Manifesting and Ripe timing: what happens when you stop pushing and forcing and allow things to bloom naturally?

Do you believe things happen for a reason at just the perfect time?
Or do you think, for things to actually happen, you need to push and make them grow and come into bloom?

In January 2022, while recording a video for the Ready Set Grow program, I stated the LifeGardener book was due to come out in April. It didn’t. In fact, it was five more months until the book fully bloomed and I was able to share it – September 1, 2022. The book idea was seeded two years before when I began writing my first draft as part of a writer’s group mentoring program called Manuscript Mastery, under the guidance of the highly skilled Emma Franklin Bell. If I knew back then it’d be two years before I held my book in my hands, I might have given up.
But this book journey has reaffirmed my belief in the power of ‘Ripe Timing’ – that many things in our life, no matter how we push them to happen, have a way of blossoming at just the ‘right’ time.

Have you ever said to yourself: ‘Wow, I am so glad that didn’t happen until right now,” then felt deeply grateful for all the things beyond your control that delayed the blossoming? It all just seems to make sense that this thing happens right now.

Here are three ‘ripe timing’ events from my own life:

• My book was delayed for many reasons – moving house, Covid lockdowns, busy work periods, family accidents and illness, availability of my proofreader, illustrator and designer. In some cases, these delays were several months long. When I sat back down with my manuscript after months away from it, I had a fresh new perspective and as a result, I deepened by writing and rewrote the whole front section. As it turned out the blossoming of the book in spring (September 1) just felt right!
• My first mortgage took 50 years – I spent most of my life as a tenant, renting my home and avoiding the stress and burden of a mortgage. There were many reasons I wasn’t ‘ready’ to carry the responsibility of mortgage repayments. When Guy and I put the key in the door of our south coast home I had a rush of magic sweep through me. I wasn’t just feeling into the excitement, but the ripe timing. I was ready. We were ready. And as far timing goes, you couldn’t get any riper. The market went skywards just after we settled in that first week of lockdown in March 2020.
• Working for myself was a scary idea – In April 2022, after more than 12 months of thinking about it, I finally took the leap and left the security of my full-time job to start my own contracting business. I delayed because around the time I was going to leave, another staff member left. I wanted to do the right thing by my manager and not leave her short staffed. But I was looking for excuses to stay. I was scared that, despite there being a lot of demand for contractors in my field, I wouldn’t find work. The thought of not being able to support my family and pay the mortgage was frightening. My waiting turned out to be perfect. Not only did I feel good about not leaving my manager short-staffed, but the day I resigned I got a call with a six-month contract offer.

 
Ripe timing is about YOU being ready
In all of the examples above, the ‘ripe timing’ came about because I was ripe and ready too. I wasn’t sitting back just wishing my dreams would magically manifest. I was getting ready. I was taking my steps and paying attention to the opportunities for ripening.
For fruit to ripen, the soil needs to hold just the right nutrients for growth. And the conditions need to be right – just enough rain or water and sunshine.
This way of nature is no different in us than the fruit tree.

‘Ripe timing’ isn’t about surrendering your will and responsibility to the will of nature, or a convenient excuse for procrastination. It’s an understanding that when we grow and cultivate things in our life we are actually co-creating. Nothing in our lives happens purely by our own hand.
Cultivating is the LifeGardener version of manifesting, and requires consciousness and the willingness to take responsibility for your own part while acting in tune with the rhythms and cycles of nature. It’s about both planting your own steps and trusting nature’s ‘Ripe’ timing.

How do you know when the time is ripe?
Next time you can feel yourself pushing hard to make something happen by force, pause and ask yourself why this feels so hard. Give yourself time to answer the question and feel into the energy within yourself and surrounding this project or task.
Ask yourself:

• Why does this thing have to happen?
• Is it something I really want to happen?
• Is there a way of stepping back and finding the natural ‘ripe timing’ for this to happen?
• Am I wiling to let this be for now?

Just observe what arises within you as you answer these questions.

Take a few moments to reflect on the times in your life when you did trust the timing was ‘ripe’ and allowed something to blossom naturally in yourself or your life. FEEL into that so that, next time you notice yourself pushing hard, you can choose that feeling once again and reconnect to the co-creation of ‘ripe timing.’
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