I usually ask my clients if they've ever heard of "The Garden of Your Mind" most people will say no but will have tried some form of mental exercise that is similar to this one.
An Analogy is often a great way to get people to grasp the importance or the reason we do something. This is the approach I take when it comes to getting people to cultivate a healthy mind in order to reduce, minimize and even live in / with stress.
I'd like you to think of a garden. If you don't do anything about it, if you don't cultivate it or tend to it then, weeds grow everywhere. Maybe a fox will come shit in it and you'll end up stepping on it. You won't be able to sit anywhere when it's a nice sunny day. You'll get the occasional surprise and maybe even beautiful flower crop up from nowhere. All in all, you won't get a say in it's beauty or even how much you are able to use this garden as you please. You might end up even just letting it do it's thing. There is something beautiful about a wild garden and that is you'll get some surprises once in a while.
Now what if you tend and cultivate this garden? You cut the grass, mow the lawn and have a area designated for composting (it still smells in that area, you can't do anything about that). You can plant some fruit trees, make a flower bed, put some beautiful stones and maybe a barbecue so that when the sun comes out and the summer is there you can spend time soaking up the lovely quality that this garden offers you. You could have a fruit tree, beautiful roses, lavender to attract animals. You'll protect the your plants from bugs. You could even have a swing for the children. Your quality of life would be so much better with this type of garden.
But you have to tend the garden and do it regularly, consistently and no matter how much time you spend on tending it, you have to do it again and again and again. There will be some days when the weather is bad, all the hard work you've done will have gone down the drain and you'll have to start again. There will some days that the tree's you've planted will now be too big or the plants you've planted have passed away and sometimes, despite all you're efforts a fox will still come in your garden and shit in it. There will be some times when you'll let the garden go wild again. That's all ok.
Which do you prefer? Which garden do you get more out of? Which one benefits your quality of life?
It is the same with you Mind.
You need to cultivate it.
With love and compassion and gratitude. And to cultivate your mind will reap so much more rewards so much more of a depth to life, a quality of life that can't be measured or compared to with anything else.
The cultivation of compassion, gratitude, kindness have shown to reduce stress, strengthen your immune system and experience a much better quality of life.
I know some of you will say, I'll pay someone to do it, ok, I know. You still would have worked in order to get that money, and you still have a say in what you want in the garden and where you want it.
You can also hire someone to help you cultivate the garden of your Mind. If you want to know more, please get in touch