Today on Empowered Wellness Radio,
What can a simple seed teach us about healing,
Timing,
And what we choose to carry forward?
We'll explore dormancy,
Protective patterns,
And the conditions that allow something within us to begin growing again.
Welcome to Empowered Wellness Radio with your host,
Jeanne Smith.
Jeanne is a board-certified massage therapist,
Wellness educator,
And former broadcaster with a practical,
Whole-person approach to health and well-being.
Each episode brings you useful information,
Thoughtful conversation,
And simple,
Effective ways to better understand your body,
Care for yourself,
And take an active role in your own well-being.
And now,
Here's your host,
Jeanne Smith.
I was looking at some pepper seeds recently and thinking about how amazing seeds really are.
I have a variety of pepper called Carmen that I first found as seedlings at a garden center about five years ago.
I loved them.
They were so sweet and the red color was so bright.
And then I never saw the seedlings there again.
So I started saving the seeds from the peppers I grew and planting them the following year.
That ever since.
And when you stop and think about it,
That little seed is carrying life forward from one season to the next.
It can sit there looking dry and completely inactive.
Sometimes for a very long time.
And yet,
Under the right conditions,
It begins to grow.
That really got me thinking about dormancy.
We tend to assume that if something is not visibly growing or changing,
Then nothing is happening.
We are very outcome oriented.
We like to see progress.
We like evidence.
We want to know that whatever effort we are making is working.
Nature does not always work that way.
A seed can remain dormant until the conditions are right.
It is not dead.
It is not failing.
It is simply waiting.
And I think there are times in our own lives that might be very much like that.
There can be periods when we are not producing much,
Changing much,
Or moving very quickly.
Maybe we are recovering from something.
Maybe we are reevaluating our direction.
Maybe we are simply tired and need to pull our energy inward for a while.
That does not necessarily mean we are stuck.
Sometimes what looks like nothing from the outside may be preparation for something that has not become visible yet.
The other thing I find interesting about seeds is that potential alone is not enough.
You can put a perfectly viable seed on a kitchen counter and leave it there.
And it is probably not going to become a pepper plant.
It needs water.
It needs warmth.
It needs oxygen.
Eventually,
It needs light and nourishment.
The seed has its part to do,
But the environment matters.
That makes me think about how often we try to force change in ourselves.
We tell ourselves to relax,
To get over something,
To stop reacting,
To be more disciplined,
To move on,
To do better.
Sometimes that works.
Sometimes it does not.
And maybe the better question is not always,
Why can't I make myself change?
Maybe sometimes the better question is,
What conditions would make change possible?
That is something I see in body work all the time.
You cannot order a body to let go.
You can apply pressure.
You can stretch tissue.
You can use all kinds of techniques.
But if the body does not feel supported,
It may continue to guard.
Sometimes the most useful thing you can do is create the conditions where the body no longer feels that it has to work so hard to protect itself.
Then something begins to change on its own.
That brings me back to the seed again.
Because even the hard outer coating has a purpose.
The seed coat protects what is inside until the environment is right for growth.
Eventually that coating softens and opens,
But that does not mean it was a problem.
It did exactly what it was supposed to do.
I think we can look at some of our own protective patterns that way.
There are reasons people tighten their muscles,
Hold their breath,
Clench their jaw,
Stay alert,
Withdraw,
Or become very cautious.
Sometimes those responses developed because they were useful at one time.
The problem comes when the conditions have changed,
But the protective pattern has not.
That is very different from saying there is something wrong with us.
Sometimes,
A response simply outlives the situation that created it.
And then the work becomes helping the system recognize that the environment is different now.
One thing about seeds that I had not thought much about until recently is that the first growth is often happening where nobody can see it.
The root goes down before much of anything comes up.
We tend to notice the part above the soil because that is what is visible.
But the plant has already been doing important work before we ever see it.
I think people do that too.
Some of the most important changes in our lives are not dramatic.
They may be a boundary we've finally set.
A habit we stop repeating.
A moment when we notice our reaction before acting on it.
A decision to rest instead of pushing through.
A realization that something we have believed for years may no longer be true.
Nobody else may even know that anything happened,
But those changes can become roots.
Then eventually something grows from them.
And later,
If the conditions are good,
There is fruit.
We usually think of the fruit as the end result.
That is what we harvest.
That is what we eat.
That is what we were waiting for.
But inside the fruit are the seeds for what comes next.
That is what I have been doing with these Carmen peppers for five years.
I grow the plant.
I harvest the peppers.
I eat the peppers.
I save some of the seeds.
The original plant is long gone.
The pepper itself is gone.
But something from it continues.
That may be one of the most important useful things a seed can teach us.
We do not have to preserve an entire season of our lives in order to carry something meaningful forward from it.
Sometimes an experience is over.
It may have been wonderful.
It may have been painful.
It may have changed us completely.
But we do not have to keep living inside it.
We can take what we learned from it and allow the rest to be finished.
Maybe what we carry forward is wisdom.
Maybe it is better discernment.
Maybe it is a boundary we did not have before.
Maybe it is compassion or skill.
Or simply the knowledge that we survived something and understand ourselves differently because of it.
That is the seed.
The whole experience does not have to come with us.
And I think that is part of what integration really is.
We are not erasing what happened.
We are not pretending it did not matter.
We are allowing it to become part of the larger story without requiring ourselves to remain inside that chapter forever.
There is another thing happening when I save those pepper seeds.
I choose which ones I save.
I usually take them from a pepper plant that developed well,
From a plant that was healthy,
From something I want to grow again.
In a very small way,
I am participating in what gets carried forward.
We do that in our own lives,
Too.
What we give our attention to tends to get reinforced.
What we practice becomes easier to practice.
The stories we repeat become familiar.
The relationships we continue to nourish become part of the environment we live in.
So perhaps harvest time is not only about looking at what we produced.
It may also be a good time to ask what is worth saving?
What from this season do I want to carry with me?
What has finished its purpose?
What do I want to plant again?
And what might be sitting quietly inside me right now,
Not gone,
Not lost,
Simply waiting for the right conditions to grow.
I think sometimes we put enormous pressure on ourselves to create the next chapter before the last one has even finished.
Maybe we do not always have to do that.
Sometimes our job is simply to notice what has come from this season,
Save what is worth carrying forward,
And trust that life knows something about timing.
The seed certainly does.
You've been listening to Empowered Wellness Radio with Jeanne Smith.
Join us again next time for practical information,
Thoughtful conversation,
And simple tools you can put to use in your own life.
Until then,
Take good care of yourself.
