Following your joy

I’ve been trying to follow my joy over the last couple of months, I realised that it seemed silly not to, after all, we’re only here on Planet Earth in this incarnation the once, so best make the most of it, and let go of all that crappy conditioning that says it has to be hard work and negative.

This means that I’m currently growing most of my medicinal plants for the joy of it! This is quite a turn around for me, albeit one I have been working towards the last few years, moving away from the emphasis on outcome and achievement and focusing instead on the process. I guess this fits rather nicely with one of the main teachings from the Bhagavad Gita about letting go of the fruits of our labour:

You have control over your actions alone, never over its fruits. 
Live not for the fruits of action, nor attach yourself to inaction.  Established in Yoga, O Arjuna, perform actions having abandoned attachment and having become balanced in success and failure, for balance of mind is called Yoga. Krishna speaking Arjuna in Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter 2)

This concept shows up in Buddhist Teachings too with the notion that equanimity (a balanced mind) is letting go of the fruits of our actions. In the Yoga Sutras, the last Niyama refers to “Isvara Pranidhara” , surrendering our ego and selfish desires to God/consciousness and offering our actions up to ‘the divine’ and humanity. Its similar therefore to this notion of letting go of the fruits of our actions.

This for me is the creative process, one of creating for the love of creating, without getting attached to the outcome of our creation. I’ve mentioned it before, but often people get stuck before they get started, simply because they worry and fret about how their creation will turn out, rather than just getting on and embracing the process of creation itself. It took me two books to realise this as I was very concerned about the outcome of their publication and how they might be received, which sort of took away from the creative process itself. But by the third I had learned and let go of my attachment to it before it was published, I was done, I did it for the love of it, as a creative process, nothing more than that.

The last two years with my medicinal plants, while I’ve enjoyed the process of growing and planting, I was always focused on the outcome and whether I might be able to make my teas and tinctures from the plants and while this was satisfying, the whole process became time-consuming, laborious and stressful. The joy was taken out of it. This year I figured I’d probably do the same, even though I knew that sounded silly given that I’m on a mission to reduce stress levels not feed them, and it wasn’t until the calendula started flowering that I suddenly realised I would do it differently this year.

I heard myself in class this morning using one of my favourite quotes, the one that goes something along the lines of ‘if you always do what you’ve always done, then you will always get what you always got’ and it reminded me of my plants and I felt the validation in my decision to do it differently this year, to let go of the outcome and just do it for the sheer joy of it, without having to compromise that or complicate it.

When I came home there they were, blooming in the sun, my dedicated bed of calendula, which could make soothing oils and lotions, but the flowers just look to beautiful to pick, they’re a joy to me! I added a whole heap of clear quartz shards into the soil and attempted some sacred geometry with some other stones before planting out the plants so whether that’s the reason they’re so beautiful I will never now, but I can certainly feel their energy, which is now permeating out into the universe and the insects sure do love them.

I incorporated some clear quartz into the moon garden too and that is taking shape. I admit I will be picking the Tulsi for tea, and I might make a tincture from both the arnica and milk thistle as this the first year I have grown these, but the rest, I’m probably just going to let do their thing, and free up my summer to keep following my joy in other ways.

I have planted a whole heap of echinacea this year too, which I have planted out in the front garden, so that clients will have the joy of seeing these flower in the summer and imbuing their energy on the way into the cottage and my healing space, but let’s see, I’ve grown them for the joy of growing them really, whatever the outcome may be!

I really recommend “following your joy” as a spiritual practice and enquiry because it highlights the many ways we deny our joy as a result of our conditioning and patterns that tell us otherwise. It highlights our sense of worthiness and deserving - or lack of - and might just take us deeper into our sacral chakra where a lot of this sits unconsciously affecting our reality and our ability to create the reality of our dreams. You’ll find yourself up against yourself at times and it might cause you to become more conscious of the reason you do certain things. It’s certainly one of my more interesting enquires, and I’m curious to see where it might take me next.

So enjoy this weekend and keep the feelings of joy high!

Love Emma x