Gratitude In Your Garden (The Echo World, September 2018)
Have you ever noticed that food prepared by someone who loves to cook or is in a joyful mood seems to have more life and flavor? The same is true for growing food. Plants thrive when they receive gratitude or are even in the presence of our joy. The same is true for the earth, animals, people, even “inanimate” equipment!
What about when we are not feeling joyful? Should we stay out of our garden?
You might try some of these ways to shift your mood, first:
1. Choose to be happy…it can be that simple.
2. Think of things you are grateful for – that’s one of the quickest ways to get happy!
3. Ask if it is yours. Have you ever noticed that our moods sometime shift for no apparent reason?Most of us are quite sensitive and pick up what others are feeling to the degree we think it’s ours. This can happen without our awareness or even being in close physical proximity…If you feel at all lighter or more expanded after asking “Is this someone else’s?” then it’s not yours. Return to sender with consciousness (to help clear it if and when they choose).
4. Move your muscles, change your mood. Movement can flush out the chemicals that tend to keep us in our mood and generate chemicals that will uplift us.
5. Sun Bear suggested that when we are troubled, we dig a hole and pray, cry, speak, rage… into the earth, asking that she transform it. She knows what to do with fertilizer!
However, gardening is a great way to shift our mood. There are even microbes in the soil that can shift our mood! Just enter your garden with extra awareness and gentleness.
Weeding, turning compost, mulching, etc. can be good ways to shift your energy. Most of all talk to the plants and the earth – share your burdens, let them know it’s not about them and how grateful you are for them and all the ways they nourish you.
Ask your garden for guidance as to what activities will best support it and you. This is a great way to start work…walk through greeting and asking who needs what attention, adjusting your tasklist accordingly. Trust your awareness.
You might be amazed at how much magic time in your garden will create in your life…and how absolutely yummy your food will taste!