I did an exercise recently where we learned how to create vision boards. Vision boards have never been my thing. Crafting, ew. But I thought, what the heck, I made a promise to myself to try new things, so let’s do this.
Flowers and plants have also never been my thing. Plants around me die if I even just look at them in the wrong way. One time, a set of dragon’s breath died in my front gardening bed. As I was taking the dead plants to throw in the woods, I dropped them. Then, what did I notice 3 weeks later? Beautiful freaking dragon breath was growing IN THE CRACKS between the cement on my driveway where I dropped them. You can’t make this up. I couldn’t keep these plants alive while giving them love and nourishment, but then they go and show me up and just grow in the middle of my driveway? Whatever. I’ll get over it some day. But for now, I’m still holding a grudge.
Fast forward to recently……
After I completed my digital vision board (thanks Pinterest, because again, crafting = ew), I concluded that my mind and heart have had totally different visions of what I liked. Turns out, almost every single picture I had pinned of decor, or things I find beautiful, had a flower in it. More specifically, a dahlia. And then it clicked, a dahlia looks like a mandala, and a lotus is a type of dahlia (I did have to fact check that, because I’m still not a plant person and know nothing). The yogi in me LOVES mandalas and lotuses. So much so that I made them my business logo. I have mandala and lotus pictures all over my house and in the most unsuspecting of places.
For instance, the bathroom! The main decor in my bathroom is a set of three 11×14 pictures of, what I thought, was just an abstract graphic that kinda-sorta had the outline of a flower. Turns out, they’re overlapping dahlias. I’ve always loved those pictures. They brighten up the bathroom in the best of ways, and now I know why.
Also, about 75% of my yoga-wear has mandalas, lotuses, and dahlia’s on them. They’re my favorite clothes. Coincidence? I think not. Oh, and then there’s my Popsocket. It has a pretty picture of a flower on it that matched the color of my phone case I bought years ago. I love that Popsocket. It makes me smile. I’ll give you one guess as to what type of flower it is…..
So what’s up with this sudden obsession with dahlias? How did that even happen to a non-plant loving person? Well, I’l tell ya. It’s all about mindset. Everything in life falls back to mindset and the ability to have an open mind to grow and see things differently than you had in the past. I created that vision board a while ago. I didn’t think about it for a few weeks. Then I participated in a soul flower exercise with the lovely Rebecca Campbell because, again, I’m trying new things. She leads you through a beautiful meditation to help you identify with your soul flower. Mine was a dahlia, surprise, surprise. So I’ve been on a mission to learn anything and everything I can about them.
This plant-hater created a deep connection with a beautiful flower. Now there’s something I never thought I’d say!
So, my friends, my challenge to you this week is to open your eyes and take a look around. Try to find something that you’ve ignored so far, but have a slight recognition of, and see if you can identify it as something you actually have a deep connection with and that brings you joy.
The best things in life are beautiful and unexpected. So go out, and live colorfully.
Peace, Love, Om.
