Meditate through gardening

Gardening can be the ideal way to help centre yourself via the medium of meditative gardening. Let’s cover some tips to help you get started.

• Determine where you will engage your meditative gardening. If you do not have land to plant, determine if your community has gardening space available in vacant lots and other waste space available in vacant lots and other waste space; or consider indoor gardening.
• Be frank with yourself about your reasons for gardening. If you are highly competitive at work, you may turn gardening into another stage for competition – this time with the neighbours. Such an attitude will make meditation while gardening unlikely if not possible.
• Rely as little as possible on machines. The hacking sound of the small internal combustion engine discourages meditation. The swish of a non-motorised lawn mower, however, can be very soothing.
• Be aware that you are not able to control the weather. Unlike many meditations, gardening is one that you may engage in for four hours on one day. Then be held hostage indoors for the next two days whilst the heavens water your yard. Don’t compare. Every rose is an incomparable witness to nature’s beauty. Even a slug-munched cabbage is singularly alive. No garden is ever perfect. Your garden is just one of those perfectly imperfect creations!

Source: Meditation: The Complete Guide by Patricia Monaghan & Eleanor G. Viereck

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