The Garden of Your Life
There is an analogy comparing the mind to a garden, in which you plant seeds and cultivate the things you would like to harvest. Each thought that you allow to grow in your mind will produce a specific result. You will have the same results as you have had in the past, unless you make a concerted effort to weed out the patterns of relating that you have previously cultivated. To expect anything different is unreasonable.
There is a plant species called “bindweeds” that trail along the ground until they find an upright host and then use that host to climb toward the sunlight. The host plant is subsequently strangled and stunted and prevented from developing in its natural way. For example, the poison ivy plant is so noxious that other plants cannot grow in the same location. Animals and humans are poisoned if they touch it.
Dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors are like bindweeds. They poison your life, sabotage your progress, and prevent you from being what you want to be. They strangle your potential, stunt your growth, and waste your ability to express your higher self. Because they cause you to behave in a way in which frustration is a constant companion, you will probably have had feelings of regret, remorse, and disgust. If you continue to fill your life with addictions, you won’t learn how to grow into maturity or live naturally. The addictions, like bindweeds, have strangled your connections with other people, Planet Earth, and the God Force.
Addictions have killed your dreams—one moment at a time. If you want to follow your dreams, you must be willing to commit to changing your thoughts and behaviors—one thought and behavior at a time. Each choice must reflect your commitment to your dreams. You must clear a space and become conscious of where your GAPS are to make room in your mind for new ideas that will help you to manifest your dreams.
This process of “weeding your garden” is necessary before you consider what you are going to plant in your new garden, or you may choose a goal that causes it to be necessary to plant new things. If you were misled in a dysfunctional environment to believe that your addictions were “necessary” and “normal,” you may be in the habit of giving them the power to hold you back.
If you wish to walk along your own unique Path to Wholeness, you must examine your addictions. You must understand how they “bind” you and prevent you from being what you want to be. You must get to know what they look like, smell like, taste like, and the effects they have had in your life.
It is often very painful to examine your addictions and very hard to admit that you have developed dysfunctional habits. However, if you wish to be free to be your true, authentic self, you must gradually “dig out” your self-destructive aspects until they are no longer controlling your life. You may then cultivate healthy habits of connecting with your higher self and nurturing your soul with self-love and healthy choices.
By bringing the awareness of your old destructive or dysfunctional habits to the surface of your conscious mind, you can avoid stumbling blindly into them, again and again. The degree of your willingness to explore your addictions reveals your degree of commitment to changing your dysfunctional habits and introducing functional ones—ones that work for you—ones that are like flowers in your garden—ones that bring you JOY!
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