The Garden, the Soil, and the Practice of Becoming
Wellness isn’t about perfection.
It’s about creating a life that feels good to live inside of.
And if I’ve learned anything in my years as a wellness coach and Reiki practitioner, it’s this: the journey is never linear. It moves like the seasons … expanding, contracting, thriving, resting, and sometimes, starting again.
We all move through it.
And we all need time to settle.
This spring, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my own corner of nature, my rooftop garden in the city.
There is something profoundly grounding about it for me. Nothing replaces the feeling of putting my hands in soil, of tending something slowly, of watching small seedlings push their way into life.
It reminds me to slow down.
To listen.
To notice what is actually happening, not what I expect to be happening.
This year, I rebuilt my garden planters.
The barrel containers I had been using for over 13 years were disintegrating. The soil inside them was tired. I realized something important: I had been focused on the plants struggling to grow, not the environment they were growing in.
This concept wasn’t new to me, and I actually referenced the idea often, but I failed to take the time to tend to my own garden.
When I replaced the containers and refreshed the soil, everything changed.
The garden began to flourish in a way it hadn’t in years.
It was a simple but powerful reminder:
If a plant isn’t thriving, don’t only look at the plant.
Look at the soil.
In many ways, this is the same work we are invited into with our own well-being.
We often focus on how we appear on the outside – our habits, our routines, our productivity, our discipline.
But true wellness lives underneath that.
In the soil.
In what we are feeding ourselves daily.
In what we allow to take root.
In how we rest, how we breathe, how we relate to ourselves, and how we are held by others.
Water, sun, nourishment.
Calm thoughts.
Healthy boundaries.
Rest.
Community.
Space to grow.
This is the real foundation.
Our mind is also a garden.
Whatever seeds we plant, tend, and return to– those are the ones that grow.
When we water our inner world with intention, when we choose thoughts and practices that align with who we are becoming, we begin to shape something meaningful within ourselves.
Something steady. Something alive.
Something that can also nourish others.
So I often come back to a few questions, not as judgment, but as gentle awareness:
What are the weeds that are draining your energy right now?
For many of us, these are recurring thoughts, self-criticism, or old narratives we have outgrown. The practice is not to force them away, but to notice them, and gently reframe so they don’t take deeper root.
What joyful habits are you cultivating?
Are you consistently making space for the things that bring you back to yourself?
Not occasionally! But regularly enough that they become nourishment.
Small daily practices like mindfulness, movement, or quiet time can become the seeds of long-term wellbeing.
And perhaps most importantly:
Are you surrounding yourself with supportive people and environments?
Are you allowing yourself to be in community?
And can you make space for all weather?
Because the garden doesn’t expect sunshine every hour of every day.
Rain is part of growth.
Stillness is part of growth.
Even the difficult seasons are part of growth.
As a Reiki practitioner, I often think about energy in this same way. We are always exchanging, always responding, always adapting to what surrounds us.
The question is not how do we eliminate the hard seasons?
The question is: how do we stay connected to ourselves within them?
Because wellness is not about perfection.
It is about tending the soil.
And trusting that what you are growing, slowly, quietly, consistently, is already becoming something meaningful.
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