Nurturing Our Potential to Grow Into Reality

We all have good intentions for our life's expression yet it doesn't always pan out the way we thought. Fear of the unknown, judgment from others, poor self esteem diminish our chance of growing before we even seem to get started. Even the tiniest seedling in the garden needs to be nurtured along in the proper conditions if it is to survive and eventually fulfill it's potential.

Focus on the basics

All seedlings need the same things to grow: proper soil and a nutritional base in which to plant their feet, water and hydration so they don't shrivel up all wrinkled and lifeless, and tons of exposure to clear light. In human terms we need proper nutrition and fertile stimulus for body and mind, water to stay hydrated, but also we need to express ourselves emotionally to stay in the flow with life and lastly we too need to stay exposed in the light. To encourage our inner seedlings of purpose and passion to grow healthy and strong, we need to stay grounded in knowledge, be emotionally aware and positively minded, and above all to hold single-minded faith in our tiny little perfect potential.

All gardeners have tools and skills to make their garden grow and likewise, we all come to our lives with all the skills we need to nourish our particular seedlings to vitality and health. The problem with having a mind is that we are able to create and recognize obstacles. We are also easily distracted and amused by any number of outside influences, which in the end will serve our excuses for staying limited. Everyone has obstacles and distractions. The key difference between people fulfilling their passion and the people who aren't lies in their ability to stay focused. If you neglect and ignore a tray of seedlings they will wither and die. If you neglect the voices of your soul they will become weaker and quieter. However, the difference between a seedling in a tray of earth and the seedling in your soul is this: as long as your body is alive on this plane of existence it is providing sufficient nourishment for your seedling of purpose to survive. Your purpose dies with your body. So no matter how neglected, starved, ignored or suppressed your potential seedling has been, it will live within you and will always try to find a way out towards the light; even if it takes an entire lifetime to do so.

Celebrate diversity

The first step is the hardest, which is in coming to terms with the fact that you are a unique expression of light with original purpose equal to everyone else. Every flower in the garden is important, every one equally beautiful. A healthy community, just like the garden, celebrates in and finds strength in its' diversity. We could create a garden of only one species of flowers but only for a moment. In time the soil would become depleted, the flowers themselves would become weaker and the entire garden would become subject to disease, infestation and decay. And so it is with human beings too. We are already in fact, witnessing this very phenomenon in a worldwide crisis today. While we have blindly allowed the outer vestiges of success to validate us we have been complacently drawn into living with unprecedented disease, viral infestations, war between nations, and loss of wealth.

To recover from our losses we must reclaim the garden and our right to our individuality and our freedom of choice. We must learn to protect and honor our differences, without competition, without spite, without ego. Through honor and respect for our selves and one another we not only learn to become stronger we enable all those around us as well. Simply by accepting our differences we allow our own personal growth. We emerge in our unique expression.

Be your best self

So the purpose for your life is this; to express your truest self in the best way possible. In order to allow our inner seedling of potential to grow towards the light we need to turn our vision away from the obstacles and focus with hope on the possibility of becoming our truest and best self. We need to eliminate from our consciousness ideas of competition and separation. Integral to the philosophy of competition is the awareness of there being a winner and a loser. This is irrelevant to realizing our truest purpose. Competition isn't required when all we really want is to be the best that we can be. Ambitiously striving for perfect personal expression has nothing to do with anyone else. The only obstacles we have to climb over are our own personal fears.

Don't work on being equal - you already are. Work on accepting yourself, loving yourself, and finding the courage to step out of the fearful shadows into the light as you genuinely are. Then point your face towards the sun and let the energies of the universe flow through your being, grounded in your truest expression of growth and potential.

Andrea Connell is a full time practicing Reiki Master, metaphysics teacher and energy practitioner. She has been using Tarot Cards and energy work to assist people in their life transitions for over 15 years and is passionate about teaching people the tools they need to feel empowered in their own lives. She is a popular teacher and offers many programs, seminars and workshops in self-empowerment, metaphysics, meditation and Reiki. When she isn't teaching she's busy working on her book. Find out more on her website http://www.centreforappliedmetaphysics.com and her blog at http://www.andreathielconnell.wordpress.com/