Size doesn’t matter — expansiveness does
May 30th, 2008 by spaceagesage
~ This is the fifth in a series of posts on Creativity, Kindness, Love, Beauty, Expansiveness, Abundance, and Receptivity, which self-help author Dr. Wayne Dyer calls the Seven Faces of Intention. ~
Expansiveness
The Faces of Intention show one inherent quality: they grow and flow as each one is expressed. Creativity, kindness, love, and beauty, as outlined in my previous posts, are not served well with restraints or smallness.
Imagine a flower trying to grow inside too small of a box, an idea shackled by closed minds, or love buried in a corner of the heart. These are the painful opposites of expansiveness.
I know people who horde their supportiveness, meagerly dole out appreciation, and close off their hearts to those around them. Their lives are filled with empty longing for better relationships. I know those who dampen down their artistic talents because of an inner voice or family culture that says “You can’t do this.” Their lives are filled with untouched dreams and forgotten aspirations.
Expansiveness, on the other hand, is alive, growing, flowing, blossoming, dancing, singing, creating, and nourishing. Expansiveness flourishes in the wide open spaces of free hearts and minds yearning to explore the beyond the boundaries of stagnation. When people align themselves with this energy of creation, they resonate with those same qualities.
Chapter 76 of the ancient Chinese text, the Tao Te Ching, puts this kind of twist on the idea:
The living are soft and yielding;
the dead are rigid and stiff.
Living plants are flexible and tender;
the dead are brittle and dry.Those who are stiff and rigid
are the disciples of death.
Those who are soft and yielding
are the disciples of life.The rigid and stiff will be broken.
The soft and yielding will overcome.
Humans are meant to be ever-improving creatures. As humans, we begin small with an egg and a sperm. Flowers, forests, and food plants all begin small, too. But things don’t stay small! Life is about expanding into our potential. Wounds, issues, and doubts may try to limit us, but we were not meant to be limited within prison walls of our own creation. We were meant to dream, to boldly go, to flourish.
Aren’t you ready to fly unhindered this way? Then embrace the concept of expansiveness and put aside limiting thoughts. Find ways to reach, stretch, and grow, whether they be in a friend’s input, a book, or a class.
I found this post while searching for the perfect introductory quote on a web page I created on the symbolim of the rhinoceros.
I used your title line as the quote (and credited your blog) – I thought your title and your post was poignant and befitting to what the rhino was impressing upon me.
You’re welcome to view it here:
The Symbolism of Rhinoceros
I really enjoyed this post you’ve written – it speaks in a language that is both symbolic and is becoming in light of interpretation.
Thanks for sharing.
Namaste,
AVenefica
Avenefica — thanks! Glad you stopped by and could use the title as a quote.