Planting a Beautiful Garden - and why our efforts in healing sometimes just grow more weeds

When we first moved into our house our flower beds were filled with so many flowers, our tiny backyard looked like a little garden oasis. It was beautiful, serene, and brought me joy just being in it. I am not a gardener like the previous owners, so I appreciate all that hard work. The other big thing I noticed about all these garden beds was, they were so full of flowers there were no noticeable weeds. The flower beds were so full of colorful flowers, ground cover, bushes, and plants, that hardly any weeds could make it through to the surface.
Our bodies, or health in general, remind me a lot of these gorgeous flower beds. We often think we can pull our weeds (problems), brush our hands on our pants, and say, "Phew! That was hard work, but job well done!" Or, we can try to plant all kinds of great plants and flowers (good intentions, & new ideas), but then wonder why they won't grow (lack of consistency or unrealistic expectations). We desire a beautiful garden, but we can't quite figure out how to have a green thumb or how to avoid killing our plants. We use all kinds of gadgets and tools (massage, supplements, energy healing, or any number of health care practices) but can't seem to keep our gardens free from weeds coming back.
The main reason for this fruit-less gardening is not because we aren't diligent or hard working gardeners. The clients I have worked on over the past 18 years, along with working on myself, has proven time and time again that we are definitely hard working gardeners. But, taking full responsibility for the state of the garden (our health, bodies, etc.) and having realistic expectations are the keys to our success. But, it also requires looking at how we utilize all these wonderful healing modalities, and apply them in a "garden" that is ready for change.
There is a reason we have the issues we have. They range from genetics, to lifestyle, how we treat others, and so much more. There are basic healing qualities that apply to all human beings. Some of those include: forgiveness, patience, gratitude, listening to our bodies, humility, faith, repentance (or making restitution for wrong doings), and more. These basic healing qualities are the most effective, and create permanent results, yet we often ignore them when we set out to "plant our garden."

​Constant weed pulling - Lots of people are great weed-pullers. They diligently seek professionals in helping them with their health. They make appointments, keep them, and spend lots of money, shed lots of healing tears, but somehow don't make the progress they desire.
With "constant weed pulling", we often take pills, supplements, and hire healing practitioners to help us remove pain, stress, negative emotions, mental issues, etc. This is all done with wonderful intentions, and definitely a great way to help us on our healing path, but without planting a flower after pulling a weed, weeds just grow back time and time again. The main issue here is not looking at how or why we carry that "weed" in the first place, and what are we going to do to take responsibility for it.

​Planting on unprepared soil - Some people make fabulous goals and plans, spend lots of time and money learning new techniques, hire mentors, read books, take classes, go with gusto with their new plans and ideas, and then fizzle out within days or weeks of starting.
When we "plant on unprepared soil" we are essentially ignoring all the "basics" of health and choosing the more exciting, and possibly easier solution. Paying someone for an energy healing session, or taking a pill, is a lot easier than changing our lifestyle or forgiving someone for the pain they caused. Some good hard looks in the mirror, time spent on our knees in prayer, and some study into looking at all aspects of ourselves - the good and bad, is a great way to "prepare our soil."

Expecting Master Gardener status too soon - Most of us are impatient and want all our problems to go away after one chiropractic adjustment, one herbal cleanse, or one healing session. We often forget that it took years for our gardens to be chock full of weeds. It took years of neglect of our bodies to be in the state we are in, so we can't expect healing to happen in days or weeks.
Imagine your life on a staircase, and gradually walking down each step - one being time, car accidents, traumas, heartbreaks, poor posture, unhealthy food, and so on. Now imagine healing, and walking up that staircase one by one. We are healing layer upon layer of unhealthy practices as we go up. We will sometimes experience these "steps or layers" again as we heal them. They have to be "stepped on" or addressed as we heal. We take responsibility for each step we took as we clean it up, fix it, repent, forgive, change, and more, as we climb that staircase to a healthier and less burdened version of ourselves.

​When we are too tired to garden - sometimes our situation is so traumatic and riddled with pain - emotional, mental or physical, that we can't see a way out or where to begin. Our garden is so full of weeds, we can't see how we will ever pull all of them in one lifetime. This is when we hire a gardener. There is one Master Gardener. His name is Jesus Christ. His Atonement is the ultimate healer of all problems. He can pull any weed, and plant any flower. His healing techniques are the permanent ones, the ones that always work.
I'm a gardener in progress, and I still have weeds to pull, but learning how to garden more efficiently has produced a much prettier and easier to maintain garden and flower beds. I hope we can all utilize the most effective healing modalities (from The Master Gardener) along with all that holistic health and western medicine can offer us. Our "gardens" are worth it, and maybe we will kill a few less plants in the progress.
Amber Gunnell, LMT, CFZP