April showers bring forth May flowers.
Aim to weed out
the worries in your life
As I was sitting in the garden looking at the variety of yellows
and green and blues I spied a spider’s thread blowing in the wind. It was
barely visible. In fact it was only visible when the sunlight caught it at the
right angle to be seen. It was a fleeting moment because the gently breeze
moved the thread and it was gone – invisible once again. I knew it was there
but I could no longer see it.
This encounter started me thinking about the inner garden we
all have in our minds.
Mary Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow.
With positive thoughts and dreams
Or worry weeds row
upon row.
Plan and nurture
yourself for a brighter outcome in your ‘garden’.
Plan to make positive changes by looking after yourself
more. Practice new ways of thinking and
acting. Healthy alternatives take time to become a pattern, but just like your
garden be patient with your efforts and the seeds will lead to healthy plants
of thinking and acting. Plant healthy beliefs and nurture them until they have
a good root system. When healthy self belief plants thrive the worry weeds have
greater difficulty in taking hold.
So put things in perspective and be a calm patient gardener.
Plan to plant good healthy self belief plants and root out the worry weeds as
soon as they appear.
Root out the
weeds of anxiety, stress, and phobias which cause poor health and self esteem.
Root out the unhealthy and rigid ways of thinking. Root out the behaviour weeds
such as avoidance rituals, safe patterns, perfectionism and trying hard to
please all the time. Perhaps you see an anxiety weed and you may choose to
ignore it, thinking that it will go away and die off. Perhaps it may eliminate
itself- not very likely because it is an anxiety weed with deep, well
established roots.
Perhaps you feel ashamed about an issue so you choose to
ignore it, deny it or avoid it. Well setbacks are normal. Weeds grow everywhere
but don’t assume the worst. The weeds can be dealt with using patient endeavour.
Remember worry weeds grow best when you are run down, under stress or when you are
ill. So don’t leave the garden to fend for itself, resist your old behaviours.
I ntroduce new
varieties of positive plant patterns in your inner garden. You could try new varieties
such as healthy thinking, being more flexible, being more accepting of
yourself, managing uncertainty and allowing mistakes to happen. The more
varieties you plant the more colourful your inner garden will become with less
weeds.
Life in your
inner garden will flourish and be more colourful when you take positive action
to cultivate it and root out the worry weeds. No garden is weed free so
planting desirable plants is not enough of itself. You need to continue to
water and feed your new varieties of plants. You need to keep up with the
weeding in order to maintain a lovely healthy inner garden.
List the factors which enable worry weeds to grow.
Seasonal changes
Lack of sleep
Lack of activity
Hassles piling up
Little or few social interactions.
Feeling tired
Disagreements constantly
Demanding boss
Disagreeable workmates
Sound familiar?
So just be a happy gardener
Be calm
Use setbacks to plan a better response next time.
Identify the set backs and plan ahead.
Put things in perspective – look at the whole garden not
just the patch in front of you.
Be compassionate with yourself.
Remember the colourful gains.
Face up to the weeds of fear and root them out.
Set achievable goals
Hang on and things will improve.
So Mary Mary quite contrary
How does your
garden grow?
With lots of positive plants and flowers
Because I gave the worry weeds the heave ho.
Whenever you want help with your inner garden just contact
me on info@lakelandandbaytherapy.co.uk
