An Onion, an Artichoke, and a Heart...

walked into a bar. Ok, Now for the heart of the matter. All puns intented.

In a recent session working with my coach, I threw a temper tantrum that would have put a two-year-old to shame. It was a screamer with lots of tears and snot. You know the kind I’m talking about.

“Why am I still here? I’ve been working on this shit for so long. When is the onion going to be peeled and I will have arrived at my destination?”

You know what people say when they are on a journey of self-improvement or healing. (Healing is probably self-improvement. My last statement may be redundant, but I’m leaving it.) So each time we work on something and overcome the issue, experience, or belief, we say we are peeling off another layer of the onion.

I was doing a Facebook Live in my Facebook group, Empowered Daily Living, and I had this image that I thought was pretty profound. I later posted about it on my personal Facebook page. If you want to hear it, head over there. (insert link)

What if, rather than each time we approach one of the experiences or beliefs that is holding us back, we think about an artichoke rather than an onion?

Imagine an artichoke. You steam it, get out the melted garlic butter, aioli, mayo, or whatever it is that you like to dip your artichoke leaves in. And then you peel a leaf off, scrape it against your teeth and enjoy the goodness. Then you do it again for the next learning you want to have. And again, and again.

You see, when I looked at the healing journey as an artichoke, I was able to find a gift in each leaf. Whereas, with an onion, I don’t see what the gift is. I don’t really like to eat onions as a snack. That little piece of meat or goodness on each artichoke leaf is a gift that will sustain me as I move forward.

And then I thought, “The artichoke heart is my favorite part. And if it’s like the onion, I’ll never get to it.” SAD!

But let’s compare that onion to the artichoke. The onion has thousands of layers to peel. The artichoke, not so many. So what if I look at a specific process of healing for a part of the journey? And each of the artichoke leaves is part of the work to get to the point where I’ve been empowered to move forward? Then, the artichoke heart can be the gift I give myself.

This mind shift works for me. It makes sense and provides me little rewards along the way. Nourishment to keep going to get to the heart. To get to my heart. Because healing, to me, is about getting to the heart.

It’s all about the heart.

Whatever we are waiting for - peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance - it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.

-Sarah Ban Breathnach