Thank you springtime for the very much needed sunshine. I feel like an egg timer turned upside-down, allowing all the gorgeous yellow energy to flow through me and fill up on its joyfulness.
Talking of ideal conditions, I’ve recently been exploring soil and what makes the best growing conditions for Tea. It was in response to my contemplating the different elemental energies that create and sustain all life (in the Chinese system there are 5- earth, metal, wood, water, fire) and it just felt right to begin with Earth, hence the deep dive into soil.
Interestingly, the discovery made me reflect a lot on the counselling process (as a trainee counsellor) as it is really about exploring what the ideal growing conditions are for humans. Although both ourselves and plants are very adaptable, we both tend to thrive and grow into the best version of ourselves when certain circumstances come together in a consistent way.
For tea trees there are so many factors to ensure that the leaves are juicy yet strong, tender not tough and delicious not bitter. The essential nutrition and water comes from the soil, so it has a huge influence on the quality and flavour of the tea. Ideally loamy soil that allows retention of moisture while also providing good drainage. A warm, humid climate with shade is key for our lovely tea trees and why Yunnan province, with its misty mountainous landscape, is home to ancient tea forests that are still managed through traditional agroforestry practices.
The human equivalent of the soil that produces juicy yet strong, tender not tough and delicious not bitter humans is known as the ‘holding environment’, a curated place where our primary caregivers have provided such healthy, secure attachments with us that we feel free and able to explore the world for ourselves while always knowing there is a safe, nurturing place to return to. But for many of us living in ‘modern’ times, we are being tended and pruned to fit into environments that are often less than favourable, with our attachment styles being developed through often stressful and difficult upbringings and circumstances. As counsellors we hopefully provide more ideal conditions for growth through offering a consistent, empathetic, non-judgemental and helpfully curious presence.
The amazing human ability for metacognition (the skill of being able to think about our thinking) allows us all to reflect on any dodgy past environments where needs weren’t met and allow us to move ourselves into more pleasing ones where we can find the ‘nutrients’ we need to be healthy, we can replant ourselves in better soil.
So my concluding reflection is this. Because we are all interconnected, there is a relationship between what Tea we choose to drink and what humans we become. If we choose to drink thriving, healthy Tea, we are more likely to become thriving, healthy humans, for one is imbued into the other and thus we become one.
The tea we drink holds the choices that particular tree made to grow the best leaves it could, to be successful at living its best life. So if you think about it in this way, we actually hold the energy of so many other beings and their choices as we eat and drink them to sustain our life. For those beings who have chosen to find their ideal growing conditions and become the best versions of themselves, do we not owe it to them to live well for them, as them? This wild truth reminds me of one of my favourite quotes “I am because you are”.
So let us dig deep into the soil and reevaluate our choices to find more favourable growing conditions. This may mean tiny changes or seismic shifts but for our own human soil to be nourishing, maybe just becoming more aware is the greatest gift… and we already know (if you regularly read this newsletter) that great tea can offer us that.
Have a wonderful May, bloom and reach for the sunshine and we look forward to we look forward to speaking to you again in June.
Anne x