I love gardening, working the soil, planting tiny seeds, and watching them grow. A few weeks ago, while plucking crabgrass from the kale, I found myself thinking about my clients and their bone health concerns. I was entranced pondering the extent to which mental and emotional stress robs us of both happiness and bone health. Entertaining this thought, a “Garden–Life” metaphor sprung to mind. The metaphor was straightforward and applies to both backyard gardens and mental landscapes. The metaphor is, “Nourish the wanted, and weed out the unwanted.”
Two weeks later, after attending Acharya Shunya’s enlivening Roar Like a Goddess Workshop, I was inspired to write these 6 tips for Weeding Your Mental Garden. They are simple “Acharya Shunya–inspired” self-awareness practices that you and I can employ to create inner peace and a mind that works for us, not against us. (In case you have not heard of her work yet, Acharya Shunya is a foremost spiritual leader of our time, a bestselling author, Vedic scholar, and the first female custodian of a 2000-year-old Vedic wisdom lineage. I had the great fortune to recently interview her at the Omega Institute. You can learn more about her work and how you can enjoy this wisdom-packed video interview at the end of this blog.)
Here’s how the story goes and here are your 6 empowering tips for creating the bone strength and destiny you desire:
Each spring six of my friends and I plant a lovely backyard vegetable garden. While none of us are expert gardeners, we enjoy watching the blooming of life and thinking of ways to nourish this new life with fertilizer, water, sunshine, and our love. We also keep an eye on weeds, for those unwanted visitors could easily take over the entire garden if not kept in line. The more we tend to our garden, the more beautiful and fruitful it becomes.
The Garden–Life Metaphor
What I realized was that in our mind we plant “seeds” with each thought, each belief, each desire, and intention. These “seeds” can be life-supporting positive thoughts which carry an energy of appreciation, happiness, contentment, or even love. Or the thought can carry an energy of negativity, blaming, anger, worry, and even fear. In our mindscape we fertilize these “thought seeds” by the attention we give to them. Whether we are aware of it or not, what we put our attention on grows stronger in our everyday life, and in our mental garden.
Just as we produce a more bountiful and beautiful garden if we limit the weeds, with awareness we can control the unwanted “mental weeds” which occupy space and broadcast their vibration throughout our mindscape.
And what exactly are “mental weeds”?
“Mental weeds” are repeated thoughts and beliefs that invade and disrupt the natural tranquil, peaceful, and happy feelings in our mindscape. These weeds are disruptive, negative, volunteer mental pop-ups which include anxiety, self-doubt, anger, worry, and fear. The mental and emotional negativity from these “thought weeds” is well-documented as a contributing factor to many chronic degenerative diseases, including osteoporosis (as detailed in the Better Bone Solution Course and my blog, How Bone Responds to Danger).
This mind-body-bone connection is well established. The Bible, for example, declares that “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22) Even more striking is the 5,000-year-old Ayurvedic wisdom Acharya shared with me. In our discussion, she mentioned that another word for “health’ in the ancient Vedic texts was “happiness.” The crowning touch of all this was at the end of our interview when Acharya Shunya applauded me for detecting that worry and fear damage bone. She recounted the fact that ancient Vedic texts mention that bone is the strongest material in the body, the strongest, but the one thing that can erode it is negativity. Thinking about those pearls of wisdom fueled my motivation to up the level of my mental/emotional gardening!
6 Tips for Weeding Your Mental Garden
Inspired by Vedic Scholar, Acharya Shunya
In closing, let me suggest that this is easier than you might think. As Acharya reminded me, the constitution/organization of the physical body takes some time to change—you don’t change your bone fragility score overnight. But the constitution/organization of the mind can change in a flash. Changing your mind, you change your life, immediately!
So, let’s all get to it! Do the work, begin designing a mind that serves your bones and your greatness! I will be right there beside you.
Acharya Shunya’s website: awakenedself.com
Acharya Shunya’s books: