“Think of your mind, your emotions, and your spirit as the ultimate garden. The way to ensure a bountiful, nourishing harvest is to plant seeds like love, warmth, and appreciation, instead of seeds like disappointment, anger, and fear.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within
Beyond the Quote (78/365)
What seeds are you planting today? Are you planting seeds of love, warmth, and appreciation in the garden of your mind? What about in the minds of those around you? Seeds don’t just plant themselves. They need you to produce them first. Some are easier to produce and plant than others. Some get planted and start growing without you even knowing it. Some take a ton of careful attention and hard work to cultivate and nurture to maturity. One thing is for sure though, the ultimate garden of the mind requires constant effort and refinement in order to flourish—and mindfulness is the tool we need to use in order to see what needs to be done.
What you might not realize is that you are already planting seeds. And I’m not talking about a few seeds a day—I’m talking about several seeds every moment of every day. You are like a maple tree who produces thousands of helicopter seeds (samaras) and sends them flying everywhere, every day! The only difference is that instead of this happening during only a few months of a season, this happens every day, year round for you. How we act and react to the situations in our lives produces and sends seeds flying that may or may not take to the garden of our mind. One thing is for certain though: the more seeds of certain type of thought/ action that are produced, the more likely they will be to take, germinate, grow, and develop. How could this not be the case?
These seeds that get produced can be thoughts of disappointment, anger, fear, or they can be thoughts of love, warmth, and appreciation. When you’re mindful, you can actually see what types of seeds you are planting into your ultimate garden. When your monkey mind is in control and you aren’t in tune with what’s happening with your thoughts, feelings, or emotions, then how could you know what types of seeds you’re planting? The light in your mind is turned off. Mindfulness is the light of the mind that allows you to see the garden and the seeds that you have available. Turn your attention inward to see what the status of your ultimate garden is before you do anything else.
When you turn on the light of the mind, what type of seeds do you see? Do you see seeds of calm or seeds of panic? Do you see seedlings of love or seeds of hate? Do you see young plants of anger or young plants of forgiveness? Now take a look at the status of the garden of your mind. What do you see? Do you see weeds or flowers? Do you see dirt or greenery? Do you see fruit or tumbleweed? I can tell you that, come spring, the garden outside my house is going to look barren and dead. It’s the natural consequence of long winters. But by the end of summer, with the proper care and attention, the garden can certainly flourish. Even with no care and no attention it will still flourish—but in the wrong way. I will have a garden of weeds, weeds, and more weeds.
Every day, you need to invest time into the ultimate garden of your mind. While it may feel at times like your mind might be going through a long, harsh winter, within all of us there is an invincible summer—a summer that can’t be touched by even the coldest winter. And so as you approach the tasks of your day today, turn on the light inside your mind and pay attention to what’s going on. What seeds are you planting? What weeds need to be pulled? What needs to be watered? What needs to be cared for? Remember that the grass is always greener… where you water it.
Without daily attention, our ultimate garden can quickly turn against us and turn into the ultimate problem. Because at least you can practice social distancing when you’re experiencing problems with other people, but when you’re having problems with yourself? There’s nowhere to go. Wherever you go, there you are. You might as well confront that garden and start caring for it as though your life depends on it. Because, well, your life does depend on it. You need you at your best. We need you at your best. Especially right now. Especially today. Happy gardening. Good luck.
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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