Ash Ramsunder’s Good Vibrations Blog – Groan to Grown

Ash Ramsunder is able to see the positive side of life having turned his life completely around from the depths of despair to the ultimate joy of living and loving life in its entirety.  In his ‘Good Vibrations’ blog he will be sharing his thoughts with you on a regular basis so that you can learn how to change your life too.

All of us at veryparanormal.com are extremely grateful for his valuable contribution.

He has called this article ‘Groan to Grown’

GROAN TO GROWN

There is absolutely nothing that brings me greater joy than getting my hands dirty by gardening. Working my fingers into the bare ground to create a little hollow for a seed or a seedling provides an inner exhilaration I find difficult to explain and much more difficult for other people to understand. To some people, it’s just dirt. But for me, in that moment when that clod becomes one with my hand, it becomes something deeply profound and so much more. It signifies 4 billion years of history being held in my 35 year old flesh. Creation observing creation, a clump of earth holding a clumping of earth, billions of atoms caressing billions of atoms… Quite a humbling thought when you really think about it.

Today’s article was inspired by a little white rose bush blooming proudly in the garden. I know, I know, it sounds crazy – what can anybody learn from pastel petals whose only function is to brighten up a gloomy corner of the house in a pretty vase? After all, it is just a flower, right? Meant only to be pretty but not profound, only to be looked at but not understood, only to be admired but not respected and only to inspire wisdom but not be the bringer of it… Most people, I understand, would expect me to draw out issues of the subconscious, unconscious and other aspects of psychology and spirituality from text books, case studies or other published resources. I mean, who could blame them – and as my high-school History teacher used to say, “If the system is not broken, don’t try to fix it!”And whilst it may be greatly effective for many people to derive their inspiration and insight from the wisdom-filled pages of an enlightening book, for me, I have always found the greatest teacher of life to be Life itself.

I haven’t always been this deeply introspective, off course. Prior to me having my introduction to spirituality through my experiences mentioned in my previous blog post, a rose was just a rose, soil was just soil and a seed was just a silly little seed. However, as I journeyed within, I began to experience life not only more differently and vividly but also more enthusiastically. As the age-old and ever-so-true adage goes, “If you do not go within, you truly do go without.” And as I began to see the wonder, the magic, the mystery and the everyday miracles in everything around me, I understood that life lessons emerged not only from our follies, our whimsy and the consequences of our experiences but also from ALL of creation itself…. Yes, even from a “silly” little seed.

Consider a seed: Consider the possibilities and the potential that each seed has. Consider how within itself, it has the innate ability to multiply and be fruitful, leading to further growth and positively contributing to a larger purpose. Consider how a seed is able to generate itself into something far greater than that which it originally began as. All a seed needs is for it to be taken from its forgotten corner, placed into a conducive and nurturing environment that supports its growth; given a little time and a whole lot of patience, watered often and it will automatically bloom and become what it was created to become…

Now let’s look at the above paragraph again, exchanging the word “seed” for “person” and correct the pronoun for grammar.

Consider a person: Consider the possibilities and the potential that each person has. Consider how within themselves, they have the innate ability to multiply and be fruitful, leading to further growth and positively contributing to a larger purpose. Consider how this person is able to generate themselves into something far greater than that which they originally began as. All a  person needs is for them to be taken from their forgotten corner, placed into a conducive and nurturing environment that supports their growth; given a little time and a whole lot of patience, “watered” often and they will automatically bloom and become what they were created to become…

Quite astounding when you think about how the dignity of people everywhere can be restored if we took the time and patience to handle them in exactly the same manner as Nature handles a seed. Maybe, THAT’s the secret.

Like my rose bush, the truth of the matter is that your life is your garden and what – and who – you allow to “feed” and “water” you will determine whether you grow or not. Quite frankly, the outcome of your life is as simple as that. When a flower does not bloom, we do not curse the flower; we instead fix the environment in which it grows. You have to take an honest look at everything (and everyone) in your life and determine if it serves the highest purpose for your life. Does this situation truly support your growth or are you withering away because of it? Is having this person in your life contributing to your garden and its growth or are they like a weed which chokes your root system and causes you to be emotionally stunted?

Fundamentally and quite regularly, you need to have an honest discussion with yourself to reevaluate and determine if you are where you wish to be in your life. These are just some of the questions that you need to honestly (and frequently) answer in order to determine if you are on your path to your own personal destiny:

• Do I feel invigorated, exhilarated and inspired on my current path?
• Do I have a yearning that my life can be better than this?
• Can I do better than where I am currently?
• Do I feel whole?
• Do I – at some level – hold feelings that I am undeserving or unworthy?
• Am I being proactive in my life?
• Do I truly love myself?
• Do I truly love what I do?
• Am I living or am I merely existing?

Do not be dejected if your answers above lead you to a new realization – one which may be difficult to accept at first. The purpose of this is to not to be self-judgmental but to become self-aware. When there are cracks in the foundation, one doesn’t repaint the entire house. Similarly, when you know the foundation of who you are, then only can you build structure.

Here are some additional questions that you would want to ask after being honest with yourself above:

• What are the types of situations, circumstances and people that I am drawing into my life?
• Are there repeated negative patterns and similarities in my friendships, relationships or marriages?
• Am I keeping myself full?
• What is truly holding me back in my life?
• Am I in touch with my inner voice, instinct, intuition?
• Do I trust that inner voice, guidance, instinct, intuition?
• Am I willing to do whatever it takes to live the life that I am intended to live?

After you have identified any weak links and deficient areas in your life, it is always wise to fix and strengthen what can be repaired – especially in your associations and relationships with people. With that being said, there are just some areas in your life which need to be completely let go off. In other words, like my rose bush in late winter or early spring, so too, in the garden of your life there needs to be some pruning.

In horticulture, pruning is a process which involves the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as roots, branches or buds. It involves the targeted removal of diseased, damaged, dead or otherwise unwanted tissue from crop and landscape plants for the purpose of shaping, improving or maintaining health and to also increase the yield or quality of a plant’s flower or fruit. Being in alignment with your true being and entrusting your life to God/Source/Higher Power/Spirit generally results in a spiritual pruning of your life. This can be a rather uncomfortable process and if you are unaware of the process of change that you are undergoing, you will begin to view yourself as a victim because pruning is initially a painful (but necessary) process.

Even Jesus himself spoke about the necessity of this spiritual process of pruning (John 15:2 “He cuts off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”).

This pruning could signify the ending of a toxic relationship, a marriage or even a friendship. It is at this point that we truly become afraid, for you see, we do not mind having the soil around us being weeded, but when it comes to personal pruning, the implications and the effects are a lot more direct, intimate and blunt. It feels as if we are losing our lives as we know it – and we actually are – but this is all in preparation for the next level of your life. Beautiful growth would be stunted if God didn’t remove the very things that hinder it…

There is nothing like purpose that will remove you from foolishness. People, situations and conditions that were once allied to you – and are now out of sync with the new vibrational frequency of your soul objective – will now find that they are unable to relate to you and will be “pruned” from your life and vibrate away. So do not grieve or bemoan your life when this happens. This process of pruning is not one of punishment but is one of love that holds your BEST interests at heart. It is okay to say goodbye and close a chapter in your life that no longer serves you. Let it go… Always remember, a gardener will only prune a plant if he or she is convinced that it will be a better version of itself.

So here’s to you and the garden of your life. May you be bountiful in every area of your life fully understanding that you will only reap that which you sow. May you have the courage to weed out anything that does not serve you or deserve you. May you remember that happiness “stems” from within. May your roots always be deeply grounded no matter how tall you become. And most importantly, may you have the wisdom to discern the difference between those who come to nurture the soil versus those who come to grab the fruit.