I say I want to get rid of the proverbial weeds in my life, the things I have allowed to manifest in a way that I did not want. It is a kind of de-cluttering that allows me to become where I want to be. If you don’t tend to your garden, weeds will form. It is through clearing these weeds that you allow for growth of positive things to happen. I’ll give a concrete example:
If you neglect your health for about a year, not eating healthy, not exercising, you will most likely gain weight and this neglecting of your health “garden” creates the weeds of being overweight and unhealthy. These weeds do not need any attention given to them to grow, they just grow if you neglect the primary focus you should be working on. Because you are not attending to your health, the negative consequences will override any headway you had made in the past, constricting the life you previously wanted to live.
In front of our house, where I am currently stationed (living), there are now weeds that have come up from underneath the pine strawl, and even though nothing is really supposed to grow there, they always find a way to sneak up, progressively through the seasons. Every now and then, I have to go out there and pull these weeds to sustain the beauty of the front of our house. If I don’t do this, the weeds will only get bigger and bigger and eventually become so massive it will take all my strength just to pull one of them out. It is the same with the weeds in my life or your life, or anyone’s life.
The first section of my life that I am proceeding to weed are my limiting beliefs. I try to keep conscious control of my thoughts at all times, but we all know how challenging this can be. My thoughts and your thoughts dictate our beliefs. If you believe that something is not possible, then there is no real reason to attempt doing it. Every thought is a belief. Every thought is a choice. Therefore, every belief is a choice. I hope you get the logic there. So, by changing my thoughts about certain areas of my life, I can change my beliefs to be congruent with the person I strive to be, where anything is possible. It is just a journey to get to that point, but an enjoyable one at the least. But by examining what may very well be false assumptions about reality or what I am capable of, I can weed those areas of my life, and open myself up to a whole new arena of possibilities. And so can anyone.
If I have a belief that I am bad with money, every time I see money or think about money, I will think that if I were to acquire money in some way, I would use it foolishly. But if I examine that belief and see that it exists only in my own mind and in the past, which is no indication of the now or the future, as current events and future events don’t necessarily have anything to do with past events, I can consciously change these beliefs to a more favorable disposition. It may take a lot of conscious effort, but it will be worth it.
This can apply to any part of your life, as I have been finding out. With spirituality, a couple of years ago, I was not even interested remotely in anything spiritual, but ever since I have been working on myself voraciously, I see that living just for this lifetime and not for eternity is something that is a bit short-sighted, so I am starting to adopt a very spiritual compartment in my life, as I have now awakened the spirit within. I had to get past a wall of limiting beliefs, such as, “There is no proof that there is life after death,” but if there isn’t, then what is the point of life? To live, then die? If that’s the case, I still would be better assuming that there is life after death because if not, I would never know that I was wrong, as I would cease to exist.
Some people think if they ignore a certain problem, it will go away, but that is not the case. Ignoring the problem just creates more problems, and more weeds in that particular garden. Once you finally decide to confront the problem, there will be too many weeds/obstacles in the way for you to grow, unless you spend a substantial amount of time weeding. So it is probably better to start weeding out your mind, body, and spirit as soon as possible, to get everything in order, for a simpler, more focused life.
One issue I have been having with regards to this is the place I have for human relationships and relating to other people, because I often find their problems insignificant compared to what could be happening to them. I guess I have a slightly different perspective, surviving brain cancer and all. I am not saying I am superior to these other people, just that I understand things a bit better. When someone complains about their domineering boss or their headache, I feel like they’re wasting their time complaining about such trivial things, and that they should be more focused on other things, like finding meaningful work to do, or examining the cause of their so-called problems. I don’t want to tell them that people are suffering far worse than them in third-world countries, because that will only give them a temporary sense of gratitude before they slump back down to feeling depressed. I could say something like this, “Well, sure, your boss may be a total jerk, but look at you! You are alive! Don’t you find that amazing? You are living! Alive and well! You are capable of anything, everything is possible, so just think about that for a minute and then we’ll see how you feel.”
Maybe the reason I am not developing many meaningful relationships is I am looking in the wrong place. I need to weed the garden of finding people to hang out with that are supportive, constructive, and funny. The latter is probably the most important, but the two former are also qualities I look for. It can be very frustrating to find these ’eagles.’ When I overcame cancer, it was like, I can do anything, I can be anything, this experience changed me permanently. But some people still view me the same way as I used to be, introverted, shy, timid, but now I am becoming more of the opposite. In the Deep South now, I find it much more cumbersome to come across someone in a high state of consciousness, but I’ll keep looking. It is not that I feel superior to the people vibrating at a low level, it is just I have nothing in common with those people, except we both recognize the weather as either nice or terrible.
In a quest for equanimity , it is a long and arduous journey and weeding the parts of my life I find need some tending to will ultimately help me get closer to where I want to be. It is a both challenging and rewarding task that I feel I am up to, as long as I don’t give up. So, what weeds are in your garden that you have been neglecting for some time now? Perhaps you are a tad overweight or feel like you should consider spirituality as a part of your life? Or maybe you need to develop better money literacy (I’m guilty of this one.). Whatever it may be, know in your heart, in your soul, that educating or changing yourself for the better is never a bad decision.