The slower the growth,
The deeper the roots.
Welcome to Coached by Nikki Dyer.
So we begin here,
Sitting still in a quiet place,
With your eyes gently closed.
And once you feel centered,
Take your first deep inhale in,
Feeling the lower belly filled with air as you pause for just a moment.
And exhale as you welcome a softening.
Inhale as the air opens and expands through you.
And exhale,
Releasing completely,
Inviting and welcoming vitality into your body in the form of breath.
There's a parable I love,
A little story about the growth of a bamboo tree.
Perhaps it's exaggerated,
Or maybe even untrue,
Or maybe it's not.
Either way,
I like it.
The story goes that a bamboo farmer plants the bamboo seed into rich and bare soil.
Like any plant,
The bamboo tree requires nurturing.
So he waters his plant seed every day,
With dedication and consistency.
In the first year,
There is only barren soil.
In the second year,
Again,
No visible growth.
And in the third and fourth year,
Still nothing.
Without a single sprout of evidence that what he's doing is working,
The farmer tends to his planted seed.
Others question him and his strength is tested.
Yet he trusts in what he knows inside.
He trusts in what he cannot see.
After five years,
The bamboo breaks through the soil and shows its growth.
The bamboo tree grows eighty feet in six weeks.
Does the bamboo lie dormant for four years,
Only to grow exponentially in the fifth?
Or was the tree always growing in places he could not see?
Or was the tree always growing in places he could not see,
To support the exponential outward growth that happened in the fifth year?
The answer is,
Of course,
Obvious,
And one the farmer knows well.
The Chinese bamboo tree is a perfect parallel for your own experiences with personal growth and change.
It's a reminder to tend to your own dreams,
And to continue to believe in whatever it is you are doing,
Even when you don't experience immediate results.
Even if the results aren't yet visible.
So I invite you here to take a deep breath in,
And exhale.
As you let this story sink a little deeper into the soil of your mind.
Pursuing your dreams,
Whatever they may be,
Is a sure thing.
There is growth happening in places and spaces that you cannot see.
We end this practice here,
With a final moment of reflection,
And how this story relates to your own.
Take a final deep breath in,
And exhale.
And when you feel ready,
Open your eyes and come back to your space,
With a new direction of your dream.
You are limitless,
And it is never too late.
I feel as if every time I create a new meditation for you,
I am watering and fertilizing my own soil.
So from my heart to yours,
I thank you for being here.
I thank you for being a part of my own story.
