Trees & Coral Put to Proper Use

or, Are you a Clown Fish or a Mockingbird?

Photo of clown fish swimming among corals from Pratik Mehta on Unsplash

​As far as I know, no one has (yet) created a cute little online quiz to determine whether you’re a clown fish or a mockingbird. If you were hoping for just that, please forgive me because, nope.

I’ll start you off with a question though, so you can get that buzzy quiz feeling. Have you ever stared at corals in an aquarium? Or been fortunate and adventurous enough to get to swim around and see these enchanting colonial organisms shimmy-dancing in their actual oceanic habitat?

It’s one of the most mesmerizing things, to stare at coral. I especially wish for you that you’ve had the experience of dropping in completely to just stare, keep staring, take it in, keep watching, and let yourself be completely wowed by the constantly moving tentacles waving around in the water. Some seem to barely flutter their long or little fingers while others could give a car-lot inflatable air dancer a run for its money!

But actually, I want to invite you not to analyze, because the real point of this writing is about interrupting stuff going on in the head. Consider getting out of your head FAST when what the mind is up to IN ANY WAY doesn’t serve you.

I want to (again) invite you to interrupt that as fast as you can, because one unhelpful thoughts strings you along faster and faster to the next and the next and the next, and momentum builds in directions you don’t want to go.

I want to invite you to practice dropping in to let yourself be mesmerized. Let yourself be absorbed in presence. Make like a clown fish and absorb yourself in coral. Stop the thoughts, stop the momentum in wrong directions.

Let’s talk about trees, because they may be more readily available to you than coral.

Image of a lone tree in a meadow under a cloudy sky from Johann Siemens on Unsplash

​I believe you can and really should (a word I don’t use lightly or often) let yourself get mesmerized by how breezes and winds move through their leaves. No magic mushrooms needed! Just gaze at what’s happening as the breezes sift through and ruffle things up in super-subtle or sweeping ways (and everything in between).

Watch and keep watching. This is a presence practice. Ground yourself so you feel your embodied self, connect to the sensation of breath, and use your glorious sense of sight, if you’ve got it, to stare at the fluttering leaves.

You are gazing at consciousness itself, consciousness made visible. You are consciousness connecting to consciousness. And … that is soooooo cool.

But it’s also a really practical thing to do for your well-being. This could support you as often as you let it, perhaps MANY TIMES A DAY EVERY DAY, to get out of your head and shift your state when it would serve you to do so.

You can do this with one single tree or a vast treeline, whatever you have access to. Failing that, substitute grass or a bush or anything you can come up with that will do in the moment.

We’re taught to stay with the contents of our heads instead of interrupting it. But it’s actually not helpful to stay with what feels

• disturbing
• confusing
• distressing
• problematic
• unresolved
• solution-oriented

I include solution-oriented, which sounds a whole lot more positive than the others, because, as Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” So you need to LOOK AWAY, not to stay with it, when you don’t feel expansive, fresh, insightful, inspired, creative—all signs that signal you’ve opened to higher mind and are ready to see something new. I know you know the difference.
​

Photo of a mockingbird on a branch in front of a blue sky from Mark Olsen on Unsplash

​Wanna be a clown fish or a mockingbird? Use coral or use trees. Be whatever you want and use whatever comes into view, whatever comes to your creative mind. Lighten things up by moving away from what’s weighing you down mentally. Laugh at your old self who thought it was good and wise to stay with muddled or distressed thinking and do something radical here and now. Call yourself back to presence.

Here comes a reminder of the 3 steps for coming to presence (and bonus—soothe your nervous system that got agitated by your thoughts).

1. Ground (feel yourself as an embodied being, contact the earth with feet and awareness of the pressure of gravity’s pull, feel inside your own body)
2. Breathe (connect to the felt sense of breath)
3. Check in with your 5 senses (and really sense them) or just one that you focus on fully, as in choosing to gaze at coral or leaves

Let the mind be mesmerized—or at least interrupted--by the staring (ideally as you consciously ground and breathe). Stay with it, even for a bit. Drop in. You can simply step outside or stand at the window for 2 or 3 minutes of leaf gazing. It feels amazing. It’s a great and simple reset.

When you feel soothed and perhaps inspired, Now what? Now you might be able to see something from a new perspective and open to creative ways of moving through your life as it is right now, scooching toward the life you’re seeking to create.

Love & blessings, Jaya