Finding Your Way Through the Forest: Overcoming Obstacles and Gaining Perspective

 You decide to go for a hike. It’s a beautiful day, the sun high in the sky, birds singing from the treetops. You’re cruising along the trail, listening to your favorite podcast or playlist, maybe just the calming sounds of nature. You venture off the trail here and there to check out a stream or take a picture of a cool rock outcropping. One of those times you go a little too far and when you turn back you’re not able to find the trail. Shit. You keep going in the direction you thought you’d come from but still no trail. You stop to reassess, make a couple 360 degree turns, looking for anything recognizable. But all you can see are trees. Trees so thick they seem to make a solid mass. Then panic starts to settle in as you realize the inevitable: you’re lost. The irony is, if you could rise up above the trees, you would see that the trail is only fifty feet to your left. But you’re not above the trees, you’re in the middle of them, each an obstacle between you and where you want to go. 

So this is a literal translation of an old saying you’ve probably heard: Can’t see the forest for the trees. It’s a metaphor describing how people can get so caught up in the details that they’re unable, or unwilling, to see the whole picture. And it’s so easy to do, right? Maybe you run a small business and you feel like you spend all your time putting out little fires. If you could pull back and look at the situation from a 30,000 foot view, it would become clear to you that there is a bigger problem that needs to be addressed, the thing that’s starting all the little fires in the first place. But being able to do that is a skill, and if it’s one that doesn’t come to you naturally (for most people it doesn’t) then it’s definitely one you can train.

For the last couple of years, Kyle has been having health problems. He’s been to see every type of doctor, specialist, healer, and snake oil salesman. But every time he starts to feel better, something else pops up. Kyle is in the middle of the forest, surrounded by trees called high blood pressure, anxiety, insomnia, digestive problems, and the list goes on. He’s so focused on treating each individual symptom that he’s unable to see what’s causing them to begin with: stress. Kyle works as an analyst with a big capital investment firm. Every day, billions of dollars move across the market based on Kyle’s calculations. And every day, he’s just one wrong move away from finding himself on the unemployment line. The only way Kyle is going to get his body back to a place of health and vitality is to learn how to manage the stress he experiences at work.

But the forest and trees thing isn’t always about finding the solution to a problem; sometimes it’s about not seeing what’s right in front of us. Aubrey always has something to complain about. Her boss is an asshole. Her workmates are incompetent. Her boyfriend doesn’t pay enough attention to her. There always seems to be something under Aubrey’s skin, and if there isn’t at the moment, you can be sure she’s going to find one. It’s no wonder she spends most of her days completely miserable. When she’s tired of living like that, Aubrey can learn to stop focusing on the trees and start to see the forest around her. For one, she’s alive, right? That’s a pretty good forest to be in. She has a job, can support herself. She has a boyfriend who loves her and cares for her, even if she can’t see it right now. When she’s able to recognize and appreciate that her forest is a rich and nourishing place to live, she can start looking at the trees from an entirely new perspective and she can learn to manage them more effectively.

So what are your trees? And how deep into the forest are you? At IMS we take a two pronged approach so that you can learn to not only see the forest for the trees, but to see the forest AND the trees. Join us for our Power Series where we tend the trees. We’ll give you the tools, techniques and strategies for pruning your trees, feeding them, finding the ones you didn’t know were there, and sometimes just pulling them right out by the roots. Then join us for Reset where we step back and take in the forest. Spend four days at our nature retreat where we tend to the body, the mind, and nervous system, and come away with a new understanding and appreciation of the forest you live in.

Click HERE to learn more about the Power Series, and HERE to learn more about Reset. But don’t just sit around staring at the trees, sign up today!