psychology
How this 2-minute technique can help you when it all gets too much
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Is everything just getting to you? This gardening-inspired method helps you let go of the old to make room for the new.
We all get ahead of ourselves every now and then. We want everything at the same time, we don’t want to miss out on anything – and at some point we realize: it’s becoming too much. But how do we get out of this dilemma without losing sight of what is really important? An approach that we learn from nature or gardening can help us here – namely pruning. True to the motto: Less is more.
Less is more: creating space for growth
In order for plants to grow well and healthily, they need to be trimmed from time to time. In this way we free them from ballast and unhealthy parts. They can then grow evenly again and thus exploit their full potential.
And we can apply this same idea to our lives and our mental health. In times when everything becomes too much, it can help to take an honest inventory: what’s good the way it is right now, what’s not, what do I want for the future, what’s taking up the time and energy I need for could use something else?
Once we have identified such energy thieves, we can lovingly prune them, just like plants in the garden. It’s not always easy to say no to certain things in our lives. But just like in nature, we can only grow and develop if we create order and set priorities from time to time. And the best thing: with a little practice, this practice won’t take longer than two minutes!
Sometimes we have to let go in order to move forward
Maybe it will help you to remember a time in your life when something that you initially sorely missed was taken away from you. Maybe you lost your job or were abandoned. But after a while you may have noticed what new opportunities it has opened up. Losing your job may have made you question your professional life and come up with completely new ideas about how you want to live it. And perhaps with some distance you noticed that your relationship also had its dark sides and that you would be better off alone or with a new partner.
You see: detaching yourself from something doesn’t always have to be something negative. Even if it may hurt at first, we can create space for something new. For new people we welcome into our lives, or for new habits, ideas and projects that are good for us and fit our values.
And that’s exactly what we can consciously use to our advantage and don’t have to wait for it to happen to us. In phases in which we no longer know where our heads are, the idea of cutting back and pruning can help us. Because if we consciously focus on a few things in our life, we can give them more energy and space. This way the result will be better in the long term and we will be more satisfied with it and with our lives than if we try to do too much at once. Because sometimes we have to give something away before we are ready for something new.
Source used: mindbodygreen.com