Cultivating the Garden of Your Mind
When beginning to take care of your mental health, it’s essential to have patience with yourself and to allow yourself compassion and grace. Remember — mental health is something that is cultivated over time, first by tending to the inner landscape of the mind.
I invite you to join me in this visualization as metaphor:
You decide that you want to start tending to the garden in your backyard that you’ve been ignoring for years. It’s overgrown with weeds, and you can hardly differentiate it from the grass around it. Initially, it seems like a daunting task.
“Where do I begin?” you ask yourself.
You survey the garden bed and carefully begin defining the boundaries, differentiating your garden from the rest of the yard.
This leads to slowly and gently pulling out weeds. You notice that some of the weeds have deeper roots than others, necessitating more attention.
You come to the realization that this process will, indeed, take time.
You also notice that there are still many flowers and vegetable plants growing from previous seasons.
You begin to till the land, and the decomposing foliage of the weeds you have pulled now acts as a nutrient for the fertile soil.
Looking over the freshly exposed soil, you take a step back, excited for the newfound space for growth.
You carefully select the seeds and map out the plot.
Finally, you add the seeds to the wonderfully rich, dark soil, allowing for ample space between them so they can grow.
With patience and consistency, you allow nature to take its course, and over the weeks, you begin to see the fruition of a thriving garden ecosystem.
What Does This Mean for the Garden of Our Mind?
First and foremost, we start to see signs that we need to tend to our mental health — we survey our mind-garden. We recognize signals of overgrowth of weeds in the form of lethargy, lack of focus, anxiety. There’s even grass from the outside of the garden growing in — the influence of other people and experiences which we haven’t yet reflected upon or integrate.
We begin to care for our mind-garden by creating boundaries and routines that allow for spaciousness, rest, and reflection. Defining these boundaries is crucial because it helps us maintain our sense of self. Clear boundaries allow us to further recognize our own needs and limits, preventing us from becoming overwhelmed by the demands and influences of others.
As we set our boundaries, we also gently address the weeds — the patterns of negative thoughts, unhealthy habits, and potentially unsettled trauma, recognizing that some issues will take more time and effort to resolve than others.
As we get to the roots of these issues, we also begin to understand that those past challenges and difficulties which we underwent can actually enrich our mind-garden, providing valuable nutrients in the form of life lessons and resilience.
Then, in that nutrient-dense soil, we spaciously plant and tend to the seeds of qualities, morals, values, and pursuits of our choosing — compassion, gentleness, joy, tranquility, equanimity…
Nurturing these seeds and plants takes careful attention, time, consistency, deliberate effort, and ongoing exploration. Every once in a while, the weeds of despair and doubt again sneak through the soil, and we are increasingly able to identify them and gently pull them from our soil.
This conscious cultivation eventually allows for a beautifully blooming garden.
With this bloom, we further distinguish ourselves from the surrounding landscape and grass — our peers, family, and society at large. We also disperse our unique seeds of knowledge and influence, continuing to add to a thriving environment.
May you cultivate a flourishing mental landscape that spills over to all those around you, bearing wonderful fruits for generations to come~
With a grateful heart,
Max Kristopher Komes
www.MaxKomes.com
Max Komes is a Master’s-level Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern offering supervised in-person counseling services in Pensacola, Florida, as well as statewide.
If you find that these messages resonate with you, you are always welcome to schedule a session below:
Join the Clarity Culture — a community of like minds at www.ClaritySanctuary.org
This writing is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. If you have imminent health concerns, please call 1-800-NAMI.
