This week, I had the pleasure of spending a few days in the mystical beauty of Sedona, teaching classes at the Hot Yoga Sedona studio. Sedona always has this way of grounding me, and I could feel that energy shift as I immersed myself in the classes and the stunning natural surroundings.
After one of my classes, I bumped into Sean, someone I’ve known for a while. He came over for a chat and opened up about his recent move to Sedona for some much-needed soul searching. Sean shared that his life had been a bit of a whirlwind—he had quit his job, ended a relationship, and realized he hadn’t been focusing on his health or yoga practice. In his words, his life felt like a mess, and he had come to Sedona to work on himself.
I admired Sean’s honesty and his willingness to admit where he was in life. It takes courage to face the mess head-on and say, "I’m here to work on me." But what really struck me was when Sean mentioned his main struggle—hitting a plateau. He said he’d start something, feel inspired, but quickly get bored when he wasn’t seeing progress. That’s when I was reminded of the story of the farmer, which seemed like the perfect lesson to share with him.
I told Sean the story like this:
"Long ago, there was a farmer who desperately needed water for his crops. He started digging a well into the hard earth, hoping to find it. After digging a hole deep enough to cover his head but finding no water, the farmer gave up and decided to dig another well elsewhere. Days turned into weeks, and six-foot-deep holes dotted his entire property. Tired and frustrated, he would toss his shovel aside each day and walk home, disheartened. But every morning, he’d wake up, grab the shovel again, and start digging a new hole in a different spot.
One day, his neighbor stopped by, baffled by all the holes. He asked the farmer, ‘What are you doing?’ The farmer replied, ‘I’m digging a well.’ The neighbor, shaking his head, said, ‘You’ll never find water that way. The water table here is ten feet below the surface. Unless you dig deeper, you’ll never find what you’re looking for.’"
As I shared this story, I could see the wheels turning in Sean’s mind. It’s a lesson that has shown up in my own life over and over again—the reminder that depth matters. Whether it’s work, relationships, or even our yoga practice, we can’t go deeper in anything unless we first find that depth within ourselves.
The farmer’s story has a deeper meaning. His well represents our lives, the farmer is each of us, and the shovel symbolizes the tools we use to dig deeper—whether that’s through yoga, meditation, journaling, hiking, time in nature, or any other practice that helps us connect with our inner self. The problem is, like the farmer, we often dig shallow holes all over the place, hoping to strike gold without ever going deep enough in one spot to find it.
It’s like the ocean: most of us are swimming in the shallow waters, not realizing that the real treasures are found when we choose to dive deep.
So, let me ask you, what do you do to go deeper? How are you using your "shovel" to dig beyond the surface, to find the real depth in your life, your relationships, your work? What treasures could you uncover if you stopped digging all those shallow holes and just went deeper in one place?
In the end, it’s about commitment, about staying the course long enough to find the wellspring we’re all searching for.
Deeper Meaning: The deeper message of the farmer’s story is that real progress, whether in our spiritual practice, our careers, or our relationships, requires persistence and depth. We live in a world that often glorifies instant gratification, but true fulfillment comes when we take the time to dig deep, to go beneath the surface, and to commit to the journey. The water we’re looking for, the treasures we seek, are never found in shallow efforts but in our willingness to stay with something long enough to find its depth.
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