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Planting Seeds of Desire

By on May 12, 2014
desire

By Nicole Moorey

Daily time in nature is going to my head.  After ten months, I can attest to the many mental health benefits of spending time outdoors including reduced anxiety, stress and depression and increased creativity, curiosity and problem solving ability.  Furthermore, as I ponder in the yard or wonder in the woods, the metaphorical mental connection to nature becomes clear.

It’s gardening season and I’m thinking about flower beds and veggie patches. Specifically, I have seeds on my mind.  It’s my annual tradition to carefully decide which seeds I will plant and when and where I’ll plant them.  I draw a picture of my little patches of soil, carefully mapping out the cosmos, Swiss chard and all.  This year I’ve noticed that I pay more attention to planning my gardens than I do to planning my own dreams and desires. Imagine what my life could be if I made the same effort to select and care for the ‘seeds of my mind’?

Observe Your Mental Landscape

Metaphorically speaking, what does the landscape of your dreams and desires currently look like? Mine resembles a wildflower patch with seeds randomly strewn about, some planted by myself and some by others, with barren patches and it’s all largely ignored.  How does yours look?  Some of you may have a single pot on the window ledge that’s tended daily.  Others may have a homestead of beautifully sown fields, orchards and gardens.

What are the details of your mental landscape? 

Which dreams and desires have been planted?  Did you sow them or did others?  How much time do you spend tending your garden?   What have been the fruits of your labour?  If you’ve found your landscape to be less than picturesque as I have, perhaps a ‘garden plan’ will help.

Select Your Seeds of Desire

The first step in garden planning is deciding what you want to plant.  Just as every flower, vegetable and fruit has its own unique seed, so do each of our dreams and desires.  “What do you want most?” Napolean Hill asks in his classic Think and Grow Rich.  “A burning desire to do something,” Hill wrote, “is the basis of all achievement, particularly when it is officially made our ‘definite major purpose’ and is backed by faith, plans and persistence.”

What are your burning desires?

If time and money were no issue, how and with whom would you spend your time?  When you think of the greatest memories of your life, what were you doing and with whom?  What feelings do you most want to experience in your life?  These questions will help you formulate a list of the seeds you might wish to plant.  Keep writing until you feel your list illustrates the dreams and desires of your perfect life.  Remember to include those that are short-term, long-term and at least one that may be nearly impossible.  Don’t worry about the way, just the will!

 

Ten Tips for Successful Sowing

As an urban gardener, my gardening knowledge is just enough to offer these additional ‘outdoor insights’ on planting an empowered garden of the mind.

 

  • When deciding where to plant your seeds, keep the most important and most delicate desires closest to you so that you can easily nurture them every day.

 

  • Not all seeds need to be sown at once.  Each desire has its own planting season, and some can be saved for years before it’s the right time to sow.

 

  • Some seeds are annuals, producing desires within the year.  Perennial dreams return and grow with each passing year.

 

  • Although a surprise seedling keeps life exciting and can grow into something extraordinary, you and only you know which are the best dreams for your landscape.
  • Seeds need suitable environmental conditions to thrive.  Compassion for self in all forms is the best environment in which to achieve your dreams and desires. Self love is the secret to fertile soil and sustaining light.

 

  • Allow adequate space between seeds for your dreams to flourish.  Also, culling seeds is sometimes necessary to ensure optimal growth for the remaining desires.

 

  • Germinating can take time, so be patient. On occasion, transplants grow better than dreams started from seed, so be open to starting where someone left off.

 

  • Don’t let weeds sneak in and get in the way of your dreams. There’s no room for seeds of doubt and despair in your beautiful garden. Pull them out and expose their roots to the light so they perish.

 

  • Avoid having critters snatch your seeds away from you by setting boundaries to protect your desires.  Don’t delay in replanting those seeds if necessary.

 

  • Be mindful of when your seeds might flower or bear fruit.  Where possible, plan so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labour throughout the year, and even for years to come.

 

From here, the cycle of our desired lives continues, as it sprouts, grows, bears fruit and rests dormant.  Our thoughts and beliefs become reality.  There will be times in life when we most need wide open spaces.  There will be times when the worst happens, wiping out our entire garden and forcing us to reseed with new desires of healing, hope and forgiveness.  There will be times when all we can manage is that one pot on the window ledge with its deep rooted seeds sprouting up into the light of day. Just as we physically need seeds to breathe, to live, we need them figuratively too. Faith, plans and persistence result in landscapes more breathtaking than we could ever have imagined.

So I ask you again, what seeds will you be planting?  Draw up your plans. Tend to your pot of gold or sow your field of dreams.  Seed well my friends, and harvest better.

Yours outdoors,

Nicole


unnamedNicole Moorey invites her backyard and backcountry sisters to reconnect with nature while living more joyful, healthy and fulfilling lives.  Through daily dates with nature, she’s creating an empowered life for herself and sharing snapshots of insight along the way: www.facebook.com/NicolewithNature.  Nicole studies personal empowerment with the S.W.A.T. Institute has mobilized thousands of people to help one another for 15 years as a Volunteer Administrator and enjoys adventures with her family in majestic Northwestern Ontario.

 

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