How Plants Help Us to Become Better Leaders
I’ve been reflecting on leadership lately, what it truly requires, and how we can support ourselves while supporting others. This piece is about how the plant kingdom has quietly guided me toward balance, presence, and resilience. I hope it offers a moment of reflection and inspiration for your own journey.
When we are in positions of leadership, one of the most fundamental things we need is the ability to self-regulate our emotions and behaviour, to hold and help others as well as ourselves. Self regulation is the act of tending to our more challenging emotions and thoughts to allow us to process them in a healthy way.
Being in a role of leadership means we need to be able to have authentic, vulnerable, and heart-centered discourse, so that we can find our own center and lead from there, and help others to find their center and lead from there themselves.
So how do plants help us to become these leaders? How do plants help us to embody and become all that we need in order to lead?
Plants can be are great allies to us. Plant medicine helps heal our bodies, our minds, and our emotions, leading us deeper into our knowing and our becoming as people. When we are regulated, when we take walks, go outside we are co-regulating with the living world, with the plants, with the trees. This helps us to be great leaders because it gives us the space and the steadiness that comes through connection with the plant kingdom. We connect with the trees and plants for reflection, for inspiration, for space, and for peace.
When we turn to plants allies to help us move through difficult or challenging transitions, they support us as we bridge into the unknown. As leaders, we often find ourselves trailblazing, helping others to move into new territory, and guiding both them and ourselves toward the best version of who we can be. In those times, it can be easy to move too quickly, to feel the pressure of the world moving at great speed, and this can sometimes lead to burnout.
To keep one foot in the slow-paced inner world while still meeting the outer world, herbal adaptogens are wonderful allies. Rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea) for calm sustained endurance, helping us to find a lighter way or an adaptogen like Ashwagandha (Ashwagandha somnifera) increasing our capacity to hold what's happening so we can let go. They help us balance ourselves as beings, supporting us to keep pace with life while still respecting our own body and nervous system.
Nervines such as Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) that can help to regulate the nervous system and bring us out of fight, flight, or freeze. Milky oats (Avena sativa) and chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) can bring a calming quality if we are feeling particularly stressed, on edge, or dysregulated. We can also turn to nervines when we are feeling particularly overstimulated, when everything feels heightened and it’s hard to come back to calm.
Plants medicine can aid us in emotional times when we need support and understanding. As leaders, there are often moments when mentorship is not available, when we must find our own way. Sometimes the emotional support we need is not easily found, and we can turn to plants spirits for help. They can assist us in processing what is happening in our lives; the loss of a loved one, grief from conflict, or any experience that has not yet found peace or resolution.
We can turn to plant spirits like Rose (Rosa spp.) to help open the heart, or to Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) for protection and strength. Sometimes we may call upon the endurance of the Oak (Quercus robur) to help us move through difficulties with steadiness. Flower or vibrational essences such as Oak, Rose or Hawthorn can help us through turbulent times and matters of the heart.
There are also plants allies that help to bring conflict into resolution. As leaders, we often find ourselves needing to take a restorative approach, and plants can help guide our awareness and consciousness in this process. Marshmallow (Althea officinalis) can help smooth the path, bringing sweetness and ease, while White Pine (Pinus strobus) holds the energy of peaceful resolution, whether within ourselves or between others.
The Plant Kingdom Plants supports us in countless ways: by nourishing our bodies, restoring balance, bringing us into peaceful relationships with the living world, and helping us to come into homeostasis and healing after challenges or illness. They help us to be the best versions of ourselves, to slow down, to take a breath, and to find our inner resources. They give us strength, endurance, and the capacity to tend to our heartfelt sorrows while continuing to lead, to walk, and to share with others.
The plant kingdom offers many doorways for managing our lives and deepening leadership. Through their presence, we are reminded of peace, love, health, and abundance. Every person needs this connection, but especially those who step into leadership roles, for they are helping others to grow and to heal.
Plants are great helpers, who help us to help.
If you feel called to deepen your understanding of plants and their wisdom, join our Shamanic Herbalism Apprenticeship.
