I wish I'd known this earlier. The deeper meaning. Not the superficial, intellectual 'knowing.'
Everything you feed grows. Choose carefully.
Every thought, every belief, every quiet act of attention is nourishment.
It feeds two interconnected stories...:
→ the past you've lived and the future you're creating.
And it shapes both...:
→ how you see yesterday determines the tomorrow you're building.
I've sat in boardrooms where millionaires acted like paupers, starving amidst feasts of their own making.
We traded humanity for spreadsheets, fed anxiety disguised as ambition.
At home, I did the same. Competition over connection; Criticism masking vulnerability.
Outwardly fulfilled, inwardly starving.
From a distance, life looked like a luscious jungle.
But up close it felt barren because I was tending weeds, mistaking them for flowers.
Pause and reflect for a minute...
What are you feeding?
Then came the great reset in 2020.
Hidden from sight. Uncertainty abound.
An opportunity to experiment.
To seek what cannot be found.
One morning, misty grey, the old life miles away, it all clicked: my life isn't fixed, but continuously written by what I choose to feed.
What changed was simple yet profound.
I understood I was both the gardener and the garden.
A belief is a seed planted daily, silently shaping our reality.
It's branches and leaves are the thoughts that sprout.
Our attention nurtures their growth.
By seeding fear, I grew limitation.
By feeding scarcity, I diminished possibility.
And connecting these beliefs was a root idea. The silkworm spinning a thread connecting every belief and story about who I thought I was and who I needed to become.
Krishnamurti saw this clearly when he abandoned his role as 'messiah' to teach that truth is a pathless land.
Einstein knew it when he declared imagination shapes reality.
Frankl proved it by finding meaning even in Auschwitz's ashes.
Different fields, same harvest.
The deepest transformation arises not by acquiring new beliefs, but by dismantling old ones.
Real freedom begins when you stop fertilizing old stories.
So I changed my diet.
→ Fear became curiosity. I nourished what sparked peace and joy: coaching from presence, writing honestly, producing with passion.
→ Hustle became trust. I embraced uncertainty fully: a provocative documentary, nurturing new friendships, exploring simplicity from an RV.
→ Answers became questions. I invested deeply in one profound question: 'Who am I?' Indescribable. Absolute. True.
Your attention is sacred nourishment. It’s the soil, the sunlight, and the rain.
It defines the contours of your clarity, your purpose, and your freedom.
Choose intentionally what you feed.
Pause and ask:
- What fear have I fed at the cost of freedom?
- What purpose have I starved by feeding doubt?
- If my attention is nourishment, what truly deserves it?
Then act.
Choose one belief to feed intentionally today.
Do it for 14 days.
Notice how it reshapes your landscape.
Life isn't fixed.
It's a garden you cultivate.
A thread you consciously weave.
Together, tending to the gardens of our lives,
Zaheer
P.S. Found a seed or thread you'd like help nurturing? Hit reply, I’m right here.
P.P.S. If you missed my letter from last week, read it here: What does your armour cost your soul? (And how can you reclaim it)
