Welcome to the beautiful garden of That’s Philosophical. Twice a week, I send you inspirational ideas to become a more mindful person in a world that can’t take a break.
You can read the web version here.
The course of our life is determined by our actions. Our actions are based on choices. Our choices are based on our thinking. Our thinking is framed by a mindset.
If we take a look at the big picture, it’s obvious that our life is controlled by our thoughts. Thoughts lead to material things.
If we want to improve the quality of our lives, we should start with our mindset.
Become a Dedicated Gardener
Any human’s mind is a beautiful place full of memories, thoughts, ideas. Every single one is unique in its own way. But sometimes we take it for granted and forget to take care of our mental health.
What if we saw our mind as a beautiful garden?
It’s full of flowers and the most magnificent plants nature ever created. Just as you would nurture this garden every day and look after it, try to nurture your mind too.
You’ve been protecting and helping this garden thrive your whole life, it’s the most precious thing you have. No matter what happens outside, a terrible day, a global crisis, a conflict, your garden is always there.
Garden Maintenance
Here are some tips and tricks on keeping your garden in the best shape possible:
1. Remove Weeds
Remove weeds sucking up water that was supposed to go to your plants. Imagine that water is your attention, you can’t think clearly if you have many things going on inside.
Solitude is a way to settle these thoughts and analyze them, so you can handle the situation. Journaling and meditation help me do that.
But if you want to skip the symptom and tackle the problem itself, then don’t let them inside in the first place. Some people come to you for empty, meaningless conversations. There are tons of content online that won’t give you any value besides entertainment.
“You are what you eat” became “you are what information you consume”. If you don’t filter this out, you will be overwhelmed by your very thoughts. Even That’s Philosophical can be total crap for you, so be mindful of what you read, watch, listen to. (Although one of the goals of this newsletter is to improve your information diet, so I hope I deliver that).
2. Hire a Security Guard
You see a stranger in the garden walking on your flowers. You’ve been looking after them for years. What would you do?
Kill him, probably (Don’t).
The same goes for your mind. Don’t let people around you destroy your garden. You know it’s beautiful, no one can prove you wrong because you are the person who knows it better than anyone.
Just as there are people who come to have meaningless conversations, there are those who spread negativity like a virus.
Every negative thought is a potential threat to your mood for the rest of the day, or even longer. Be cautious about what thoughts you let inside of your head and who you open up your garden to. We are the most vulnerable when we share what’s inside of us, don’t let people use it against you.
“You never can afford a luxury of one negative thought” .
-Robin Sharma
3. Water it and Plant New Flowers
Our minds require daily attention. Self-love is the first step to taking care of yourself and others.
Show yourself some love with enjoyable routines and activities. Without comparison to others, without looking for negative things. Just embrace the moment.
Keep meaningful people around. Read amazing books (and newsletters), watch touching movies. This is how you grow new plants of various types, all in one place. The more plants you have, the more interesting person you become. Then it goes like a snowball- attracting even more meaningful conversations that will plant even more plants.
4. Celebrate Your Garden
If negative thoughts can make you feel worse for long periods of time, positive things also hold the power to fill your life with warmth.
Try to seek beauty in everyday things. In every flower and every bug in your garden. The world is what we tell ourselves about it. When you learn to find beauty in the ordinary, quickly you notice that life itself is becoming more beautiful.
Search for positive things in any situation, writer Bruce Tift has a great metaphor to explain this:
“It’s as if we’re walking down the street past a house with a big picture window, and the sun is shining directly on the glass. It appears opaque; we can’t see into the house. All we see is the sun shining back at us.
Yet if we walk another ten feet, the angle of the light changes. The glass becomes transparent, and all of a sudden we can see into the house. The glass hasn’t changed. The sun hasn’t changed. We haven’t changed. It’s only our perspective that has shifted.”
Tell Good Stories to Yourself
One of the most remarkable principles of stoicism is that we react to stories of events, not the events themselves.
“It is not events that concern people, it is their judgements concerning them”
- Epictetus
We can always change the story we are telling ourselves and immediately feel better.
Imagine you hear that the government closed everything and said you should sit at home for a month. Of course, you would be frustrated and angry, what a stupid decision!
But later you find out that everything is closed to save people’s lives, then you feel better because the story you are telling yourself has changed. Now you realize that it’s not that bad and you actually could sit at home for the greater good.
Nothing about the event itself has changed, it’s what you told yourself about it that had an impact. Viktor Frankl said about the space between an event and our reaction, it is under our control:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”
The quality of your life can dramatically increase if you figure out how to respond to experiences and not let emotions control your thoughts. If you understand how to change the story you are telling yourself, then you are on the track to becoming more mindful.
Takeaway
I like the garden analogy. There are so many things that are similar to the thing as complex as the human mind. Some people take what they got for granted and forget that it requires care just as any material thing. When you look at it from another perspective, you notice how much impact you have on your mental health.
Remember to keep away from meaningless information and negative thoughts. Take care of your mental health every day through self-love and embrace the beauty of the little things.
We are in total control of how we feel and what we do. Treat your mind as a magnificent garden. It will pay off.
“The price of greatness is responsibility over each of your thoughts.”
- Winston Churchill
My Latest Collaboration
Here is something you probably didn’t know about me- I really love movies. Recently I had an amazing opportunity to collaborate with moviewise! A newsletter that shares life lessons from great movies.
Here is an issue we wrote together about a movie that had an enormous impact on my life- La La Land. I hope you will like it! Read here.
Readers of That’s Philosophical say they loved my previous issue!
Thank you for reading, have an amazing week! If you enjoyed this week’s edition, please consider letting me know by hitting the like button below!
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"Remember to keep away from meaningless information and negative thoughts. Take care of your mental health every day through self-love and embrace the beauty of the little things." This is great advice!
I like this quote from Peace Pilgrim that touches on this same sentiment:
"If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought."
It's a good thing to remember. I used it in this post:
Change Your Perspective, And Change Your Life?
12 Movies To Help See Things Differently For A Healthier And Happier You
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/change-your-perspective-and-change