A friend who had been away from home for several weeks was complaining about how much the weeds had grown in his absence. And worse, before he could attend to this, he had to take another unscheduled trip, which left no competition between him and the rambling mini forest (okay – a wee exaggeration!) on his return.

With my background in psychology, this led me to reflect on our minds and the weeds we let grow, sometimes unwittingly, and the way those plants can take over our thinking.

Our negative thoughts can be just like the unwanted weeds that my friend was complaining about. Left unattended, they can grow wild and soon shape views– not only on our current, but future reality.

Who needs that!

How quickly can you identify when your thoughts, feelings, behavior and sensations start to foster unchecked weed growth?

What if, every now and then, we paused and checked in as to how the garden of our mind was flourishing or not?

Your mind is a garden,

Your thoughts are the seeds,

You can grow flowers or

You can grow weeds

– (Author unknown).

What can you do to deliberately plant the good seeds, prune the weeds and create the garden you really want?