the same way that a dandelion adjusts its bloom height to thrive on a lawn with lawnmowers
01:50 We sometimes judge our adaptations as being failures, like we’ve given up on our ideals, when it’s more like we’ve figured out how to thrive where we are and survive.
02:00 We don’t have to judge our adaptations as making us less – we can choose to see them as beneficial or even necessary, which in many ways, they truly are.
03:00 Choosing to stay in a situation or space opens up one’s options – what will you do to thrive there as it is now? How will you adjust to it? And how will it then adjust to you?
03:50 There’s a reason we like sticking with the devil we know.
04:50 When you’re striving for something and life throws obstacles in your face, what do you do to adjust?
05:30 Every living thing deals with the trials and tribulations of existence, and of striving for a goal and being met with resistance.
05:50 Even wild creatures revise their expectations.
06:20 A dandelion doesn’t immediately grow its flowers 1” above the ground after it is mowed. It tries to be almost as tall as it was before, and then it keeps trying until it finds success.
07:15 Even if they can’t grow nearly as high as they ideally would, dandelions find a way to bloom. What if we can bloom where we are, too?
08:30 Despite my expectations, I do not have my shit together by now. But I still am having my life.
09:50 When you reach your 40’s you start to realize that some of the things you thought would have arrived by now might never be arriving, at least not the way you thought it would.
10:00 Could I just enjoy my experience of life unfolding in a different way than what I anticipated?
11:17 What are our big plans but a bunch of days unfolding one at a time?
11:21 You may get to the end result you desire, or you might not. But if you can enjoy the experiences that get you there, that builds a satisfying life.
12:20 How do you think about your ability to produce another fruit, another lofty result, after your last one falls from the tree?
14:20 What if some of the best things in my life I haven’t even started yet?
15:40 It feels like a relief and a breath of fresh air to believe that lots of important events and people in my life are yet to be met. No matter what’s happening right now, there is more good to come.
18:00 Your life is a string of days, and you can choose to experience them however you want. You get to decide how you approach each day. Why not aim for wonder and curiosity over dismay and fear?
Welcome to the full Spectrum Feeling Podcast. I'm your host, Blaze Schwaller, life coach and former tattoo artist. I help people heal their past, speak their truth to those they love, and learn how to feel ALL their emotions, so that they can live lives they love no matter what comes up. Join me here every week for conversations on how to live an imperfect but fully engaged life that embraces all the feels, so you can stretch into your best life while enjoying the you that's here now.