Weeds
Imagine your mind is a patch of soil. You are born, the soil has been cleared for your arrival, and underneath the surface billions of microorganisms are flowing, living, being.
Over the first years, our friends and family sow some of their favourite seeds, some seeds get blown over in the wind from our neighbours, and some may even get dropped from the sky by the patriarchy. Without you even doing anything, your patch is suddenly filled with plants.
But you’re young! You’re much too busy discovering the world and your self to tend to your garden, so the plants grow and grow, dropping their seeds, spreading and sending deeper roots year by year.
Then one stormy day, you stop for a moment. You take a look at your garden. You never knew any different, but as you become more aware of it, it’s pretty out of control. So you start to rip out the plants that are socially unacceptable, the ones you’ve been told you don’t want growing in your garden. The ones they call weeds.
After a long, hard graft, all the weeds are gone! You’re so happy. This is just how a garden is ‘supposed’ to look. You feel like you have control.
Until, inevitably, the weeds come back. They may never go away. But why, you question, are these plants shunned as weeds? They are cropping up naturally, and display such resilience and dynamism.
You breathe, and you remember.. the weeds are meant to be there too! and they’re actually some of the most medicinal plants out there. If you get to know them, they can offer you great healing and wisdom.
Just like plants, there are no good or bad thoughts or intentions. You do not control the thoughts that come into your awareness. What if we just observe without judgment? If we release the idea of duality, how can we learn to work with and accept all of our thoughts? What can we learn from those thoughts and emotions that we may feel we have to hide or get rid of? Anger, jealousy, insecurity.. They are just thoughts. If we delve into why they are coming up for us in each moment, we can unravel so much. It’s not about getting rid of the bad thoughts, it’s more getting to know them and accepting them for who they are.
Love your weeds! Explore your darkness! Who knows what magic they have to offer us…
4 steps to exploring your weeds…
Become very mindful of your thoughts. Set a mental or physical reminder to go off every 10/60/.. mins. What have I been thinking about this past hour? Where have my thoughts been? What can’t I stop thinking about?
Be observant. Every time your mind changes, what has happened? What has triggered you, got you angry, got you upset, got you happy? A strong emotion may come up when you experience something that is not in line with a belief system that you are attached to/identify with. Ask yourself, what is really going on here?
Step backwards into the awareness again, when anger/sadness/jealousy come up, how do you react to these emotions? Are you absorbed by them? Can you become aware of them?
Sometimes we may get angry, and then resent ourselves afterwards. Or we may be ashamed about getting sad, and pretend we are fine.
Are we letting our emotions come to the surface? Are we greeting them with open arms? How do we react to the emotions that arise?
Breathe deeply and go into your heart space/mindful state/inner guidance and invite in the emotion. You may ask the emotion; why it has come today? What can I learn from this? You may ask yourself; why have I reacted so strongly to this? Be open and see what comes up.