The Mind is Like a Garden

“The Mind is like a Garden.” - Earl Nightingale

“Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. The harvest can either be flowers or weeds.” — William Wordsworth

“The mind is like a garden,” he told me. “You choose what to grow: weeds or flowers.” - David Michie

“That a man’s mind can be likened to a garden., which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild: but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, it will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.” - James Allen

I couldn’t find out whose quote it was originally. This means that the other people receiving credit for the quote were influenced by the idea, as was I. There’s a reason. Trying to remember and apply this philosophy could be one of the most beneficial additions to your mindfulness practice.

For this piece, we will simplify the statement down to, “The mind is like a garden.” It is a very “useful quote.”

This description differentiates such a quote from other quotes primarily meant to entertain:

“We're lost, but we're making good time” - Yogi Berra.

I love Yogi Berra's quotes but not many of them should be used as a guide. On the contrary, thinking about the mind as if it were a garden is a good habit. It helps in understanding the power of your thoughts in your life, both good and bad. In short, it’s good for you.

Here are a few ways that this potentially life-changing phrase shows its truth.

You pull the weeds like in a garden

Thinking about “pulling the weeds from the garden of your mind” paints a vivid picture. Just like in your garden, it is good practice to take the time to remove weeds to leave the rest of the environment clean and healthy.

What are your mind’s weeds? Worry, fear, envy, hatred, bigotry, greed, and any other thought that does not help you. What you decide to be a weed of thought is up to you. I consider dandelions to be weeds and mow them down with vigor. At the same time, there is a plantation somewhere in the world that does nothing but grow dandelions to be sold as dandelion tea. Dandelions are certainly not considered weeds at the Dandelion tea farm. Although they are prized by many of us, at the dandelion tea farm, roses, and orchids might be considered to be weeds. It’s a matter of what you value.

This also goes for your mind. Your weeds might be different than mine. My mind doesn’t grow too many weeds of envy. Envy is not something I struggle with currently. But envy might be the most common type of weed in your garden mind. Part of this practice is thinking about and understanding what you want to eliminate from your mind and life. In a past blog, I talked about how our perspectives usually determine if we see something as good or bad. By examining our thoughts with “detachment,” we can logically decide which thoughts are weeds and which thoughts are roses. Once you know what you are looking to remove, you can take the time to purposefully prune what is unhelpful from your thoughts.

What you plant grows, good or bad

Our minds are much better gardens than the ones we have at home. A real, physical garden is never perfect. I’ve tried to grow lavender for years with little luck. In my garden at home, I can’t grow an orange tree in the soil because, in my climate, that tree would freeze in the winter. Your physical garden is limited in its ability.

Our minds are different. Our minds are the perfect garden. Our minds can and do “grow” anything. The way you grow things in your mind is through thoughts. Thoughts are the seeds. If you plant seeds of compassion by consistently thinking compassionate thoughts, you will have more compassion in your mind in the future. This will always be true. Planting seeds takes effort in a garden takes effort. My blog about gratitude talks about how we can only appreciate things if we consciously decide to appreciate them. Whereas we might encounter a wild apple tree grown from a randomly tossed apple seed, we won’t have an apple grove unless we purposely plant apple seeds in planned spots and rows.

The pitfall is that our minds might be too good at growing things. Our minds grow things so well that they create bad things as well as good things. One must know that if you consistently think fearful thoughts, you are consistently planting fearful seeds and you will, without a doubt, create more fear in your mind. Beware of what you plant.

If you don’t plant anything, something you haven’t chosen will grow

Another level of this analogy is to visualize an abandoned lot of land in your community. Although nobody has planted anything in that empty lot, there is still a lot growing. An abandoned lot might grow grass, weeds, trees, or any other kind of plant. The point is that, like your mind, a plot of land will always grow something. Just because you are not consciously planting seeds does not mean that your mind is vacant.

Over time and on its own, your mind will increase its ownership of certain thoughts. If you heed my words and are selective in your attention, you will have more and more thoughts that help you. But, if you are not actively choosing what you are investing in, what increases in your mind will not be in your control. The results will be based on whatever you take in from your environment: people, media, and what you see around you. So, be sure to actively plant what you value.

It will grow wild if unattended

Adjacent to the vacant lot is an old house that is not abandoned but hasn’t been properly cared for recently. Outside of a house like that, you will see that what was once a manicured flower bed is now an overgrown mini-jungle. Gardens don’t stop growing when we ignore them. In fact, they grow too much and become out of control. This can be said of the mind. Without conscious effort, your mind will yield many thoughts, feelings, and actions that suffer from a lack of care. This is not a one-time activity. Tending to the garden of your mind should be a regular, long-term practice.

You don’t tend to a garden by force

Aside from rare occasions, you will never see someone tending to their garden with a bulldozer. That would be too rough. Considering your mind to be like a garden helps you remember that, when training the mind, it’s best to nurture it instead of beating it into submission. Engaging your thoughts with any kind of intensity or aggression is only going to make your mental state worse. Be patient with yourself and your mind, as if it were a collection of plants and not bricks.

I hope that this phrase stays with you. I hope that by remembering that “the mind is like a garden,” you will remember to pull your weeds, plant what’s good, and have a beautiful harvest of happiness and success.

Burak Uzun is an award-winning writer and a Certified Meditation Teacher.

Burak Uzun also co-wrote a feature film called Team Marco, which was featured in over fifty film festivals around the globe and was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Please feel free to reach out to Burak here.

Learn more about SOCA LLC and Burak’s classes here.