How does your mental garden grow?

Take a moment to imagine your mind as a mental garden. It can be a beautiful place to spend time, with peace-filled thoughts and wonderful pathways to explore.

by Sandy Jones — 

Many of us, at times, get lost in the quagmire of life and feel bumped around and victimized. We think we have no control, no power, no peace. We feel rushed and stressed.

During those times, remember that energy follows thought; therefore, we create what we experience with our every thought.

Be still and know that peace is possible. It takes only a second to change your mind. Take a moment to imagine your mind as a mental garden. It can be a beautiful place to spend time, with peace-filled thoughts and wonderful pathways to explore.

You can choose serenity and feel the liquid pleasure of peace flowing through you like a river. When you are still and quiet, your mind can be a place where you go for safety; you can use it to create and imagine the limitless possibilities of your experiences.

As the gardener, you get to choose which thoughts stay and which thoughts will nurture the inner beauty of your mind. You have the power to choose to weed out the thoughts that can wreak havoc and bring forth chaos to both your inner and outer experience. If you invest in negative thoughts, they continue to grow and, before you know it, your beautiful garden is overgrown with weeds that strangle the lovely flowers that once grew there.

Pay attention to which thoughts come in as you awaken each day. Listen. Find out if you are focused on thoughts of resentment toward the alarm clock and having to go to work, or if you are focused on thoughts about creating a day of magnificence.

Tune into your mental garden and take care of it as a wise gardener would. Fertilize it with nurturing thoughts of love, joy and peace. Breathe in deeply and allow the oxygen to flow through. Fill your thoughts with hope and happiness. Keep your mind open to endless possibilities. You might be surprised as you do, for life on the inside creates life on the outside.

You have all the tools you need to tend and nurture your mental garden. Recognize that your thoughts are a choice. You choose how your mental garden grows.

Sandy Jones worked as a designer, teacher, software specialist and entrepreneur in the tech industry for 25 years. She recently created Soul Motivations, a ministry devoted to helping people remember. 480-491-2464 or soulmotivations@cox.net.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 25, Number 2, April/May 2006.