Week 7: How does your garden grow . . .

Some of you may be saying to yourself right now,   “Garden . . . what garden?  What is she talking about !?  .  .  . ”

“I do not have a green thumb, nor do I have any desire to plant any gardens!”

I would be interested in seeing what the world without looks like for these people.  Actually . . . I don’t really have to look at someone else, for it was not to long ago that I would be asking these very questions and making these very statements.  Currently I am in dire need of tending to my mind’s garden and doing some weed pulling and cultivating  .  .  .

This week this analogy of the mind being a garden and the thoughts being the seed really hit home for me.  All of the exercises that we have done up until now have caused me to make an honest effort to observe my thoughts and see exactly what it is that I have planted in my own “mind garden.”  I’m not going to lie . . . it has not been an easy assessment of trying to recognize my thoughts that flash across my mind.  They seem as second nature, for I have gone the majority of my life living in autopilot mode.  Although it has been difficult initially, I feel as if gradually I am paying more and more attention to these thoughts.

It has been obvious that the negative thoughts that have been fed and cultivated in my life have produced thick patches of thorny thistles.  I am seeing that most of the problems and difficulties I have encountered in life have initiated from the seeds of fear, anxiety and doubt that I have continually planted in my mind.

Just as seeds grow, so do our thoughts.  When we think of our thoughts as seeds and our rooted beliefs as established plants in our garden, it is easier to understand the analogy.  If we don’t properly water and care for our garden, the initial sprouting seeds will parish.  Furthermore, the positive thoughts we plant will begin to wilt and wither away when we don’t tend to them and the thoughts that we don’t want are left to grow wildely, just like weeds.  Regardless of hot temperatures and dry soil, the weeds are tenacious, as their roots are burrowed deep within the earth.

Week 7’s lesson takes this one step further by addressing the power of concentration and focus.  The following is the example used in the lesson:

23.  For instance, a man is in debt.  He will continually thinking about debt, concentrating on it, and as thoughts are causes the result is that he not only fastens the debt closer to him, but actually creates more debt.  He is putting the great law of Attraction into operation with the usual and inevitable result — Loss leads to greater “Loss.”

24.  What, then, is the correct principle?  Concentrate (focus) on the things you want, not on the things you do not want.

25.  If the law (of abundance) operates perfectly to bring about poverty, lack and every form of limitation for those who are continually entertaining thoughts of lack and fear, it will operate in the same way certainty to bring about conditions of abundance and opulence for those who entertain thoughts of courage and power.

26.  This is difficult for many; we are too anxious; we manifest anxiety, fear, distress; we want to do something; we want to help; we are like a child who has just planted a seed and every fifteen minutes goes and stirs up the earth to see if it is growing.  Of course, under such circumstances, the seed will never germinate, and yet this is exactly what many of us do in the mental world.

It does take effort, but like anything else it gets easier with practice, and the amazing thing is, as we become more and more aware of these negative thoughts we are capable of recognizing that we will not plant negative weeds in our garden.  I am consciously choosing to plant and cultivate a positive and productive crop in life.  I am amazed at the changes that are happening in my life .  .  . obstacles are disappearing, barriers are falling away and crumbling, and things that I once though were either impossible or too far away are obtainable.