My #wildrootedmessesandmemories
The Roots & Vibe of the Life is Succulent Project
and how it is in rhythm with the flow of all things here
This is a little behind the scenes piece of what the Life is Succulent Project means to me. It highlights a few of the vibes, thoughts, and stories of some of the main reoccurring mantras and ideals featured in the project.
Theme: PERFECT is never “perfect”! Perfection is a perception. We are Life in Motion is a constant state of change! Perceptions change as we move through the experiences and rhythms of life. Some of which will always remain deeply rooted into the fibers of who we are, but it is important to seek, create, and nurture pathways to bring those realizations to the surface to organically process it through gradual, calm, conscious efforts.
THOUGHTS
I choose presence and patience in the process over perfection. A practice I am still working on and will always be working on. We are so rooted to thoughts of perfectionism from the simple things we hear, “practice makes perfect” to the big things like our quantitative systems of measurements, grading, and standards of “success” to the even bigger things like survival and coping strategies. It is hard to unplug and uproot from that and allow yourself to flow in all the wild rooted spaces of life or be at ease with the mess and discomfort of learning and growing. Accountability and standards of living are important, but where those perceptions are coming from and how they are being practiced matter.
Learning how to embrace these thoughts many moons ago led me to creating The Wild Rooted Flow, the more untamed version of Rootin’ for your Life. It is more about the raw experiences and the roots of Rootin’, the creative process full of a lot of messes and memories. Learning how to flow with the roots and rhythms of the natural, wild world was/is my main focus for the journey of creating a more conscious, intuitive, and sustainable life. A main mantra I kept at my fingertips was Life is more Succulent when ________(fill in the blank according to what it was I was trying to work on or towards). Planting those seeds in my mind helped me nurture succulent like vibes of patience, perseverance, learning how to release and preserve energy, and creating or seeking the things that felt warm and cleansing. Like I talk about in all content though, a positive mindset does not mean it is always warm, bright, sunshine, and rainbows. Ahhh, phew the mind and LIFE is an INTENSE place, there is still a whole lot of rain, fog, storms, and heavy, cloudy, dark experiences and days, but practicing methods like Calming the Sea Within and doing healing work like I share in the Mosaic Project & Write your Story in Everything you Do and well, everything I talk about in most all of my content has helped me build resources for navigating the wild rooted flow of life. This is not to say it fixes or will fix all things. Most resources are to aid or support the process. Nothing is ever perfectly “fixed” or perfect. The fibers, stories, and rhthyms of things will always be a part of who we are, of life, but it all changes shape as we change through the phases, seasons, and cycles of life. We are Life in Motion!
The Life is Succulent Project is something I drafted and saved in the notes of creating The Wild Rooted Flow. I did not know how it would unfold. I just knew it would one day be and needed to be. It was one of many bookmarks holding and creating space with the creative process and the journey of intuitive living. Many things came along with the potential to be a space to plant the seeds for it to grow, but often after looking closer or trying to cultivate the conditions it would become clear it was not the “perfect” fit. By this I mean that feeling, that deep gut beyond a doubt feeling of yes, this raises the vibrations of my soul and surrounds me with that kind of magic that cannot be measured! Again, not to say something is or will be “perfect”. Perfection is simply a perspective, which means something different to each moment and person. All moments and experiences of life still require work, energy, and conscious efforts, but there are rhythms that naturally flow with ease when the right elements and equations of effort are engaged. Otherwise, it will be a continuous process of probably trying to force something to flow or fit, leading to cycles of exhaustion and/or frustration. Sometimes, that feedback is telling us it is not the right flow for us, but often it is a matter of revising or reprocessing the elements of the equation or how we approach or perceive something. Sometimes, it requires a little gardening work to understand the conditions to move things around or gather the needed resources. Sometimes, it may require a bigger process of uprooting or cultivating. Sometimes, it may need a whole revolution of transformation.
Doing the work to seek, discover, create, develop, and align with those experiences, feelings, relationships, and connections in this world, this lifetime we share together on this planet is everything!!!! I believe it is possible for it to happen through peace. Like perfection, peace is a perception, something that holds different meanings to each moment and person. It is fluid, life in motion. Therefore, challenging to define in one answer or create on one path. There are endless possibilities to this meaning, to this existence. The one thing I do know or feel strongly about is, it has to come from within. From there, it ripples out into the currents and vibrations of life. We may not see the results of those movements until other phases, seasons, or cycles of life, but there is influence in how it flows. May it be through calm, conscious efforts over impulsive, inherited, forceful survival instincts. For me, personally, that is the equation, learning how to nurture survival instincts, ancient rhythms, cycles of life so deeply rooted into calm, creative, compassionate conscious efforts. There are a whole lot of weeds, many with thorns in that process of transformation. We as a people, are very stubborn creatures, all from very strong bloodlines with oh, so……. much history. We are still processing all of that into the equations of life in present day while trying to be intuitive and perceptive of how it is all unfolding into the future. That is a lot of energy to process!!! That is why I find it so important to keep having these conversations and am driven to do what I can when I can to be a medium for conscious and intuitive wellness resources.
MY VIBE
Right Now, this is my main focus and flow. For me, it is an honor and a privilege to be a mom, a stay-at-home mom that works hard 24/7 in that role while trying to juggle all the other roles of life, creative, business creator, writer, medium, wife, daughter, granddaughter, friend, caretaker “consultant”, old critter caretaker, DIY clean up my life and roots healer…. to name a few! All of which is a process, oh such a process sometimes! That dance of gratitude and grief! All of this is so very important to me, but my little family of 3 is my main focus and flow. It is where I am most needed and where I feel the most supported and enriched. When the relationships of your most inner world, including your immediate connections and dynamics, are at the center of your focus, this aligns the energy that is exchanged the most. Whatever your main focus is, how you prioritize or engage in that, is what will plant the most seeds into your garden of life and determines the energy that will pour and ripple out into how you experience this world. This is not to say we have control over everything. So many things are far from our control, but how we show up in the presence of our mind, body, spirit, and relationships to all things does matter. Our presence in the process matters! That is why I do my best to live by this: the equation I mentioned above, learning how to nurture survival instincts, ancient rhythms, cycles of life so deeply rooted into calm, creative, compassionate conscious efforts.
It is important to note: That magical feeling of those “perfect” alignments, experiences, relationships, those beautiful pictures like above are moments! Reality check: most of the process of life looks more like the pictures below. Some may only see the mess in this, the imperfections, but for me, oh this is actually where most of the magic is happening, in all the behind the scenes, the in betweens of the big moments, in the details, connections, rhythms of things. This is in the midst of the process. Allowing messes to remain is a different story, a challenging story, the same goes for over-controlling messes and being overly attached to the need to have things in a clean or “perfectly presentable” state of being. These mindsets can be rooted to those survival and coping patterns so deeply rooted within all of us. Learning how to flow within the messes of life while creating conscious efforts to engage in it and process it is so important. It allows us to further discover and develop our authentic rhythms, connections, perceptions, experiences, and relationships of life. That freedom of existence is what can Calm the Sea Within! Freedom, living more Wild Rooted, does not have to be wreckless, without rules or accountability. There can be guiding principles of nature and humanity to help guide the rythms and flow, but too much force, control, etc reduces awareness, space, resources, peace.
In this age of so many demonstrations of what it is to “set intentions”, “create rituals”, “manifest the life of our dreams”, “check in with our energy”, “self-care”, “be more mindful and good things will happen”, may this be a reminder: Life does not have to be perfect to be perfect. Perfection is an illusion perpetuated by pressured narratives to perform. Performance can lead us to going through the motions vs truly embodying and experiencing life in motion as conscious motion! Performance has its place, but it should not be the norm in our daily rhythms of living! As mindfulness has become such a mainstream word (which is great) it has become very easy for that thought process to become too attached or intertwined to perfectionist tendencies (as I search my mind for the perfect wording🫠😅). Many of us have this nature within us, rooted to survival mode (including wanting to protect our space and efforts) and ideals of success, and therefore our efforts of creating just the right energy to do, offer, share, create, or engage in something can easily be a hybrid of mindfulness and perfectionism working together to grind the gears of performance or inner/outer judgement. Is perfectionism cloaking itself as mindfulness? Mindfulness: genuine, authentic, conscious actions and reactions of expression and awareness is so important for a healthy state of being, but when perfectionism becomes too rooted to the flow of it, then it can keep us from engaging in the things that can help us live our best lives!
Things do not have to be perfect to be perfect. Sometimes, we have to start where we are and commit to creating new pathways in our mind and spirit to fully experience the world within and all around a little more in the ways we can each day. #wildrootedmessesandmemories
I was going through my collections and collections of pictures and once upon a time I made these two collages with these phrases on it. I came across these while holding a place on this page for the thoughts of “the path is never perfectly clear” and living your best life in the moments you can. For us, “best life” is all the simple things. We love traveling and it can be nice to indulge in life at times, but we believe if we look close enough and open our senses in all the little daily, “ordinary” moments, the “best” magic exist in those spaces of living. It is about the experiences we create through the connections of our world within to the world all around. There are so many distractions to keep us from connecting to the magic of the “little, ordinary” moments. Many think this is a “new problem” because of the modern age of technology, which yes, is even more accessibility to engage in tuning out the natural rhythms and flow of life. This pattern and problem have been around for a very long time though. There was always the pressure and drive to elevate one’s status of living. People have always been judged by their “luxury”, “glam”, and means of being able to do so. It was often a root cause of villages conquering other villages, for the gold that glistened, the exotic new food, cruel or “righteous” power or political reasons, etc. Of course, seeking to survive had its part in that, but a good part of the world’s problems has always been rooted to the ideals of “worth”. For us though, this collage above is a pretty good example of what it means to us to be “living our best life”.
Overhead this as I was putting this post together, so I had to create a slide and a note to add in, because my oh my how it fits!!!
Synchronicity is cool!
A. First time I have sat down at a Starbucks or any coffee shop with my laptop to do work in 6+ years. Most of the “magic” happens in between the moments of life, on the go on my phone, or burning that midnight oil.
B. Their words and questions of life they were discussing were so much of what I was writing about, but from the other side of these realizations, from the perspective and coming to terms with, “yes, no matter how prepared you are or dedicated you are to nurturing your life path, it can still get uprooted. It is a reoccurring experience of life”. BUT sometimes, if you keep working towards what matters to you it may eventually flow into your life in the “best” and most unexpected of ways. Our attachment to and perception of “best” often has a lot to do with it. Experiences over expectations.
When it all feels so uprooted and the plans keep changing or the means of reaching them further away, these are the thoughts that help me focus and nurture my energy of peace, trust, and the motivation to keep doing that intuitive daily root and core work to keep creating the path through it all.
Gratitude
I am grateful for my precious son, comforting, healing soups, these old-in need of lots of patience & support furballs, affordable, easy kitchen makeovers, chalkboard walls, and a husband that adores us and is a wonderful person/husband/father. Don’t forget though, everything in life requires dedication, effort, patience, practice, perspective, communication, compassion, creativity, the list goes on, aka a heck of a lot of work but when you are aligned with the things and folks meant for your flow the work of it all is beyond worthwhile and does not disappear into an endless sea, it matters. Again, these are stories and conversations for the Seeds of My Soul Series & #WildRootedThoughts!!
However, I have also had to learn that sometimes being overly grateful causes me to dismiss my own discomfort at times, even suffering. I am a very vocal and honest person and do so in the relationships that count the most. I do the work to express my deep thoughts, needs, and feelings on things. In the big picture of life, however, being overly grateful is something that often suppresses my voice and holds me back from reaching out. It has a whole lot to do with survival and coping strategies so deeply rooted within me, something I am working on.
Keep Working on the Dreams
“When you cannot do the big things do the little things that could potentially lead to the big things”!
Vision / Goals Mood Board
Sustainable living, prioritizing wellness, and family came with a lot of uprooting and focusing on the long-term, big picture of things while nurturing the immediate needs but realizing that “roughing it” in some ways now are essential and hopefully beneficial for securing gradual, sustainable, successful growth for our goals, family, and world. I have a gazillion mood boards like this one of projects I have done but most are projects that are still a work in progress or ones I really really really hope can happen sooner than later because my oh my how many years this process has been! This is an example of a project I hope to get in flow soon. If you are interested in more details on the stories of our journey and projects in progress, tune into the Seeds of My Soul Series on the Wild Rooted Blog & IG!
Feel It. Connect to It.
When you are experiencing seasons of your life in which so much has been uprooted it can feel intensely uncharted and uncomfortable. No matter how strong your faith or trust is in life or yourself, there are some scenarios that can shake you to your core. When that happens, abilities, thoughts, connections, perceptions, beliefs, support, etc. can feel so far away in so many ways. However, when we are able to hold or create space and opportunity for connecting our world within to the calm elements of nature, many things can begin to feel a little bit closer to our senses, even if only for a moment. Sometimes, that moment was enough to help restore our energy until the next moment, message, or milestone. Sometimes, those connections can even happen in the chaos if we are able to tune into it. It is all easier said than done and is an authentic, sacred practice that requires a lot of discovery and development. It also continues to flow and change as we do, because We are Life in Motion!
Many things about life may be unknown, but a well-known fact is that of change. Life is in a continuous state of change from the little things to the big things as we are life in motion. Sometimes, those changes can shake us to our core. Other times, it may be a quiet whisper or tingle in our gut feelings that senses something on the horizon, but the clarity of it is yet to be experienced. No matter how prepared or practiced we are, life still has a way of going into uncharted territory. We will forever be students of life. There are times we may be able to offer guidance and insight, but there are always things to learn in every element and exchange of life. How we show up in it all is what matters!
Things may not always go according to plan, but that does not mean the things that matter are not possible. It may require more time and different pathways than what you imagined. Sometimes, it is a matter of releasing our expectations and focusing on experiences. This does not mean to simply settle, accept, or sacrifice what matters to you. It means to keep doing that root and core work to assess your thoughts, needs, and feelings, to consciously communicate that in the ways you can, and connect to the resources that help you feel in flow with life, even when life feels messy. Actually, this is when it is of the upmost importance.
This picture was for something else, but I think it kind of flows well with all these thoughts. However, in this context, Hi, I am Lisa Horoszewski, the creator and founder of Rootin’ for your Life and the Root & Flow Method, I am the lady wearing all the hats here trying to get it all in a sustainable motion! Rootin’ for your Life started 22+ years ago in my journal and blueprints / plans for life. 2014, I decided it was time to start putting the pieces together and planting the seeds I could in the ways I could and soon did I learn what a Wild Rooted Journey that would become!
In Closing,
When life was feeling so unsure, chaotic, then so uprooted these were some thoughts and phrases that felt like little sparks of light in the darkness, these were the glimmers of clarity in the fog, …..
Life is succulent when (I was painting it on everything of something that mattered to me etc)
Wild Rooted actually started off as Whiskey Roots for nature photography but evolved (story on seeds of soul)
