Gardening our Minds
Cultivating positive emotions through mindfulness
The great Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh often described our mind as a garden. In this garden, we have a seed of compassion, a seed of anger, a seed of loneliness, a seed of happiness, and a seed for any other emotion you can imagine out there. The soil of our garden is like a container for all of these emotions. You can think of it as our subconscious mind. Once a seed gets watered, it will grow into a plant and manifest in our minds as the emotion of that seed.
As we go through life, all our encounters and experiences will water the seeds in our garden and determine what emotions will arise. For example, a person who grew up with angry parents will be more inclined to water their seed of anger. The seed of anger will grow into weeds in their mind garden. As the plant grows, the person becomes more inclined to anger. Likewise, a person growing up in a loving household will be more likely to water their seed of love, which will grow into a beautiful flower in their mind garden.
As human beings, we all encounter negative emotions from time to time, but we should try to do our best to avoid letting our seeds of negative emotion turn into too big plants in the garden of our minds. Of course, none of us can escape bad experiences entirely, but the trick is not to let the watering of a negative seed turn into a negative spiral. A tiny weed is way easier to deal with than a big one. We prevent this by being mindful and present whenever we feel a negative seed is starting to arise in our minds. As the seed of anger appears in our minds, we breathe in and recognize that we feel anger. The energy of mindfulness will help take care of the seed and prevent it from turning into a plant. Mindfulness has a specific energy that can help us cut the plants we don't want to grow.
Similarly, mindfulness can also help us grow the positive seeds in our minds into beautiful flowers. As we experience happiness, we should pay attention and stay mindful. We notice that we are happy, and we smile at our happiness. This exercise will make the seed of happiness grow in the garden of our minds.
So let's all try to water the seeds of positive emotions in our garden. We all have the power to influence the seeds we water and which plants we let grow. By being mindful and present in our daily lives, we can cultivate positive emotions such as love, happiness, and compassion and prevent negative emotions like anger and anxiety from taking root and spiraling out of control. With practice, we can cultivate a beautiful and healthy mind.