The Garden is a beautiful metaphor for our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves. While we don’t have control over the plot of land and what initially gets planted[1], once we take over, the possibilities are endless. Our inner gardens contain all that we need to nourish ourselves. Our inner gardens hold both bounty and beauty.

Flourishing gardens require work. Tending to our inner gardens requires daily practice. We must water, fertilize, and weed our inner gardens daily. Our labour, and the fruits of our labour, are iterative. This work is intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and indeed, embodied. Tending to our inner gardens is a whole person, whole body experience. Daily, physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual labour tends to our inner garden.

This work is also a practice of self-study, or Svadhyaya. We must be attentive to our inner landscapes to know when and how to water, fertilize, and weed. We must also be attentive to the impact of the outer world on our inner landscape – the climate and weather impact our growth both seasonally and daily. Tending to our inner gardens is an embodied knowledge practice.

Hone your self-study skills with this Breath Research Practice. No special equipment is required. You have everything you need. Find a comfortable seat. Notice the calming power of attentiveness to your breath.

Happy gardening!

[1] “On the day you’re born, you’re given a little plot of rich and fertile soil, slightly different from everyone else’s. And right away, your family and your culture start to plant things and tend to your garden for you, until you’re old enough to take over its care yourself. They plant language and attitudes and knowledge about love and safety and bodies and pleasure. And they teach you how to tend your garden . . . Some of us get lucky with our land and what gets planted. We have healthy and thriving gardens from the earliest moments of our awareness. And some of us get stuck with some pretty toxic crap in our gardens, and we’re left with the task of uprooting all the junk and replacing it with something healthier, something we choose for ourselves. (Nagoski, 2015, 39).

Nagoski, E. (2015). Come as you are: The surprising new science that will transform your sex life. Simon and Schuster.