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The mind is a garden

compassion gardening health joy mind mind training mindset state of mind well-being Jun 19, 2020
 

An Apple a Day

The mind is like a garden. You get what you cultivate. Your garden can be healthy, productive, and produce a healthy crop as long as you pay attention, put in personal effort, and apply your skill and care meticulously.


Your well-being and health depend on how you tend to your MIND.


If you are not skillful at mastering the mind, the mind is in control of YOU and it will pull you in all directions. This is exhausting, counter productive, it is the cause of your pain and struggles, and it blocks your progress in your business and your life.

 

What does it take to grow a healthy, productive garden?

1. Effort

I am looking at our garden right now. It's lush and green. We put a lot of work into it:

  • We carefully constructed our garden boxes.
  • We mixed the soil, manure, peat moss, and vermiculite, based on research and know-how of garden experts.
  • Each box was filled with the soil, one wheelbarrow load at a time.
  • The garden boxes were mapped out on paper, with the location of the seeds, so we know what to expect in each square.
  • The seeds were carefully placed in their ideal spot, and we ensured that the soil was damp enough for the seeds to sprout.

Every day, sometimes more than once, we check the state of the garden:

Are there any weeds that need pulling?
Is the soil damp enough, or do we need to water?
Do the potatoes need more soil?
Do the peas and tomatoes need stakes to support them?
Do we need to harvest any of our crop that is ready?
Are there any critters around that we need to protect our garden from?

 

When you grow a garden you do what it takes to grow a healthy crop and you recognize and accept the reality of risks and challenges:

  • Too much rain or sun
  • Hail or wind
  • Critters that eat the roots, leaves or crop before it’s ready

You don’t let those conditions, that you cannot control, phase you in any way. You continue to put in your personal effort. You investigate, you put in the work, you care.

You also don’t blame the squash plant for not producing any squash. Blaming is futile and rather silly when you think about it. Things just happen, life happens, and it's not always what you want. It isn't a problem, unless you make it a problem. The mind will make it a problem and create a drama: "Oh no!!! it's too cold and wet, my crop isn't growing!"

It's not a problem. No big deal. Do your best to deal with it, but don't make it bigger than it is, because then it does become a bigger deal.

 

2. Pay attention, practice, skill.

You don’t let a failed crop stop you. You learn, you plant more seeds, pull the weeds, adjust the soil. You strive to master the skill of gardening and never stop learning and try not to repeat your mistakes. You pay attention to what happens in your garden, and even if the radishes didn’t turn out well, you don’t give up.

Tending your garden is a daily practice, effort, and skill. The results depend on your commitment.


Your mind is your garden.

If you wish to be well and healthy you must tend to your garden. If you wish to be more successful in your business and your life, you must tend to your garden. If you wish to feel free, peaceful, and at ease, then you must tend to your garden: your MIND.

Just like with a garden:

  1. You have to put in personal effort
  2. You have to pay attention, practice, and develop skill

EVERY SINGLE DAY

Your state of mind is like the soil in your garden. It's what you plant your seeds in.

Health and well-being depend on your state of mind. Your state of mind is like the state of the soil. Nothing grows in dry soil with no nutrients, or soil that is not cultivated and suitable for growth.

Health and well-being cannot be sustained in a stressful, fearful, resentful or hateful state of mind.

Your state of mind is the foundation to cultivating health and well-being.

  • Are you aware of and paying attention to your state of mind?
  • Are you aware of your moods, beliefs, attitudes, and habits?
  • How do you view the world, yourself, and other people?

A healthy state of mind comes from a deep understanding of the true nature of things. Put in the effort to cultivate a clear, calm, peaceful state of mind. Pay attention to anything that pulls you out of that state. Train the mind, practice, and become skilled at mastering the mind and spend more and more time in a calm state of mind. Create a POWERFUL mindset.

 

Your thoughts and words are like the seeds in your garden.

What are you planting, seeds or weeds?

Your thoughts can be the seeds or the weeds. Thoughts that are negative and repetitive are the weeds. Thoughts that are wholesome and produce a feeling of well-being are the seeds that bring you the results you want.

Pay attention to what thoughts you allow to enter into and occupy your mind. You know by how you feel whether you have allowed unwholesome thoughts to overgrow the wholesome ones. When this happens, you’ll feel overwhelmed, confused, tired or lethargic, bored, frustrated, etc. Instead of seeing clearly, and feeling free, ease, joy, compassion, peace or love. When you feel stuck, overwhelmed, not productive, indecisive, or pulled in all directions, you are letting the weeds overtake your mind.

Are you putting in the effort?

Do you pull the weeds by the root, provide nourishment, and check in frequently during the day? The best way to prevent weeds from overgrowing is to prevent them from growing: pull 'em out right away. Stop your thoughts from taking root if they are causing problems, pain, or suffering in your life. This takes personal effort. There is no one or nothing to blame for your pain and suffering. Don't make it a bigger problem. Pay attention, put in the work, be consistent, persistent and committed, day after day.

Are you allowing pests and poison to contaminate your mind?

What are you reading? Who and what do you listen to? Are you letting others decide what to think and how to feel? Is your mind convoluted with bias and untruths? Are you inquisitive and do you ask the right questions? Or are you blindly following judgements, opinions, ‘evidence’ and ideologies without investigating, reflection, and thinking for yourself? When large groups of people are claiming they know what is going on and they have the facts to prove it, if it's poison, would you take it in and join them? How do you know it's poison? Well, it doesn't feel good at all. It creates fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, division, resentment, violence, etc.

Be aware of the poisons and pests. Reflect upon any information that you come across and don't take it in if it isn't wholesome.

Worry is a pest. Are you wasting your time and effort on worrying about circumstances you cannot control?
Do you let your circumstances and conditions determine how you feel, think, and act?

Worry does not feel good at all and can easily shift into anxiety. Find words of wisdom. How do you know it is wisdom? Because you feel a sense of relief, you feel better.

 

Start doing this:

There is only one way to grow a sustainable garden and there is only one way to create a balanced life filled with well-being and peace.

Train the mind.  The mind is the creator.

1. Don't make anger, greed, agitation, worry, anxiety, or sorrow permanent residents in your mind. They are weeds. Pull them out one by one.

Replace them with seeds of kindness, joy, love, and peace. The only way to experience true happiness is when you create it from within. Don't depend on outside conditions for your health and happiness. It is not sustainable.

Your success in your business and life depends on it.

 

2. Look for wisdom and listen to the voice of wisdom. Make reflection and self-reflection part of your daily routine. Check in with yourself frequently during the day and notice how you feel and what thoughts occupy your mind. Be aware of your state of mind.

3. See the good in others, generate compassion for all beings. Practice unconditional love and kindness for yourself, your friends and family, and all beings, including your enemies, regardless of the circumstances and conditions. Make this a part of your daily routine too. Take the time to generate a feeling of well-being inside and radiate that out to all beings.

 4. Make meditation a daily practice.

How do you live a healthy, happy life?

With effort, practice, and skill. Now is a good time and place to start training your mind and plant seeds of ultimate well-being in healthy soil.

Learn more about training the mind and my life coaching here: https://www.ernastassen.com/coaching-packages

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