Exploring Mindful Garden Exercises
Cultivating Compassion and Connection through Flower Picking
The Mindful Gardener Newsletter is late this week due to the loss of electric power. This week’s newsletter is being written here in Cordressagagh in the dark by way of a flashlight. If I switch this flashlight off, I cannot see my hand in front of my face. At least I don’t have to be concerned for the Orangery and the greenhouse that were destroyed in the last two windstorms.
Each time I write this newsletter things evolve. This week I have been reflecting on how I want to continue with writing this newsletter and how I will develop the related website that is
I have decided I am going to write about designing and creating sacred garden space.
I have outlined ten ideas which I am going to explore and create over the coming years. These are garden ideas that I love, and I will have a fabulous time designing and creating them together with community involvement.
10 Sacred Garden Designs
These garden designs or rooms reflect the journey that I have taken through this life and have been graced to love. This is not a definitive list but there are enough here to be going on with.
1. Zen Garden.
2. Celtic Garden with labyrinth.
3. Christian Garden – Quaker style.
4. Chakra Garden – Focused on Heart Chakra.
5. Goddess Garden – Focused on the Celebration of the Divine Feminine.
6. Yoga Garden – The Journey of the self to the Self.
7. Poets/Writers and Mystics Garden.
8. Meditation/Contemplation/Prayer Garden
9. Garden to celebrate the Islamic poet Rumi.
10. Minimalist Garden
I have an acre of land and more which will allow me to create mini gardens related to the above themes.
I will develop the website by creating twelve articles for each garden theme that share many different ideas that anyone interested in creating a sacred garden space can explore and unfold in their own way.
Mindfulness Exercises for Each Week
This week I discovered people search the internet for the term “Mindfulness Exercises,” so I have started to write about the way in which I practice mindfulness in the garden here at Corrogue.
This morning when the electric was still out, I wrote about my experience picking flowers in the garden.
Mindful Gardening Exercises – April – Week Ended 7th April 2024
Here in the garden in Cordressagagh I begin to explore various mindfulness exercises that pertain to gardening. I will be adding to these exercises as they spontaneously arise within me in the practice of day to day being in the garden.
So why might such mindfulness exercises be of interest to you?
Engaging in mindful gardening exercises offers a transformative journey toward holistic health and well-being, intertwining the nurturing of both mind and body. Rooted in ancient practices and modern scientific understanding, mindful gardening transcends mere cultivation; it becomes a profound meditation, fostering inner peace and connection with nature.
Through deliberate attention to the present moment, you get to immerse yourself in the rhythm of growth, cultivating mindfulness amidst the flourishing life within your garden and this begins to extend to other areas of your life. You get to awaken to the more expansive and creative you. You tune into a Mind beyond the limitation of the personal sense of self to the Divine Intention called SELF.
This intentional engagement not only cultivates vibrant flora in the garden but also nurtures mental clarity, emotional resilience, and physical vitality within you. By harnessing the therapeutic power of nature, mindful gardening exercises serve as a sanctuary for self-reflection, a source of profound joy, and a pathway to profound well-being.
With each of these mindful exercises I will suggest the kind of energy such exercise cultivates within you as a result of partaking in it.
Harvesting Beauty with Heart: Cultivating Compassion and Connection through Flower Picking
Cultivates – Compassion and Connectivity
So let me begin with a mindful gardening exercise that is available through most of the spring and summer. This is picking flowers. I don’t advocate picking flowers because I so love to see them blooming in their natural state. There are two exceptions to this general rule.
Exception one is picking daffodils, narcissus, and tulips. In Ireland we have a lot of rain and increasingly a lot of high winds. This results in the stems of daffodils and narcissi breaking or being bent over to that their beautiful faces lie in the mud and dirt.
This exercise asks you to pay attention to any daffodil, tulip or narcissus that is in that state. Its stem is bent or broken. Be mindful of how that makes you feel. For me I feel sad, but I get to be empowered in taking these broken expressions of beauty and giving them a second lease of life. I find that uplifting. This gives me a buzz from an act of compassion.
I take a tall vase that I love. I love the creamy color and the Celtic motif included in the design of this Belleek pottery vase. The contrast between the green stems and the various yellows and salmon pinks of the flowers are so beautiful.
We have visitors coming to stay and it is beautiful to be able to have a vase of flowers in their bedroom to welcome them and light up their eyes.
The other exception is regarding scented sweet pea.
When I cut the flowers from the scented wall that surrounds the St. Bridgit’s garden I give the plant a second chance of flowering its potential. I get to share these different colored scented flowers with friends and neighbors. This brings the joy of connection.
Mindful Journal Reflection
Are you mindful of picking yourself up when you have been blown over by the windstorms of life? Do you take yourself within and give yourself a second lease of life that allows you to continue to express the beauty you are here to reflect in the world?
Bring the beauty of the garden into your home by caring for those flowers that you see blown over in the wind and the rain. Next time you go shopping take yourself on what is called as Artist’s date. This is where you take a day out to indulge the artist within you. It’s good for your mental and spiritual health.
Seek out a vase that has symbolic meaning for you by way of design, shape, color or feel. Enjoy the search to find such a vase. Let the vase be a symbol of connection to what wisdom teachers KNOW. This is the paradox of the experience available to each of us, that is the emptiness that is forever full. In Ireland this is symbolized by the Cauldron of Plenty – the fourth Treasure of Ireland.
Conclusion
What is Mindful Gardening - Devotion in Action
I have other news about happenings in Cordressagagh, but it would make this newsletter double the length it is. So, I hope I can upload this newsletter before we might lose the electric again given that the windstorms are still blowing just as hard as they were twenty four hours ago.
Keep safe and well. Be mindful of the beauty within and without and have the courage to be magnificent. Let it be so for you. Let it be so for all.