Meg Worden, RYT

Summer is the season of abundant growth. Each tiny seed planted in the spring was already ripe with infinite potential. The adage says we reap what we sow and it holds true for both our garden soil as well as the foundation of the soul.

Just as a garden filled with weeds will choke the life out of the harvest, so a mind filled with anxiety and fear will choke out faith and contentment. A body clogged with disease forming foods will choke out radiant health, and a heart full of anger will decimate acceptance and love.

Each day we are offered a myriad of choices about what to digest. Food, thoughts, conversations, media -- a virtual buffet of sensory input that can easily overwhelm and exhaust. It is up to us as individuals to choose to plant in our being only the seeds with the highest and most noble potential for harvest. We can choose the best of our available options with vitality-rich foods, compassionate thoughts, enlightening conversation and discriminating forms of music and cinema.

Life is a garden

It is our most primitive nature to blindly follow our senses and yearn for that which gives immediate pleasure. Experience will show, however, that it is a short-lived pleasure, lacking in the intense enterprise that garners genuine benefit. To continue with the garden analogy, the tireless passion one gives to growing potatoes is an effort that pays far greater returns than driving through for a large order of fries.

Choices that purify our mind, body and spirit take will power and earn interest as we wait patiently for great payoffs. Raising consciousness requires tenacity and a laser-like focus on personal evolution. When doubt creeps in, or temptations arise, we offer gratitude for the opportunity to exercise our strength of character rather than retreat.

Cause and effect

There really is a sense of urgency to activate our personal best as we are living in a world filled with distress, violence, pollution and despair. When we make decisions about what we put into ourselves, we make decisions about what we put into the world around us. All cause is followed by effect. Please don't doubt that small changes can make profound differences. There is always room for more clarity, more peace, more joy and liberation.

Strength and flexibility are required to break through obstacles and hold on to our truth. Practice makes progress and no genuine effort is lost. Yoga, meditation, spiritual and self study are great ways to develop these qualities. Begin with five minutes per day and let nothing impede on this sacred time. When it becomes habitual you will find it so rewarding that your practice will take on a life of its own.

Your journey upward awaits. Tend a garden of beauty and serenity this season and we will all reap what you sow.