The garden of your mind

Each piece of media you consume is like a seed being tossed into a garden.

The garden of your mind.

Podcasts, TV, games, social media, articles, videos, music… the list goes on. Every one dumping new seeds into your garden. Now don’t get me wrong, some of those seeds might turn into plants that help you survive, or even thrive. You might, for example, gain some great insight from a video on emotions that helps you to think differently about yourself.

On the other hand, there are many that will actually damage other plants in your garden. Countless young people have been led away from moving towards what they care about because of feelings of inadequacy born from social media stories.

So there’s a risk with what kind of seed you’re accepting.

But even if you only plant positive seeds, there’s a hidden danger there too.

If you constantly dump new seeds into a garden. How are they going to grow?

External media can be fantastic for giving us new perspectives and ideas that motivate us, but if we don’t take time away from it, those ideas and motivation won’t take hold.

Seeds need to be given time, space and care. If not, they’ll compete for resources, their roots won’t spread, and you’ll end up with a bunch of little green sprouts that will soon die out. We all know the feeling of forgetting that great information you got from the first video because you’ve now watched 5 more in quick succession.

So be thoughtful about what seeds you accept.

And be wary of over-crowding.

Give yourself space to process and integrate the positive seeds you find.

You only get one garden after all.