What I Learned From Plants

January 3, 2024May 22, 2025FrancescaSelf Enrichment

This morning, I got the idea for this post when I was transplanting houseplants.

I have several happy houseplants growing inside our home. I do my best to care for them, and they seem to be growing well.

So, what did I learn from the plants?

Pruning changes energy.

I had a spider plant with browned leaves. I began cutting the brown parts off and wound up cutting the plant down to the dirt, leaving a stub.

I thought, “Oh no, I think I killed it,” but then I remembered how I cut down the plants in the yard, and the following year, they grew thicker and fuller. I thought the same thing would happen with houseplants, where they would use their energy to strengthen their roots and grow new foliage.

This is what I hope the spider plant will look like.

By pruning the plant of its off-colored and sickened parts and grooming the roots, I gave it a better chance to live.

If we prune our “off-colored and sickened” parts, we, too, have a chance to get our roots stronger and healthier. What I mean by the “off-colored and sickened” parts is our negative mindset, people, and situations that cause us angst, or our habits that do not serve us well. We “groom our roots” by making peace with our past. We can’t change it, so we have to make peace with it.

Let’s give up the stronghold we have on our upbringing, constantly blaming and wondering why we’re still stuck. This has been quite difficult for me, too, but I’ve been working at it, and it’s getting easier. Once we look at our roots objectively and don’t allow them to affect us anymore, that’s when we know we’ve made peace with them.

Plants only know how to grow.

I know plants don’t have a brain like us, but I believe they use energy like us. They use their energy to grow. I used to use my energy to re-live the past, worry in the present, and dream of a future I didn’t really believe in (otherwise, I’d have achieved my goals). Now, I’m making a more considerable effort to focus my energy on the here and now and what I can do differently to alter the course of my life to grow and blossom. It’s a fun proposition to think about, knowing all we have to do is shift our energy to grow healthier and happier.

Plants are affected by music and positive voices.

Just as a plant likes to be spoken to with kind words and a happy tone, people like that, too. I don’t know about you, but I much prefer to interact with people who are positive and jolly over being with a pessimist. And so do plants.

Plants seem to like relaxing instrumental music. When I’m listening to smooth jazz, I’m calmer and in a better mood. If I put on hard rock, I get tense. So do plants.

Think about what kind of human interaction makes you feel good, and chances are that’s what makes plants feel good, too.

So, let’s learn from plants. Prune the dead stuff off your life, clean up the roots to make them healthier, and talk kinder to yourself. Easy peasy!