THOUGHTFUL EFFORTS PRODUCE RICH REWARDS

Photo by Tiberiu: on Pexels

AN ALLURING PROSPECT

It starts with a single orchid. Their universal appeal is so strong that they lure many professional and amateur growers into testing and refining their skills by growing them. Describing her own experience, orchid grower and author Erica Hannickel writes, “It started like most orchiholic stories do: I was given a phalaenopsis, I stumbled into making it rebloom, and I was off to the races. I now own 150+ orchids and grow most of them indoors year-round.”

Successfully satisfying the unique and often complex growing processes of orchids requires knowledge and a few key methods. Some replicate rain forest conditions where they grow without soil under the canopy of tall trees. Orchids leverage their strong root systems for absorbing water from the air and collecting nutrients from mosses growing above them. Their leaves convert dappled sunlight into fuel for plant operations. They adapt to fluctuating day and nighttime temperatures and maintain symbiotic partnerships with local microbes, getting them to produce additional nutrients that would normally derive from the soil.

A CONSISTENT PROCESS MAKES GROWTH POSSIBLE

The prospect of growing orchids may seem challenging at first, but successful growers learn that all of the plant’s needs can be met by consistently utilizing a few key processes. These growers know that in the absence of even one seemingly small step an otherwise healthy plant may never bloom. Beautiful blooms are the obvious reward for the grower’s efforts, but fragrance, leaf color, plant size, and a variety of other attributes contribute their own delights.

“[Orchids] are different from other plants,” writes New York Botanical Garden orchid curator Marc Hachadourian, “but with a foundation of knowledge about their history, ecology and diversity, any home gardener or houseplant enthusiast can succeed.”

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Fortunately the keys to growing beautiful orchids are easy to describe. They include having a compelling desire, acquiring knowledge, and consistently using effective growing processes.

It is easy to see how these keys could enable success in other endeavors such as growing a vegetable garden, making wine, or mastering a new language. However, the role they might play in helping us grow high levels of health and well-being is not as obvious.

Looking closer, we can see three similarities between successful approaches for growing orchids and successful approaches for growing health:

1. Desire for having beautiful blooming orchids as well as for having high levels of health is universally appealing.
2. Special knowledge and techniques for growing beautiful orchids and high levels of health exist, although methods for growing health are not as well known..
3. Consistently using effective processes enables success with orchids as well as health.

Processes for successfully growing orchids are more developed and refined than processes for growing health. Because most of our health-related activities—and investments—are devoted to treating illness, we don’t know as much about growing health and well-being.

Here’s where applying the keys for successful orchid growing to health building may help us close the gap and bring visibility and urgency to the need to achieve more success in building health. Like growing a beautiful orchid so that it will bloom again and again, we discover that cultivating high health leads to flourishing.

BEYOND TRIAL AND ERROR: A COMMUNITY OF EXPERIENCED GROWERS

“What are you reading?” the receptionist in the auto-service facility asked while I was waiting for my car. She was thrilled when I showed her my photo-filled book on growing orchids.

She had just purchased her first orchid plant—a white phalaenopsis in bloom—because it was so beautiful in the grocery store where she was shopping. She was determined to maintain its beauty, but the sum total of her orchid-growing knowledge was what she had read on the plant’s tag. I encouraged her to watch some YouTube videos and to not to give up if her initial efforts failed. If she stays with it, hopefully she will join a community of experienced growers who will offer her inspiration, proven methods, and ongoing support. Given the progress of orchid growing in the US over the last 100 years, many such groups are available.

Information on successfully growing health can be found online, too, though it is not as developed or organized. Specific knowledge, proven practices, access to experienced mentors, and a community of like-minded enthusiasts are desirable features of a good health-building resource—much like the High Health Network. Network members have the option to learn by trial and error, but most want the best returns on their health-building efforts. Using the keys to success makes this possible.

For the best returns for you or your company’s health-building efforts, contact us and find out more.

Joyce M. Young, MD, MPH
Managing Director, Advanced Wellness Systems
Lead Expert for the High Health Network

Photo by Markus Spiske:

Sincerely,

Your colleagues at Advanced Wellness Systems