empathic gardening

I was talking with a friend recently about limiting beliefs and made the analogy of tending to a garden. If you want an area to grow nourishing vegetables or certain flowers then it's important to keep weeding on a regular basis otherwise they'll become choked up. That's how I see it with beliefs.

Out in the garden today I found a deep and thick root which was difficult to get out from the very bottom. As soon as I wanted to force it I started to think about the conversation with my friend and I felt inspired to write. I've watched this garden grow for 13 years and it's taken on many different forms depending on the neighbours. It's a communal garden. Recently I've noticed my attitude to the garden change as my mind has changed. Not wanting to force anything, rather watching what it is doing naturally and following it's lead. I've felt a peace in that and life seems easier. Before my mind would wander to thinking about the garden and say something like, 'oh that garden, I'm tired of it not looking the way I want. By working with limiting beliefs I started to notice that one of my neighbours on her own accord started to tend a corner of it, I noticed and got really grateful for the neighbour who always wants to cut the grass and another neighbour asked if he could have a shed key to get the hedge trimmers. I tend the raised bed and I'm creating a wild flower corner which is slowly growing. No pressure, no force. I digress slightly, a bit like the wandering weeds...

Back to the roots. If beliefs are the roots and we think they will disappear after one tending then we will be disappointed and might give up hope and keep on the old path. The way I've experienced working with limiting beliefs is that it's an ongoing process. What I do know is that every time I work on beliefs I experience a state of expanding freedom which allows me to fly a bit further. Like the garden I'll keep going back to pick up those little bits that are peeking through letting me know that they are still there, although not quite as deep or strong. I also want to be gentle with those thick roots because if I force them they will break and the root will still be there. Like the nature of the mind I want to get to know it and become familiar with it's ways. I can watch to see where it wants to go next. Curiously tending the garden of the mind...