Walking up to the train station, I’m hit by a wave of hauntingly beautiful scent. The smell pulls on my heartstrings and speaks of elegance and romance and inspiration. Where is that coming from ?!? I don’t see any flowers at my feet. Then I look up and see the magnolia tree above me, with its large creamy, fragrant flowers.
Suddenly I’m struck by the trust that it takes for a tree to put forth all these flowers. A lot of effort and resources into these delicate, vulnerable creations. It has to trust that the cold is over. It has to believe in the summer warmth fully enough to put forth it’s vulnerable beauties. And once they are out, there’s no taking them back.
When do I do that? When do you? Do you sense when the conditions are right (enough) to put forth your beauty? To share your heart? Yes, those flowers are going to face some wind and rain, maybe even some hail. It will not always be safe or easy. But they are not holding back. They are not “half-flowering” to hedge their bets. They are stretching their petals wide and sending their scent out into the breeze.
Do you fully expand into your expression of who you are, opening yourself and trusting that you will be met with warmth? Or do you hold back and hide out? Do past hurts keep you from fully opening now?
Granted, as humans we have a lot more variability than trees. We can open our hearts now, and retreat later, and that’s a good thing! Our surrounding conditions are not always right for us to be totally open. And we can get hurt, so it’s natural to want to protect against that. But to live life fully, we need times when we spread our arms, open our hearts, raise our voices and BE!
This kind of open-heartedness relates to our Fire Element, which relates to summer and is governed by the Heart. When your Fire Element is out of balance or depleted it becomes a lot harder to find the trust to open yourself up. Or to know when to close and protect. We can begin to feel a lack of warmth within ourselves and fall into unhealthy patterns to try to make up for that.
Getting Five Element acupuncture treatment helps to bring the Fire Element into a healthier flow. Then we easily open and share from the heart when the time is right, and naturally set boundaries and protect when we need to. As I work with clients, it is so good to see the empowerment and peace and self-expression that grows when they have support in this area. It is literally like watching someone blossom!
Maybe we will have a chance to work together sometime to see what can happen for you? For now, the next time you are out in the sun, raise your face to the sky, allow that radiance and warmth to come into your heart and feel how you might expand and be more fully yourself in this moment.
I look forward to seeing you shining,
Doren