As a former commercial cannabis grower I can tell you a thing or two about plants…from genetics to environmental conditions, to soil composition… it’s more than just ‘dirt’, that’s for sure; from water to minerals to organic matter to air… there’s quite a bit in there, and having that balanced composition creates the best medium for growing the most nutrient rich, healthy, delicious plants.
So what about you? How’s the composition of your body? Is your grow medium going to provide the nutrients you need to flower and to fruit?
Ever heard of the Goldilocks Zone? It’s a term that refers to the environment that’s “Just Right” to produce life. The planet, Earth, is in the Goldilocks Zone— just far enough from the Sun to not be melting, and just close enough to not be frozen. Coral reefs live in the Goldilocks Zone— in deep enough water to be protected, but shallow enough water to receive sunlight and to house sea creatures. Mushrooms often thrive in the Goldilocks Zone— not in an open field, and not deep in the woods, but where it’s “just right”.
Plants, as a whole, have a relatively wide Goldilocks Zone, and as you may have noticed from seeing dandelion growing up through a crack in the sidewalk, they’re quite resilient, and so are we, but we could do more to facilitate that upward growth!
In a perfect world, you’d have perfect soil: from a mix of bushes and trees and grasses and animals leaving behind the detritus to be deconstructed by fungi and insects and water and temperature…but that’s seldom the case. Often— in the forest— invasive species take over, pine trees over-crowd and acidify the soil, and there are not natural forest fires and regrowth that occur. In a garden, or on a commercial (often mono-cropped) farm the situation is even more dire. So we amend!
Compost, Worm Castings, Fungi, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Water— these are the BASICS of soil. They’re easily added as a ‘top dressing’ (sprinkled or spread on the top soil around the plant), sprayed on the plants “pores” called stomata in a foliar feed, or watered-in during normal watering times. It doesn’t get much more simple than that.
DO YOU NEED TO AMEND YOUR BODY’S SOIL?
I always jokingly say “I’ve learned a lot about people from observing plants”, because I think I’ve spent more time acutely observing the micro-movements and expressions of plants than people….I also had a scary boss who would get really mad when things didn’t go right and we had a lot of money on the line all the time so I REALLY had to make sure I was looking after the plants, and I don’t have a child yet so…yeah.
Our happiness and success and overall well-being are like a plant, and our body’s like the soil. Or, our happiness, success and overall well-being are the flowers of our body, which is the plant. Either way, you get the metaphor!
It’s laughable to think that we can thrive in any environment without the proper nutrition, hydration, and sunlight, and since we’re trying to maximize our yield during our life-cycle, we need to either amend or start working on putting ourselves in the UTMOST PERFECT environment (eat, drink, think, exist) to get the goodness we truly need. But proper nutrition, hydration and sunlight can be hard to obtain!!
Two things that pretty much everything on Earth needs: water and sunshine.
Do you drink 2.5-4 liters of water per day?
Do you get 15-45min of midday sun every day or so?
The odds are the answer to both those questions is no, and that’s OK!
Staying properly hydrated is crucial to any plant, and to any person! You’re not a cactus.
Getting adequate sunlight (vitamin D) has a whole host of benefits, [and if you think that’s not the case, let me just clue you in to the fact that THE ENTIRE EARTH AND EVERYTHING ON IT IS POWERED BY THE SUN!]
So…take vitamin D supplements and wash it down with a gallon of water? Not quite…but that’s a good start!
Seeing a physician, or getting some blood work done, or visiting a health coach, or even doing some basic research on different vitamins and minerals are the steps one needs to take in order to find out what supplements could work best for them. There’s no single way to supplement needed nutrients into our bodies; it can be done through eating healthy and exercise, cleanses, diets, fasting, supplemental vitamins, and more. Oh and one more thing, don’t forget to move your body! All that supplementation can feed an active lifestyle in the most beneficial ways.
Amend your body’s soil!
This post is not intended to diagnose anyone, or encourage one thing over another, but more-so to put in perspective what supplementing could do for a person’s overall health.