Mar 5, 2016

Your Life Is A Garden

Your life is a garden. And it needs constant attention.

Your garden needs water, sunlight, effort, and love in order to truly thrive.

If you treat your soil well then nutritious foods and beautiful flowers will be able to spring forth, or… you can treat your soil badly and it’ll feel like nothing ever really blooms or flourishes in your world.

Be mindful of who you allow to plant seeds in your soil. The wrong people can plant the wrong seeds and it can harm the quality of your garden in no time. If you aren’t mindful of who you allow into your garden, it can sometimes become unrecognizable in a matter of weeks.

Your deeply rooted beliefs are the thick tree trunks that seem impossible to remove. But it’s worth it to try.

Maybe someone once carved “You aren’t good enough” into the bark of one of the trees and it stares at you constantly, even when you aren’t looking in it’s direction. Remember, excavations are possible. It’ll be hard work, and you’ll work up a sweat trying to uproot it… you’ll likely want to give up out of sheer frustration… but there’s more sunshine when the trees are gone and the decaying leaves aren’t blocking all of the sunlight.

Be ruthless in pulling out the weeds from your garden. Remove whole plants regularly. It’s all up for questioning. Every single part of it. Nothing is sacred in your garden, other than what you deem to be.

Maybe you used to love roses, but now you’re kind of over roses and you want something a bit more unique. That’s fine. You’re allowed to change your mind.

Remember that no matter how beautiful and brilliant and awe-inspiring a certain floral display is, it will change. Usually much sooner than you want it to.

It will constantly be changing. The trick is to let go of the expectation that it will stay the same one day after the next, and loving it wholly when you stumble upon it’s marvellous, momentary beauty.

Above all else, remember that it’s your garden.

You get to do exactly what you want with it.

Jordan Gray
About Jordan Gray

Jordan Gray has been a sex and relationship coach for over 15+ years, with his work reaching over 200 million people worldwide. His writing has been featured in Vogue, GQ, The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, and countless other publications around the world. When he’s not working with 1-on-1 coaching clients or writing a new article, he’s most likely to be found reading, chopping wood, or spending time with his wife on a little island off the west coast of Canada.

Blog

Related

See All
Why Being Needy Is A Good Thing
Dec 18, 2013
Jordan Gray
Why Being Needy Is A Good Thing
In western society we are raised with an independence-is-the-only-way mindset. And this does so much damage to us it's ridiculous. You walk down the street and see women sporting t-shirts that say "100% single" or "I don't need no man". You hear men bragging about how long they've been single for...
Continue Reading
How To Stop Hating Men
Jan 28, 2020
Jordan Gray
How To Stop Hating Men
(Note: this is a companion piece to my recent article How To Stop Hating Women. I also write the following article primarily directed at heterosexual women, since that demographic makes up the majority of my readership.) One of the most challenging, and often invisible, themes that keep people...
Continue Reading
9 Practical Ways To Be More Present In Your Life
Aug 11, 2018
Jordan Gray
9 Practical Ways To Be More Present In Your Life
I once worked with a man (who I will call Tom) who lived in San Francisco. Tom would wake up in the morning to his ringing iPhone alarm, roll over, and immediately check his text messages, his Instagram, and then his two email accounts (in that order). The texts were usually from his friends, the...
Continue Reading
What To Talk About On A First Date
Apr 2, 2014
Jordan Gray
What To Talk About On A First Date
No matter how many first dates you’ve been on, they are always a bit nerve-racking. You show up with sweaty palms and racing thoughts ("Will they be fun… or awkward? Will I be attracted to them? Will the date go as well as I think it might?"), hoping that you make a real connection with someone...
Continue Reading
Fire: A Meditation
Jan 4, 2019
Jordan Gray
Fire: A Meditation
All of my life, I have loved tending to fires. When I was a little boy, one of my grandparents owned a small cabin a couple hours drive from my hometown. In this cabin, there was a wood burning fireplace. When I was around the age of six, my dad taught me how to set up a proper fire, and I was immediately...
Continue Reading
How To Know If You Are A Catch: A Quiz
Sep 4, 2024
Jordan Gray
How To Know If You Are A Catch: A Quiz
So you think you're a catch, but how can you know for sure? Your friends aren't the most reliable source to ask, because they're biased. And you can't just go ask your exes, because, you know, they're your exes. Here's what I can offer you. Read through the following 100 questions. For every...
Continue Reading