Imagine your mind like a garden ready to be cultivated. It’s a place where many different thoughts and feelings can grow like seeds. We have the seeds like joy, curiosity, forgiveness, and love that bring us comfort when they bloom. We also encounter the weeds and unsavory seeds that can pop up in our gardens like anger, sadness, grief, and pain. 

Tending to the garden of your mind can be overwhelming. As is true in any garden, there are so many different seeds that can grow simultaneously, both wanted and unwanted, and it can be difficult to manage or know which seeds to focus on. 

People sometimes think that the seeds they see grow in others’ gardens, and their own, are the direct result of their inability to tend to the right emotions and feelings that are lurking under the surface. This is untrue. Even the most skilled gardeners will find themselves in moments of doubt and often find themselves on their hands and knees pulling the weeds they can’t seem to fend off for good. 

Others may think that tending to the garden of your mind is as simple as planting what you want and willing it to grow. There’s a saying that “Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.” The intention here is mainly good and is meant to encourage us that we have the power to change our lives, but sometimes these sentiments can leave us feeling as though we have failed in some way if we aren’t seeing the positive results of our sowing right away.

The thing is, it’s true that what you plant will bloom if it’s nurtured and taken care of. However, it’s also true that there are seeds that will grow on their own will or that have even been planted by other gardeners when you weren’t looking. Weeds just grow, it is not one or the other. Where you see beautiful flowers you will also, from time to time, see weeds. And that is completely okay. 

Tending to a garden of so many different seeds can be overwhelming. The best part is, you don’t have to tend to it alone. When the weeds are becoming too much to handle, or you don’t know how and when you should be watering the ones you’d like to grow, you can always reach out to another gardener to lend a hand. 

When we ask for the help we need to tend to our gardens we make room for the most important seed to bloom: hope. 

Hope can bloom in your garden. Despite the hardships you’ve faced, the number of weeds that keep growing back, or how many times you’ve struggled to maintain your garden the way you wanted, hope can grow in your mind. 

These emotional seeds, like real ones, can also be seasonal. Some flowers do not grow at certain times of the year, but when one flower is out of season, another is blooming beautifully. The same can be said for the seeds in our minds. If a seed you planted hasn’t bloomed, it doesn’t mean it never will. It may just not be the perfect season yet. It will come.

Let hope bloom. Remember that you are never alone, and despite the things you’ve been through it’s ok not to be ok.

If you or a loved one are going through a mental health challenge or would like more information on available resources in your community, please visit Hope For The Day’s Resource Compass.