The Mind As A Garden - Weeding
I've often used the metaphor of the mind as a garden, preparing the soil, planting seeds, watering and fertilising the seeds, keeping it clear of weeds, and eventually harvesting the fruits of your labour.
Yesterday I was thrust into the real life garden of my fiance's investment property, and it reinforced the metaphor of the mind as a garden in so many ways.
Armed with my gloves and ratchet sheers, I set off to boldly go where no man had gone before, for the last six months anyway.
The entrance to the garden was blocked by a massively overgrown rose bush. Whilst a rose is not exactly classed as a weed, it just goes to show what happens when you don't look after what you have. For example, ever had a relationship go bad? What was once a beautiful and exhilarating thing, can turn into your worst nightmare.
So for an hour or so I battled with this monster of a rose bush, its think gnarly branches were inextricably intertwined with each other, and the unforgiving thorns made it seem nearly impossible to get through. Eventually I was able to get out of the enclosed patio, into the garden, so that I could attack it at the roots. The rose had become as thick as my wrist at the base, and had climbed onto the roof of the veranda. So entwined it was in itself and the veranda, it was hard to topple, but with relentless focus of effort, it eventually toppled, opening up the rest of the garden for me to attack.
It reminded me of many clients that come to me wanting something in their lives, yet it was impossible to make headway, until we had gotten past the one overarching big issue, that was pervading all areas of their life.
Most of the time, these issues either come from a limiting belief, (usually in the form of not being good enough, or not belonging, or not being loved), or of some past emotional trauma (a physical trauma that the client experienced, a trauma that was witnessed, or something that was said to them), or a something that the client regretted saying or doing to someone else, or some negative hallucinations of how things are going to turn out badly ( eg. "I always mess up"), or of their perceptions of other people.
Whilst removing these negative weeds of the mind is relatively easy, when you know how, getting past that first big one is often the hardest. It's usually been there a long time, and the client is usually attached to it in some form, after all its been their constant companion for a long long time, and they may have fear that they won't know how to live without it.
Once I got past the first big issue of a rose bush, I found a second rose bush that was taking over the gutters and threatening to block off the rest of the garden, the washing line and the vegetable patches.
Another relentless attack on this second overgrown issue soon saw the garden open up even more.
When you first start the process of weeding your mind of negative thoughts, it seems like an impossible task, they seem to be too big, and there are so many of them, that it can just seem too hard. But once you've knocked over a the biggest ones, the rest seem easy in comparison.
There were still a few creepers that hindered the passage into and out of the garden, so they were quickly trimmed back, then I went on to clear a path all the way to the back of the yard. The path seemed completely overgrown, however closer inspection showed that there was a lot of foliage, but only a small root. These were easily pulled out leaving a clear path.
When you weed your garden, do you ever get all the weeds out? No. There are always more. Do you ever get all the weeds out by their roots? No. Sometimes you just pull the leaves off, leaving the root behind. You know its going to grow back. But that doesn't matter. it will be easier to pull out next time, when you do a regular weeding so that your garden and mind never get out of control again.
Now that the path was clear, I turned my attention to the vege patches. What I instinctively wanted to do was pull a weed here, jump to another patch, pull another weed there, and so on, never quite finishing off one patch.
This reminded me once more of how we treat our own lives. Instead of getting one area of our lives sorted out properly, we jump from one area to another, without ever getting one area ready for the next phase.
Take finances for example. With the vege patch, you need to clear the weeds, prepare the soil, plant the seeds, water them, keep watering them, and then come back later to harvest. You don't pull out a weed, go away for a season, then come back at harvest and expect a result. That would be insanity, wishful thinking at best.
So why do we open up a savings account, put in a payment or two, forget about it, go back to watching TV, or start some other scheme, then wonder several years down the track why you are not getting ahead financially? Its the same thing. You need to plant your seed money, your initial investment, then keep watering it, with regular additional payments, fertilise it with the accrued interest, then eventually there will be harvest big enough for you to invest into a bigger asset, that will give a higher rate of return.
I could give examples of this in all areas of life, but I'm sure you are starting to get the picture.
After the vege patches had been cleared one by one, methodically, it was time to rest, lick my wounds from doing battle with the thorns, and celebrate with a nice cold beer.
It's important to reward yourself when you achieve something, it sets you up for success.
Here's to your success,
Trevor Long
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