Weeds of the Mind

Weeds are just flowers in the wrong place

I was talking to a psychotherapist colleague recently about working with people with intrusive thoughts. Unfortunately, intrusive thoughts are generally considered negative, yet any thought that intrudes can be considered intrusive; what if you’re working and suddenly a thought of “what’s for tea” pops in your mind without a reason, then that’s intrusive too…

Your Mind is a Garden

This reminded me of when I was replanting part of my garden and was complaining about weeds. A horticulturist friend told me “weeds are just flowers in the wrong place”. How about considering that thoughts in the wrong place are ‘weeds of the mind’ rather than ‘thought flowers’. I’ll give you an example. Over the years, I’ve worked with many sports people who come for ‘performance coaching’; the common point is their thoughts that have moved from flowers to weeds e.g. “you can do better” heard as motivation to “you can do better” heard as negative judgement. This inner battle can cause anxiety, PTSD, addictive behaviour and more…

The thoughts you feed are the thoughts that grown

Virtually everyone who comes to see me, for coaching or therapy, know exactly what they don’t want but keeps focussing on it, feeding the thoughts and beliefs. These ‘thought weeds’ spread with ease when not addressed. Ignoring them doesn’t stop the spread either, we’ve all ignored/forgotten our gardens for a while and eventually had to put the hours in (or employed someone) to clear it for new planting/growth. Remember to compost the weeds (learn and benefit from them)

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Feed your dreams

Solution focused therapies, such as CBT, ACT, and NLP, even coaching, are about defining what you want and feeding it so it grows and flourishes.

Weed Killer

Don’t ignore the weeds, kills them!

You’ve probably heard the old saying “pay no attention to the elephant in the room”, yet it’s the ‘mind weeds’ that grown unless they’re dealt with… Anxiety, imposter syndrome, FOMO, stress, self-worth and more…

Nurture your garden

Regularly review and manage going forwards. Learn and flourish. Regularly nourish your mind by addressing issues before they take hold, build healthy relationships, plant what you want to grow and nurture it!

When you take care of what matters you reap the pleasure and rewards.

If you are interested in learning more about ACT, NLP, Coaching and even hypnotherapy training, please contact me on 0121 251 6172 or visit www.balancedapproach.co.uk