Learning about anxiety from Biosphere 2
Trees grew much faster in there than they did in the wild, but they would not fully mature. They would collapse on themselves before they could reach their full height.
It was confusing.
Biosphere 2 is owned by the University of Arizona. It’s basically a mini Earth, and scientists use it for research of the living systems of our planet. It’s more than three acres of a giant terrarium and is the largest closed system ever created. But they noticed something interesting: trees grew much faster in there than they did in the wild, but they would not fully mature. They would collapse on themselves before they could reach their full height. It was confusing. They had light and soil and water and all the things you would think would make a tree feel really happy.
Eventually, someone finally figured out that there was one important thing that was missing from the tree’s environment.
Wind.
The wind keeps trees constantly moving. And that turns out to be stressful for the tree, to be bent and pushed back and forth all the time. But it is stressed in a good way. Because the trees, in response, grow something that is called stress wood. (It’s actually called STRESS WOOD.)
Stress wood has a different cellular structure than the rest of the wood in the tree, and because of that, it can shift the placement of the tree to access more light or other resources. So the stress is actually what causes the tree to seek out what it needs to survive and find a better position. That’s why we sometimes see trees in those awkward shapes, bent at usual angles or pushing up the concrete sidewalk.
But within Biosphere 2, where there is no wind, no resistance, the trees don’t develop that ability to be resilient. They grow up weaker and without the ability to adapt. They don’t know their own strength, nor do they know that they have the ability to grow around that obstacle. They don’t know that they are capable of adjusting themselves to get what they need. An easy life leads to weak, collapsing trees.
You get where I’m going with this, right?
My anxiety is the wind. It’s almost always there, sometimes it’s just a light breeze, other times it’s the icy whipping wind that stings my face — but standing up to that resistance is what makes me stronger. It’s what causes me to develop the resilience to stand up under the weight of myself.
I’m not saying we need to be martyrs, or we need to relish our suffering. But when we accept that the struggles can help make us more resilient, we can find the gratitude.
And we can move the damn sidewalk if we need to.