Welcoming the New Year
As we cautiously wade into 2022 I have invitations, a mindfulness challenge, and a gift to brighten your new year.
Perhaps you started the year with a goal to practice mindfulness in a more consistent or deeper way. Or maybe you are still casting about to decide what your mindfulness goals will be. Either way, I invite you to join me in celebrating the full moons and new moons of 2022 with a deeper dive into garden mindfulness and intentional living.
Invitation to Full Moon and New Moon Practices
Beginning on January 17th I will be posting a blog in sync with each full moon of the year. The full moon is a time of heightened illumination. So each month I’ll be writing more in depth about one of the plants profiled in my book Growing Mindful. The monthly entries will include how to grow the plants, their healing properties, and correspondences. Energetic correspondences are characteristics of plants (like courage, healing, kindness, resilience) that can be used as a mindful focus throughout the day, and beyond.
The new moon happens 14 days later when the moon disapears from our sight. In honor of each new moon I’ll be writing about topics related in some way to gardens and mindfulness. One of the topics on my list is the I Ching’s relation to the green world. And I will also be highlighting some of my favorite books and resources on gardens, herbs, and meditation practices. Each blog will provide a mindful focus suggested by the topic that month. So it would be possible to adopt a mindfulness practice using each focal point for two weeks at time – transitioning every two weeks from full moon to new moon.
If the idea of intentionally working with moon phases and plant correspondences speaks to you, sign up to receive notifications of my posts by email. Use the link in the right hand column of this post to enter your email and subscribe.
A Second Invitation – Garden Mindfulness Circles
I host garden mindfulness circles every three months via zoom – so you can participate from anywhere. These are free events. Each circle includes a short garden focused meditation, ideas on plants, gardens, intentional living, and how to practice throughout the season. Circles last about 45 minutes and then those who want to, hang out and talk about gardens and life. It’s centering and fun and a lovely way to start Sunday morning. If you’d like to attend my next circle click here to sign up on Eventbrite.
A New Year Challenge – Increasing Intentional Living
It might seem that the last few years have been challenging enough without adding any thing to it. However, settings goals around living more intentionally can actually help us navigate difficulties in a better way.
We know that writing a goal down is a powerful way to commit and increase the chances of attainment. If you’ve not already done so, challenge yourself to think about how you will begin or expand your mindfulness practice? What goals do you have for intentional living?
Even the simplest actions if done with focused awareness can be profound. They don’t have to take a lot of time. (See the ideas on the poster below.)
Whatever you decide, I encourge you to write your goal down as a way to make it stick. If you have a goal you’d like to write in the comments it is a great way to declare your intentions and also inspire others. And if you write it in the comments, I will send you an email in a few months and ask you how it is going.
A New Year’s Gift
Here’s my gift to you. I’ve created a poster with three simple garden mindfulness practices. The practices might at first glance seem very easy, and they certainly are easy to fit into our lives. But that’s the beauty of it – we can find time to do them and they can be profound when we commit to them. And like any practice – it is in the doing that we get better at it.
Click here to download an 8.5 x 11 PDF copy of the Every Day Garden Mindfulness Practices
Happy New Year!
