A Lesson from a Tree
One day, I had the pleasure of sitting and spending some time relaxing and reflecting in my garden. We have a few trees in our garden, some of them quite young.
Listening to the sounds of the birds and looking at all of the colours of the plants, I found myself focusing on one particular young tree. I noticed the new shoots of growth at the top of the tree like it was reaching out to become bigger and expand. It made me reflect…
New growth is founded on top of old growth.
The tree does not grow its top first then proceed to develop more trunk and elevate its static top.
A tree generates new growth in all directions, the new constantly layered upon the old, forcing the old to be remodelled so it can support the new.
This then made me consider a fallacy in my perception of human growth, something I think may not be limited to just me…
Static
As humans we tend to view our body much like a static container, inside of which exists the material and processes (physiological and psychological) that makes us who we are. Taken literally this is kind of true as you don’t find humans growing new arms and legs and needing to shed the old ones off!
At a cellular level though, the human body recycles every single atom around every 5 years.
So in adulthood, while we are not expanding externally, we are still renewing and refreshing.
There is still though a key element of expansion available to us…
Foundations
You see, a tree produces new growth which is built upon the foundations of the old. To change, it reaches out and redefines itself. It is not constrained by the shape it initially took; it can continue to grow and remould itself.
Humans are much the same. We have a fallacy that we have to work with what we have got, but in truth the flexibility of the neural networks of our minds is practically limitless.
In the same way that a tree sends out new growth, so we in our minds develop new branches within our neural networks as we learn and grow.
These new networks then change the older networks as traffic is sent repeatedly through the system. The more we do something, the more this strengthens the connections, and as we leave behind old insights and behaviours, these connections are weakened and fade.
Much like trees we continue to expand and grow, remodelling the old to support the new.
We do this every day until we die.
Well, at least we have the choice to…
Living on Purpose
The opposite of growth is death.
When we choose to stop learning and growing, we choose to start dying.
To choose to grow, we must believe this is possible. What limits us is our beliefs, not that hardware of the human mind.
Hopefully this reflection sheds light on a new perspective you can adopt on your ability to grow.
It is never too late to tend to the garden of your mind. Go outside and watch a tree – they will show you the way.
Enjoy, for now.