Accidental Gardener

It's an exciting new year full of possibilities. Gardening reminds me that everything in life that is thriving is also growing. Growth may be constant or may have rapid random spurts with seemingly nothing in between. Personal growth can have the same cycles as we face changes in our environment and culture. We can learn to be resilient like plants who weather hot and cold, wind and frost, and changes in soil. In nature, only the strongest plants that are suited to the environment survive. Desert Cactus can adapt to low moisture just as Bengal Bamboo grows well in rainforests.

As a career counselor in graduate school studying personality and relationship styles, I realized that the same factors that affect a person's ability to grow also affect plants in nature. Natural Strengths, Values, and Environment are the core factors that affect personality. In nature, Natural Strengths are like the seeds, Values and beliefs are like the soil and the Environmental conditions are the weather. We can nurture our personal strengths and relationships in many of the same ways we nurture and cultivate a garden.

After researching many creative analogies, I came up with the idea of four vegetables to represent four different personality styles. The idea of vegetables fit so well with the need to create more healthful lifestyles for myself and my coaching clients that I decided to develop workshops and presentations around healthy eating and healthy relationships. After spending a year developing the concept and presenting workshops for a First 5 Sacramento community grant, I began calling the presentations, Color Your Style with Vegetables™. As the workshops grew in popularity, I realized it was important to apply for a copyright, which I completed last year.

I love junk food, reading, research, and writing, so the leap toward a more healthful lifestyle required getting out of my comfort zone. Now I am taking long walks, exercising, and adding color to my plate. Now I am so conscious of color that I rarely have a bland beige meal. If I notice a lack of color, I add spinach, red bell peppers, tomatoes, or carrots. I've learned to enjoy new flavors, textures, and colors in my diet just as I learned to add flavor to my relationships.

The next step to healthful living was to start a garden. I am not a natural gardener. I consider myself more of an "accidental gardener" since I came to gardening in a roundabout way. I started out with enhancing my counseling skills through studying personality development. I learned the value of relationships and developed "Relationships by Design" workshops using the "True Colors" analogy. Now I am using the relationship design concepts combined with the garden vegetables to create a colorful vegetable analogy.

This year I will be blogging my journey through gardening for health, sustainability, career development, and relationship building. I hope you will come with me on my journey toward building a healthier more sustainable lifestyle through gardening. A greener business starts with a greener lifestyle. You are your business!

Living naturally for a safer environment,
-NJ Miller