Staying true to your values — why it will help you flourish

This blog was inspired by a Headspace video on the life of a peony.

A plant like a peony looks dead in the winter. But below the ground, it’s still alive. The roots, the plant’s soul, wait patiently for spring and warm weather, sending up new shoots and starting the cycle of birth again.

The roots give plants their continuity. In winter, we only see desiccated brown stems, slowly stripped back by the wind and rain, until nothing is left. But buried in the soil, hidden from raging torrents, the roots rest, conserving energy until the sun arrives again.

Without roots the peony can’t survive. They provide both stability and nourishment. They anchor the plant when it’s windy and they absorb nutrients from the soil, helping it grow and reproduce. A peony can live for decades and it’s the roots that are the permanent fixture, when the impermanent stalks, flowers and leaves are gone.

Once a peony grows, the root system needs to follow, spreading to counterbalance the peony’s new height. And now the leaves also have to get to work, using photosynthesis to turn the light into nutrients, sending them to the roots. This cycle continues back and forth — the yin-yang between roots and plant. Each has the other’s back.