Without judgement, be aware of your thoughts.
“Stop longing. You poison today’s ease, reaching always for tomorrow.” — Robin Hobb
Do you know what day it is? Is it Tuesday? Saturday? Or is it just another day when the sun rose early this morning and will set later this evening?
Do you know that keeping track of the days can create stress in your life?
“It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.” — George Harrison
“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful: they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.” — Luther Burbank
A simple quote that says a lot. When we look at flowers, we feel better. But before anyone comments, let me say that I know we can be so down in the dumps that our eyes see the flowers, but out brains do not register anything. Thoughts of poor health, financial setbacks, or family issues can keep us from really “seeing” the beauty that is in our own yard or neighborhood.
Luther Burbank’s words always stick in my head when winter turns into spring. After a dreary winter, the signs of spring flowers usually have a positive impact on most people. The nurseries are packed on the weekends and the landscape suppliers are busy loading potting soil and mulch into pickup trucks. Gardeners are anxious to get going with their spring garden plans. Even those with little or no property, those in condos and apartments are out in force, trying to bring a little bit of nature’s beauty into their lives. From full-fledged landscaping projects, to setting up patio garden rooms, or to potting up a few annuals for a balcony, the “gardener” in folks is yelling to get out. Get out and grow something!
There are many reasons why we get excited about gardening this time of year. I believe a subconscious reason plays over and over in the back of our minds. Flowers do, somehow, make people better, happier, and more helpful. A stroll through the yard in the early evening proves over and over that the sight of flowers can change our outlook on any particular situation.
There’s something special about their colors and shapes. The human eye takes in the picture and changes within us affect our thoughts and emotions. Our worlds seem better, more peaceful, more in tune with our surroundings.
“Stop and smell the roses” is a cliché that we hear a lot. That goes for stopping and seeing as well. If you remember this saying when you look at what is flowering in your part of the world, perhaps you will also remember Mr. Burbank’s words and recognize in yourself that you really do feel better and happier in that moment.
It’s the awareness of these reactions that enables us to repeat the results over and over.
The key is to take the time, slow down, and focus on what the eyes are seeing. By being mindful and enjoying every little moment, we begin to understand how the flowers around us have the power to be medicine for our soul.
It doesn’t matter your gardening experience. It doesn’t matter how much space is available. From planting one hundred perennials to gluing seeds to a popsicle stick and potting it in a cup, the pleasure of seeing your home-grown plants bud and flower will reward you over and over. It never fails.
Feeling like your soul could use some medicine?
Grow Some Flowers!
Namaste,
Dave
“I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.” — Golda Meir
When you think about it, the only time we have is now. So why is it that modern man is consumed by clocks. At our own choice, we let them control almost every aspect of our daily lives. This man-made thing, this concept called time directs us when to rise, work, eat and sleep. Allowing a schedule run our life is one of the many habits that we all live with everyday. We plan “things” around time. There are hopes that during some particular point in the future, we will do this or accomplish that. We look back at events in the past that made us cry or smile. We refer to time a lot!
“I remember a time when…”
“When the time comes, I’m going to…”
“If only I had the time, I would…”
And the best is….
“I don’t have the time to…”
Earlier cultures lived with a close relationship to the position of the sun in the daytime and the moon at night. Their day was just that, a day in their life. Sure, they made plans for tomorrow’s survival, but each day was spent living in that moment , that day.
Each of us must govern our own allotment of time, minute by minute.
British statesman, Lord Chesterfield, suggests that we
“Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves”.
Begin today by developing a mindfulness of how many times you look at a clock. Try to spend the day by simply letting things happen at their own pace. “Go with the flow” as the old expression says.
Try following Dr. Wayne Dyer’s advise:
“Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”
Namaste,
Dave
Photo courtesy of: North Charleston
Quote Source: BrainyQuote
“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.” — Albert Einstein
Are you thinking too much about next week, next month, next year?
Do you catch yourself saying “If this happens, I’ll have that’ or “When I get to that age, I’ll go there”?
Are you missing today’s beautiful sunset because you can’t wait until tomorrow’s sunrise?
Stop thinking so much about the future. Take heed to Mr. Einstein’s advise to “never think of the future. It comes soon enough”.
Enjoy today fully and relish this evening’s sunset.
Namaste,
Dj
Photo: Sunset at Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia
Quote Source: discovery.com
Many of us start and finish each day by doing habitual things. We have routines that we follow to begin our days and habits that we do at bedtime. It is easy to do both. So easy that we forget to think about how important it is to be fully aware of our thoughts as we begin and end each day.
Ralph Waldo Emerson says to “write it on your heart that EVERY day is the best day of your life.” Calmly look forward to your new day. Do not regret yesterday for it is gone.
At day’s end, forget the negative things and events that occurred. Think of tomorrow…another new day just for YOU.
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Are you ready to start fresh with your own personal “best day in the year”?
Namaste,
Dave
Quote Source: goodreads
Photo: “Sunrise” courtesy of Bobby Mikul
“A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.” — James Allen
I enjoy slowing my life down by doing a little gardening. Basic stuff… prepare the pots by cleaning and filling them with fresh potting soil, followed by planting either seeds or cuttings. Occasionally, I do not have the time to do the planting part until some time later. And every time I let the soil sit in the pot without having planted the seeds or cuttings, I return to find weeds growing in the containers.
This same thing happens to our minds when left lying empty and barren. Just like the weed seeds that take root and flourish in a pot full of bare soil, allowing our thoughts to run wild can cause depressing seeds of sorrow and worry to take hold of our lives.
James Allen speaks of the intelligently cultivated mind.
Intelligently cultivate. Think about what you are thinking about. Put yourself behind the thoughts that are causing discomfort. Try to look at those thoughts and realize that they are just that…..thoughts.
Thoughts are the seeds that all of us have in our heads. It makes no difference if they are seeds that we planted or seeds that others and the world have given to us. Thoughts, when focused on repeatedly, are what we will take action on in our lives.
If you do not monitor what your thoughts are, your mind will gather thoughts from wherever your senses guide it. Taste something bad, you think about how bad it is. See something that you shouldn’t participate in and you think about doing it. Feel something that you can’t resist and all you want to do is touch it. Our brains react to our senses without our help…..good or bad.
Try to spend a few moments today thinking about your thoughts. Be the person behind the mind and think about what seeds are planted inside your head. Separate yourself from all of those ideas, wishes and opinions that ramble on and on in your head throughout the day. Do not judge what hear yourself say. You can start pulling the weeds and intelligently cultivating tomorrow.
Today, just focus on being aware that you are aware of your thoughts.
Namaste,
Dave
“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” — Joseph Campbell
“When you’ve seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.” — George Harrison