You are Not a Factory

I am grateful for my work as an intuitive spiritual guide for so many reasons but one in particular is for insight to come through that is both for the person— AND for me…and hopefully for you too. Because we all have similar overlapping themes we are working on.

Todays insight came near the ending of a session:

“You are not a factory you are a garden”

The client and I both acknowledged the potency in what was being said and explored a little deeper. After the call, I hurried here to write the title before my mind wandered to something else— an oddly common occurrence after inspiration for me.

This message came after the feeling of overwhelm appeared about all the insight given specifically around career. This reminded me of my own overwhelm I experienced after listening to too many, albeit great, youtube videos on marketing ideas. I started inspired, I pushed to keep absorbing and then something shifted, overwhelm took over. The overwhelm in the reading, came as the perfect teaching tool to explain a deeper concept, so it was in fact part of the experience.

The deeper message that came through was about how we have this assumption of productivity. We assume what the ideal worker, entrepreneur or parent (any role really) looks like based on what the world has presented us and even trained us to be.

I have seen many memes, posts and articles about how the modern school system trained individuals to be factory workers. Some early 1900s uber wealthy man’s quote typically accompanies it. I could easily look this up and share it but I am not here to tell that story but mostly connect the dots to our identity around work and the value we placed on being a high yielder.

You see I don’t just think we believe we are factory workers, because most aren’t in fact but we are now the factory itself.

We no longer hold one role that we fulfill over and over (which sounds like the odd marriage of peaceful and suffocating) we are mind factories, meant to come up with solutions, ideas, emails, words, tasks, meals, care… the list goes on and on.

Many of my clients work or previously worked in corporate, few of them feel they are currently thriving there. Not to say that nobody thrives there; a former version of themselves did and people who probably are not contacting me for clarity are somewhere. I myself really didn’t thrive in my short stent in it, but I did do what I needed to. I performed and produced but my true self wilted.

I am a garden, not a factory. And if you’re reading this you probably are too. We all are on some level. I do not need to appear productive for all waking hours to be valuable.

And while this is a nice sentiment, this idea needs to be developed further to really allow the permission to let go of the factory expectation. Its not enough to just feel special, we need to know the value of the difference in these systems.

Factories can run as long as they want, they produce sellable products in record time and operate in structure and consistency. The flow is linear. But it produces “stuff.” Some useful or nice, but stuff.

A garden produces life. It produces beauty, it produces nourishment not for one, but from many in all directions. And while it works constantly the “product” as we know it is not constant.

You see when overwhelm hits, or exhaustion comes, its not a block in the assembly line of our mind, it’s not a broken machine to be fixed within our body, its a message. When we identify in the factory way we feel we must get everything done while the ideas have been given, we cant stop while there is a task that can be accomplished. The factory is open, it must run.

But when the energy stops in the garden of our truth, the seeds have been planted. The work can continue without constant maintenance.

They are still there, and when the sun comes up you will observe and tend to them. And yes they take tending. But rest is an invitation. When your body pauses or inspiration wares off, it’s not a time to force but to observe.

In a garden, rest is so incredibly fertile. And the same is true of us. When I can’t continue working or find myself doing something that seems less productive, there is magic under my own soil. Ideas take root, and the ones that have strength and the energy to sustain life come forth. Then we observe and respond. We must be in relationship with it and it is not entirely passive but it’s also not about force and productivity in a constant way.

So many sensitive people (nervous systems who process a lot), or creative people or even people who’s priorities shifted, like parents who cant give 100% to work the way they are expected to, feel lost in the current world.

I certainly have. But each of those people are called to create a new system. Because what I have found is those same people can bring a deep potency in less time. They bring something that yields benefits beyond the amount of stuff that can be created. They create bigger impact in less action —because they must.

But the biggest leap, is in the perception. Both personal and collective. It feels like we are doing less and so we give less and therefor have less value in the work force or in life in general. This brings up guilt and shame. But if you see that the current system is merely in support of “stuff” and not of life, and you work to embody a new way of existing, you may find a personal mission.

In many sessions, a similar theme has shown up; that it is time for people to start engaging differently with work, to no longer deny their limits and to honor what feels right. We must give birth to new models. Sometimes this happens within the systems or sometimes on the outside but its powerful work. And one that can not be done by an individual alone. We must garden together.

The ways we engage in work is having a massive impact on our lives. The amount of time and stress people are taking on, has changed the inner landscape of the human psyche and the outer landscape of community. We are at capacity. And while it can be scary to change the way you operate, it can be necessary to be bold and uncomfortable in order to grow something new and valuable.

Please here me when I say, if you are responsible for others and can not afford to lose income with out very tragic results do not boldly change everything about your work flow! Find small ways, ways that are subtle to shift. But do think about it before you feel beyond repair and must leave because of burnout (this is not everyone but if you feel well past capacity already it could be you).

Remember this as well. The outcomes of gardens are not merely in the produce, it is in the soil, the insects, the beauty and so many other things. As we honor our true work flow and listen deeper to our bodies’ limits, we create more than just stuff. We create our own lives. Because while we may have a limit to another email, we might go for a walk instead, improve our health, and talk to a neighbor. A yield you forgot to measure. But that same neighbor may share about the work you do and produce a client, sale or connection as well. It’s not the goal but its how the system works.

There are so many messages our bodies are trying to help us with around work, and how we operate in life. It is not trying to limit you, its trying to help you.

But here are a few tips for translating some common ones:

• If you feel tired and drained you need either rest or inspiration. So a pause may invite a nap but it might invite a moment to take your camera out and notice beauty in the world. That beauty, may lift your energy, it may inspire an idea, that same idea might give you a solution to a problem you were stuck on.

• If you feel overwhelm, you need to stop with the ideas and find a small task to take. Find one thing to do and do it. If its complete freeze, you need to just breath and be with that.

• If you feel anxious or nervous, you may have a lot of energy towards an idea but also a lot of limited beliefs about your capacity to do such a thing, if you can push through a little bit go for it, take the leap. If the anxiety is moving to freeze or overwhelm than go back to pausing and breathing and being with the quiet and maybe let yourself off the hook until it feels reasonable. In a garden a freeze needs protection, so do you.

• If you feel frustrated like things aren’t working you need to move your body. You have energy trapped and its ready to move but not necessarily in an intellectual way. Frustration is because of stuckness and stuckness needs movement. If we don’t see a solution we feel trapped, like our conveyer belt is caught. When you move you remember your alive not a machine.

• If you feel bored, your energy isn’t in the task at hand, so unless there is a critical deadline which usually doesn’t create boredom because of the stress, you need to work on something else. You’re polinating a closed flower.

These are general guidelines. Your body will show you yours but the key is to listen.

And if you feel that your energy runs out easily, and your limits are very constricting, know that this is a regenerative garden, and if you listen deeper, connect to a more whole part of you, you may in fact gain capacity over time, not just continue to drain it.

Our body will also be uncomfortable in new scenarios and maybe try to run so we must listen deeply, is this a program, is this insecurity or do I truly not want to be here? We cant take everything at face value we must engage deep enough to understand the messages of the body. Don’t be afraid to talk to your body, it is listening after all— Like talking to flowers to help them grow.

As we pay attention we cultivate, we regenerate and we change the work flow. As we do this we shake off the heavy machinery and we start to become alive in our truest sense. That vibrancy attracts people. It speaks to the aliveness in others.

So join me, start to work and function from your own rules. Be the garden.