Your Mind Is A Garden
Think of your mind as a garden. Every thought that you have is much like a seed. Once you have a thought, consider it to be planted in your mind. These thoughts can either be positive or negative; however the important thing is which thoughts you chose to water. If you chose to feed into the positive thoughts, those are the thoughts that will grow. In contrast, if you chose to feed the negative thoughts, those are the ones that will grow. Only you have the power to feed your positives and weed out your negative thoughts.
In this week’s blog we are going to help you build your own garden by breaking it down into four steps: planting, growing, maintaining, and regrowing.
Planting
As we start to think about planting our garden, we have to look at a few factors. One of the first factors is the soil. We need to be sure that we have a proper amount of fresh, nutrient filled soil. Proper soil is equivalent to a healthy mindset. An individual should have the right mindset and good intentions before beginning their garden. Having the proper soil will provide the plants with a nutrient filled foundation and allow the seeds to grow to their fullest potential. Once you have the soil, or mindset, you need to decide which seed, or thought, you are going to plant and grow. This is where you begin to examine your thoughts, both positive and negative, and decide which ones to nourish. It is okay to have both kinds of thoughts, but you can only feed the ones you want to. Setting intentions and creating goals will help you focus on which thoughts you are going to focus on growing, while weeding out the ones that are unwanted.
Growing
Now that you have planted your seeds (thoughts) and set your goals on which ones to grow, you need to focus on each of the seed’s specific needs. This is because not all seeds grow in the same condition. Some seeds need warm weather and consistent water, while others may need little light and only a mist of water every once in a while.
Coming to this conclusion will help you learn how to care for your seeds, much like your thoughts. Thoughts and ideas may need certain actions in order to achieve optimal growth or your end goal. Once you have an understanding of your seed’s needs, you can begin nurturing them. This is done by starting to implement their needs, whatever they may be.
Maintaining
Proper environment is essential for growth. You can not expect your plants to grow if the environment does not meet its needs. This same goes for our minds. You can not expect your thoughts and ideas to grow when you are not in the proper environment. Maybe you have some negative people in your life that seem to always bring down your mood, this very factor can be one of the causes that your garden will not grow to your liking. While we now have an understanding of weeding our minds of negative thoughts, you must do the same thing with negative aspects of your environment.
This stage of growth may occasionally feel frustrating because while you have planted these seeds (thoughts), it may take a while for you too visibly see the growth despite doing all you can to feed them. However, don’t let this discourage you. Plants need time to sit in the soil and soak up it nutrients to help it grow. Without this period in the soil, a plant will not grow to its optimal size. Therefore, just because you do not see growth right away, does not mean that there is no growth present. Just think about it, when we have an idea it does not come to reality instantly, it takes time for it to grow into reality.
Growing and maintaining the garden is essential because without the proper care, we can not see the ideal growth of the plant. Consistency is key here, you want to know your plants needs and help to meet those needs.
Regrowing
Occasionally, plants may not grow the way you planned them too; however, this should not stop you from replanting. As we said before, each plant requires its own set of needs and sometimes those needs can not be met. Whether we are planting in the wrong season or had a misunderstanding of its needs. The important thing now is to learn from the mistakes and take them into account when we try again. You must accept change and understand that it is okay to be unsuccessful. With the proper efforts to relearn and replant, you will be successful.
Now ask yourself, what seeds do I want to plant in my mind? What actions am I going to take to help them grow? Remember that whatever you focus on grows.
