Dragged through a hedge backwards

Welcome to this month's newsletter!

And yes, just for you, I did go through a few hedges backwards in this week’s episode of my?Landscaping your Life podcast?to inspire and expand perspectives about a situation you’re feeling a little bedraggled about ??

I was quite taken with the fact that going through a hedge forwards is likely to be more injury inducing than backwards! And it’s also often the quickest means of getting from where you are to the other side – i.e. rarely are holes in hedges near a doorway!

I am, however, hoping there won’t be any dragging through the hedge backwards at Chelsea Flower Show this week which inspired the theme for this newsletter – i.e. how gardening can provide metaphorical insight about a situation you’re struggling with.

As ever, therefore, do think of a situation you’d like more clarity about before reading further.

Gardening is where the origins of the Landscaping your life process lies.

In the mid-90s we used the fact that plants need weeding, feeding, pruning, watering, time in the greenhouse and careful consideration of where you’re planting them as a metaphor with managers when training them about procurement and supplier management.

The rest they say is history.

Before diving into sharing insight from gardening to a problem you are grappling with, there are two events I’d like to tell you about:

• New Opportunities – metamorphosis for solstice?– 20th?June at 1900 - free Webinar exploring the poem 'Metamorphosis' (which you can read at the end of this email) and the insight it can share on the transformation needed in our lives at this time.?
• Take a giant leap – 12 week coaching programme?– Date to be agreed Aug/Sept – If you’re in the doldrums, feeling like you’ve lost your way, afraid that nothing is ever going to change, and instead would you like to step into your full potential, spread your wings feeling motivated and confident about your future why not?join me for this exciting new 12 week programme.

Priorities for your survival

After the last two years I suspect a few of us are a little more like the flower surrounded by concrete than we’d like.

It’s important therefore that we focus on what’s important rather than act as if we can just pick up where we left off.

I’d therefore invite you to consider what the foundations, water and sunshine are that will help you get back that sense of safety and security?

For example, I’ve been focussing on improving my sleep as I realised that has still not got back to pre-lockdown patterns and routines, and yet its lack can have such a detrimental effect on all of our day-to-day lives.

For others it might be about drinking enough water, eating the right foods, moving, laughing, learning, connecting, mindfulness and so on.

Two useful sources of support for our wellbeing can be found on?Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s Feel better. Live more podcast?and?Dr Michael Mosley’s Just one thing podcast?both full of gorgeously helpful and practical hints and tips to support mind and body.?

If life feels like it’s going at 100 MPH you may also find insight in my?last newsletter.

Sowing new ideas for the future

A few seeds/ideas planted over two years ago to support a flourishing life and business may very well have long since withered and died, and we may not have had chance to think about sowing more seeds. Leaving life for some a little lacking in colour and variety.

Could you therefore find some time to plan what seeds/ideas you’d like to be growing this and next year? Are there some seeds that might be easier to nurture in the short term? Perhaps those seeds needing a little more care and attention might be better sown when you’re back to normal levels of enthusiasm and energy?

Remembering that seeds flourish when sown at a variety of times of year and all require different conditions for growth.

When is your idea best sown, and what conditions for growth does it need for maximise success?

You may also like?this vlog?about potential and allowing seeds to be sown.

Patience

It’s hard once we’ve sown an idea to not keep poking it to see if anything is happening – or not to press reset because if we make this one little tweak that might make all the difference.

How can you give your ideas the right conditions to flourish and then allow them time to germinate?

What can you do to keep yourself occupied whilst the seed is doing its stuff?

Release the perfection and allow some messiness

You’ll find out about the other?7 keys to having a buzzing life?in a post from the archives or in this short video:

And finally, for those who have recently joined my newsletter you may like this summer ezine from the archives full of even more metaphorical insight when you’re stuck and don’t know what to do with insight from your garden and nature.

You can see it?here.?

Enjoy Chelsea and your gardens for the long holiday weekend that those in the UK will be getting very soon for the Queen’s platinum Jubilee.

I’ll be back with my latest newsletter at Solstice.

Much love,

Alison xx

Don’t forget you can buy my book 'Can’t see the wood for the trees – landscaping you life to get back on track' from all online stockists – including from?Amazon. It’s also available on kindle.