Grow a New MIND garden - it is worth the work!

 I used to think as a therapist that getting people to the space of healing was a destination. That at some point, the person would have a moment, like walking up to a mountaintop, where the pain would vanish, and the view would be clear. That is a false hope!

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

The true way to see self-healing is as hard work. Healing is more like tending a garden in soil that's hard, uncared for, abandoned, and weed-filled.

We bought a new house and found a lot of sand and stones where our garden needed to grow. I would have easily said, "No, we'll just buy from the farmer's market!" But, one must first decide to do the work, and that can be very intimidating. My wife said we could do it, and we DID! Watching that sand transform into a thin garden in year one, then a lush garden in year two and beyond, the connection hit me hard: this is what I've been doing with people for over 24 years.

Therapy is much like tending this garden. Initially, the ground of the mind is hard and requires considerable work and the right tools just to break it up. Then, you must water the broken, hard soil, and return to till and work the ground until it's ready for planting.

Sometimes, you need to use fertilizers to heal the soil and work it in again. It's hard work, and it takes time just to reach the point of planting and growing! However, with effort, you can cultivate amazing things from even the harshest, dry, old ground, but it requires dedicated work.

The tools to work the mind garden help to surface old, hard thoughts such as self-hate, anger, hurt, mistrust, fear, and trauma thoughts. These tools help you recognize that these thoughts are not welcome in your mind garden. Instead, you want to cultivate acceptance, self-worth, forgiveness of self and others, and detachment from the pain of the past. Once grown, your amazing inner self will remember how to thrive.

Now the mind garden is ready! Now, YOU can plant new seeds, like truth, tenderness, self-value, trust, safety, and emotional balance.

Once you do all this work, you MUST build fences to keep the pests from destroying your new life that is growing! That is why you need to learn to build and set clear, healthy boundaries! Protect your hard work and let the new life GROW!

It is always amazing to watch something you worked for start to push through that new ground. Then, if you keep boundaries in place and continue to water, your mind garden will grow healthy and strong. No garden is perfect.

You will always face the challenge of old weeds, like trauma thoughts, doubt, and fear, trying to resurface, but you have the power to eliminate them before they take root. Pests will always try to destroy your growth, but you have the right tools to stop them! You can cultivate a thriving, new mind garden that nourishes your life with healthy foods such as self-esteem, hope, love, forgiveness, understanding, and empathy for yourself and others.

Important factor that most forget: a good garden OVER PRODUCES! Now it's time to share your harvest – your OVERCOMING story!

Sharing your story is like opening the gate to that garden. Letting others walk the path you’ve cleared, thorns and blooms and all. You don’t owe anyone a manicured landscape. But if you’ve grown anything in hard, lifeless soil, then it’s worth showing by sharing your story of overcoming!

Please share a story with us in the comments!

Negative energy comment will be deleted - we do not allow the use of poison in our mind gardens!

#HealingIsAGarden #MetaphorForRecovery #ResilienceInBloom #ShareYourStory #TraumaHealing #hopeinhardsoil