3 Simple Ways to Practice Patience (with your plants and yourself!)

How do you know you’re being impatient?

You find yourself frustrated by minor setbacks...

it’s hard to want to move forward because you’re weighed down by everything you have yet to accomplish...

Your mind is so over encumbered that you end up going in circles and getting in your own way...

This impatience can do a number on both our minds and our plant care routines. 

It’s a lot like a plant parent anxiously overwatering or freaking out over a single crispy leaf...

It doesn’t get ya anywhere and can often be remedied with just a little more patience.

I’ve been plagued by a serious case of impatience this last few weeks. 

Let me tell ya, it hasn’t been pretty. 

When I finally managed to kick myself into shape, I immediately felt a world of difference. 

After all, patience gets us in the right mindset to solve setbacks, grind on goals, and be open to receiving new opportunities. 

Plant parents everywhere know that patience is a recurring theme in plant care. 

Why waste time stuck when we can let our plants pull us out of yet another funk? 

Stay tuned while I share three insights I’ve gained, from plant keeping, on practicing greater patience with both yourself and your plants.

Plant Insight #1

Worrying about your plant’s growth isn’t going to make it grow any faster!

Although it seems a little counterintuitive... 

Sometimes you gotta slow down to speed up. 

Our first impulse is to kick it into high gear when we see a decrease in output.

Dormancy is a necessary part of certain plant cycles.

Plants store energy during this time, before high tailing it into active growth season. 

People and plants aren’t too different.

The best ideas and work flows stem from necessary periods of idleness.

 If you think you don’t have time for luxurious periods of nothingness, even just a little bit of meditation can help you gain some space.

Space you can fill with intention and inspiration!

I always find myself feeling significantly less frustrated and impatient when I incorporate this practice. 

It helps you gain the space for a more productive perspective. 

Plant Insight #2

I sometimes find myself being incredibly impatient in the face of everything I hope to accomplish.

It’s easy to get discouraged when you're judging tons of hard work based upon an infinite well of future possibilities. 

You can’t keep charging forward with your eyes fixed on the towering fiddle leaf figs you always see online.

Instead, take time to shift your perspective towards seeing the entire structure of hard work you’re building upon.

 What started as a humble idea or grocery store plant has grown to its former state - and you’d be kidding yourself if you weren’t reveling in that!

Seeing your progress not only helps morale...

It helps you deeply understand your growth thus far and how you can further facilitate it. 

Just because your plant stops growing as fast in winter doesn’t mean you’re taking worse care...

Likewise, just because your output may seem lesser at times, doesn’t mean you aren’t making every bit of progress you can make right now.

You have to realize that you can’t have your results immediately. 

You ‘re only capable of doing that which you can do now.

The rest will come with time... and one more important factor...

Plant Insight #3

A big part of patience isn’t just waiting for what you want.  It’s investing faith in that idea in the present moment. 

If you aren’t patient with seed starting or plant cuttings, you may end up scrapping your project before it’s able to come to fruition. 

If you have enough faith to continue watering your seeds, only then will you glimpse the resultant sproutlings. 

If you continue changing the water on your cuttings, roots will eventually form. 

None of this would take place without an initial investment of belief.

Patience is like a test of your faith, whether that be in your plant keeping, family, or worklife...

If you don’t believe in something, why should it happen? 

Being patient with your goals, your family, or your plants is the highest form of respect you can give for your future vision of those things.

There’s an endless well of wisdom to be found in plants. 

I so appreciate you sharing in this planty insight!

Everyone should have a chance to get woke via plant keeping, which is exactly why I started offering my services at such a low rate. 

Of course, the wisest plant masters know they still have much to learn.

With that being said... 

What have you learned from plants?

Let’s chat about it in the comments!