The mind is like a garden. What are you planting in your mind?

Over the past week, I’ve noticed all the farm plots near us have been full of activity as the end of this season’s harvest is complete and planting has begun for next season. The local open-air market has been full of leafy greens, broccoli, Asian eggplant, a variety of chili peppers, ginger, plums, peaches, and small green tangerines. All of these ‘fruits’ of harvest started out as seeds that were sown months before. The harvest is the outcome of all the effort gone into tending to each plant from seed to full growth. Both the effort of farmers and energy from nature.

Our mindset is also like this. Depending on what you’ve planted and how you’ve been ‘tending’ to those ‘seeds’, determines what bounty of thoughts, ideas, and emotions will be produced.

Are you planting seeds of love and kindness? Or are you planting seeds of fear, worry, and anger?

How can you tell?

This is where the skill of self-awareness comes in. Reflect over the past week or two. What thoughts have come up over and over again? Which emotions are most prevalent? Notice what mood you’ve been spending the most time in.

ROOTS OF BELIEFS

These thoughts, emotions, and moods are rooted in beliefs. Beliefs are more subtle than thoughts and emotions, and most likely were planted a long time ago in childhood. The fascinating thing about thoughts, emotions, and moods is they can also help to further nourish and grow the beliefs they come from, strengthening them.

So, thought, emotions, and moods are both the outcome of a belief and the perennial seeds that keep that belief alive and thriving for years. This means that changing thoughts, emotions, and moods can change beliefs and vice versa. The big takeaway here is that all of these aspects of our mind-body system can change. Where there’s potential for change, means you have the power to shift those thoughts, emotions, moods and beliefs that aren’t helping you.

Back in Colorado, I planted some hollyhocks a number of years ago in the front of my home. They loved this spot and grew up to 13 feet tall, with blooms almost all summer long. I had to be careful with the seeds that were produced because I learned that those fallen seeds ended up being a big part of my weeding effort the next year. My new habit became cutting off many of the seed pods and giving them away. This just allowed only some of the seeds to become next year’s flowering stalks and I didn’t have to weed quite as much the following year!

WILD MIND STATE

If we let the mind grow wild, it takes over. Just like those hollyhock seeds, if thoughts are allowed to take over your mental garden, they end up running your life leading to feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and powerless. Your thoughts are a part of the mind-body system and a tool for you to use. They are not who you are.

At any point, you can start the process of tending to the garden of thoughts, ideas and beliefs. At first it does take a lot of effort, just like cultivating any wild piece of earth would. But, over time, you can change the chaos of the mind into a beautiful garden, full of the mindset you decide to live by.

Start by asking yourself, “Is this the mind state that I want to continue to nurture and grow?”

Or, are you ready to replant a new mental garden and grow a new mindset?

‘REPLANTING’ THE MIND

There are 5 things to remember when you start on the journey of creating new mental garden:

1. It’s a process! Ask any gardener how long it took them to create their garden just as they had desired and most will tell you ‘years’ and that the work doesn’t stop. Once the groundwork is laid, maintenance is required.

2. Set your intention. What are you trying to cultivate? What do you want to invite more into your mental garden? Choose 1-3 characteristics and let that be your guide.

3. Take action towards your intention. You can read all you want about creating a calm mind, if that is your intention. But nothing is going to happen unless you take action and do the work.

4. Be consistent, practice something every day. Once a garden is planted, the maintenance has to happen, such as weeding, watering, pruning. The more consistent you are with ‘weeding’, the easier it is. If your action is to speak more kindly to yourself and others, trying to do this once a day versus ‘when I remember’ is going to yield much different results.

5. Set reminders. How many times have we all set an intention to change our mind state, then after a week or so, get side-tracked and distracted. Then the mind goes back to where it was? Reminders help! You can write yourself notes, put reminders in your phone, and find an accountability buddy. Get creative. What do you need to help motivate yourself and get up if you fall back?

GREAT TIME TO START!

Change of seasons is such a great time to set an intention to transform your mind! Other things are changing like daily routines as days grow shorter and switching out clothes to meet cooler weather. Take advantage of this natural time of change to do one thing different to create the mental state you desire.

Shanti.

P.S. If you’ve tried meditation before and want to try again to make it a lifestyle habit, or have been wanting to start meditating, then consider joining me in November for my 4-week, Learn to Meditate Course. Keep an eye out for more information later this month! 🧘🏼