Healing, like everything in life, is a journey. When we are in ill health, it is easy to focus on an ideal destination and become focused on reaching that desired place in our bodies and minds. Destination-focus can be stressful, amplifying our impatience with our symptoms and causing our thoughts to dwell in the negative. We want our journey to be like a highway that we can drive at high speeds. This kind of focus also pushes our minds into the past and future, to where we were and where we want to be, rather than the present in which we inhabit. Unfortunately, what we focus on tends to grow. Focusing on ill health can actually aggravate our symptoms through raised stress levels.

Instead, consider your journey to be along a garden path. Garden paths are rough-hewn and meandering. The rocky trail encourages the traveler to slow down and admire the surrounding garden, to take in the flowers and be present. Our lives are like gardens. Awareness is like fertile soil that allows for growth. Learning is akin to planting seeds and watering them. Pain and negative thought patterns can take the form of weeds. And everywhere are the beautiful flowers of our passions, loved ones, and little joys. Sometimes we are so focused on pulling weeds or planting new flowers, that we forget to admire the lush garden that already surrounds us. Gently walk the garden path of your life, remaining present and treasuring the beauty that is blooming within and around you. As you happily thrive in your lush garden life, weeding and planting all the while, your flowers will continue blooming. And the beautiful blossoms you have been focused on admiring will continue to multiply.