Is your pot too small?

As a mildly obsessed nature lover I enjoy taking pictures of the most seemingly trivial things. A lob sided dung beetle or the silhouette of a dying acacia tree against the backdrop of the setting sun. The picture in today's post has a meaning that is quite profound as I think about it.

The law of all life is growth. All living things must grow if it continues to exist at all. Human beings are the same, we are either growing, expanding, stretching or were dying. At least this is what I have experienced in my own life.

When I first looked at this picture, I admired its obvious beauty and the expression of life and growth in its most natural state. Then i looked into it a bit further.

As beautiful as this little bud is, it only has so much room to grow. It is limited by its environment. The pot it sits in allows the roots to stretch out only so much, which ultimately limits the growth of the plant and prevents it from expressing its true beauty and potential to flower.

If the objective of all life is growth and expression and the environment that growth is exposed to is limited, then surely we are limiting life itself. In a similar way I find that being in the same environment day to day, exposed to the same limitations and space, we sometimes conform to those limits.
When I speak of environment, I consider the house we live in , the company we work for the social groups we get involved in and also the inner environment of self, our predominant mental state as well as our attitudes towards life and our role in it.

If we have outgrown our current environment then we must endeavor to move to a bigger arena, a larger "pot" so to speak. That involves taking a risk, the risk that we might fall at first and the understanding that falling and stumbling is a necessity of growth. We must become uncomfortable and place ourselves "out of our depth" for only then can we grow and expand our roots allowing our fruits to fully express themselves.

Which areas in your life are inhibiting you today? Is it the outer environment that you exist in, or is it a limiting belief, attitude or self image which holds you back .Whatever it is,  make a decision not to remain a seedling in life but to grow fully and express your own unique individuality. Come on ... The world is waiting for you. It will be worth it !