Time for a Bigger Pot

I’ll be the first to admit that I am no expert when it comes to plants.  We have five plants in the office and some even outside, which by the grace of God, I have not yet killed!  I had a patient a few years ago tell me that one of the plants was root bound and would thrive if it was given a bigger pot.

The plant originally came in a small black non-descript pot and, to dress it up, I placed it in a little bit larger pot without repotting it.  It served its purpose by blending in with the décor of the office and being a quick easy fix.

Following that patient’s recommendation, I purchased a larger pot and some potting soil and went to giving the plant more room to grow.  I jokingly placed the plant, still in that small black non-descript pot, into the larger pot and proclaimed I was done.  It was humorous and we got a kick out of it, but we knew for the plant to live and thrive the plant needed that larger pot.  Then I realized that this was a great illustration of what people do in their own lives.

Too often, when it comes to health (and many other important matters), we simply put the plant with the same small pot into a larger one and proclaim the problem solved.  This is simply dressing up the problem and covering up the symptom.  In the case of my plant, it is obvious that doing that is plain ridiculous.  Have you ever stopped to think it is more ridiculous to treat your body that way?

As just one example, let’s look at heartburn: a nasty symptom that interrupts daily life and can even make a person dread eating...or not eating…or both!  In an effort to cool the burn, people often turn to acid suppressors.  This unfortunately does not fix the underlying problem.  This is the same as taking the small black non-descript pot that has the root bound plant in it and placing it in a larger pot.  It looks prettier; the burn is no longer there but the problems remain. 

In the case of the plant, the roots will continue to be bound up, the plant will starve for nutrients and, as one site put it, “suffocate itself.”  In other words, if a root bound plant is not repotted, it will eventually die.  Human beings are the same way.  If a problem is simply covered up, the body will continue to starve for the nutrients it needs and will be suppressed (suffocated) and the body will continue breaking down.

So, the moral of the story is:  Don’t simply cover your problem up.  Get to the root of the issue and fix it so that you, too, may thrive!  (Pun definitely intended!)