Your Mind's Garden

Thoughts become reality. I’ve written about this before, and quoted Lao Tzu:

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

I want to share a visualization technique that I learned from my mentor at the Center for Spiritual Living and use with my clients regularly. It helps reinforce the notion that our thoughts create our reality, our destiny. 

First off, it’s important to clarify that completely eliminating negative thoughts is nearly impossible. Even the most enlightened spiritual people have random thoughts of doubt, worry, and fear. However, the skill to hone is to pay no mind to those thoughts, give them zero of your attention. Let them enter, because they will, but don’t “feed” them or nourish them. Instead, convert them into a thought you want to bring into fruition. Turn a thought of worry into one of confidence, a thought of doubt into one of trust, or a thought of fear into one of gratitude. The thoughts you feed and nourish grow the strongest. 

So, let’s begin. Imagine a garden within your mind. This garden is full of beautiful flowers, plants, vegetables, and fruits, but also has weeds. Imagine that each positive, uplifting, encouraging, and helpful thought plants a seed. And those seeds eventually turn into desired plants, like gorgeous flowers, nourishing food, etc. At the same time those wonderful seeds are being planted, each thought residing in doubt, fear, worry, anger, anxiety, helplessness, victimization, etc. also plants a seed, but creates a weed, a plant you do NOT want in your garden. 

Where your attention goes, the plant grows. So deeply visualize your mind’s garden, and consider how many weeds are there? How much attention do you give to the seeds that are unwanted plants? Versus the desired plants of bounty and beauty? Take a few moments to breathe deeply and take stock in your thoughts. How many thoughts do you have a day (THOUSANDS!) and how many of those are seeds you want to plant vs seeds that are destructive to your reality? 

The way to redesign your garden is to focus on the plants you want. The first step is to increase your awareness so that you can become an observer to your thoughts rather than a victim to your thoughts. Realizing that you are having a thought you do not want to have and converting that into a thought you do want is difficult, but just like any muscle you can strengthen, the more you practice, the easier it gets. As a spiritual coach, this is something I help clients with all the time. It’s important to develop habits (yes, re-read the quote pasted above) that support the life you want to build. Habits like meditating, journaling, affirming, and visualizing are vital to creating the ideal garden (destiny) of your dreams. 

You are NOT limited. You are fully capable of building the life of your highest aspirations. Start with this idea of your mind’s garden, first by simply paying attention. Notice the plants that are currently thriving in your garden, become conscious of the seeds you are planting consistently throughout the day (your thoughts), and convert them into the seeds you wish to plant. 

Just like when you plant a real seed in real soil, you have no control over the time it takes that seed to germinate, grow, and mature. Have faith in your thought seeds - know they WILL eventually become the powerful fruits, vegetables, and gorgeous flowers that represent a fulfilling, joyful, peaceful, abundant, and blissful life. It could take days, weeks, months, or years, but eventually it WILL happen. 

You don’t have to navigate planting your garden alone. There are many resources and guides here to help you. If you are interested in changing your thoughts but aren’t sure how, or you want assistance, please reach out. My purpose is to serve humanity, to help people increase their awareness and regain control of their life. I’d love nothing more than to assist you in your soul’s journey. 

Let’s grow gardens of a perfect life, an ideal destiny, the BEST reality we can imagine!