Lana Lontos and I just finished teaching a 3 week Coaching + Mindfulness workshop – during the 2nd week I introduced a concept which I called my Bonsai Theory of Essential Needs.
What if you treated taking care of yourself and all your essential needs (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, financial etc) with the same care and precision that a bonsai tree requires to thrive?
Applying the same exacting approach to what you need to be happy and healthy is a powerful way to understand how you interact with the world and what support you need to be your best self.
Coaching Exercise:
Draw a large circle or plant/tree in the middle of a blank piece of paper or on a Bristol board. Write all your essential needs (i.e. cannot commute more than 2 hours per day, needs to live near a body of water, needs 8 hours of sleep etc) in the middle of the circle/plant/tree and see if any words come up in a repeated way. When I did this exercise during the workshop, the word FLOW popped up repeatedly. You can refer to your specific Bonsai Tree needs when making a decision about work or community or relationships.
[originally published February 2020]
Dr. Cynthia Chan 