Spending time in the garden boosts my mental health. Unlike a few years ago when I shunned the garden, now it is my favourite place to be on weekends, for no other activity engages me so completely while it revives my spirit. Exhausted after a rough week, some people head to the beach, some to the casino, others to the dance hall, church, the bar or the football pitch; for me it is different.

All I do is don my signature cap, coverall, and gloves, saunter to the back of my house into the garden and there, in the quiet of the evening, I am transformed into another person. Tiredness oozes away in this green space. Here I can taste the evening breeze off the hillside and smell the musty grass from yesterday’s mowing.  Right then my wrinkles disappear, my shoulders relax, my lungs fill with oxygen and there is nothing I cannot do. I feel invincible and sometimes even immortal.

I weed, prune, rake leaves, fertilize, set new plants, redo a bed, and design a compost heap; everything becomes possible and easy.  In my garden space the sky appears huge and embracing, and my mind learns how to be at peace.  My body, lean and once strong, conserves energy as I turn from the difficult task, to the easy ones, and back again to the difficult.   I feel as if I am engaged in the miracle of life with things happening all around me.  In the echo of nature’s silence, I experience living things grow: plants inch higher, butterflies flitter, insects crawl on and under the ground with the worms, and birds defend their young.

Amidst this cycle of life my garden multitasks like a miniature universe, filling my heart with gratitude and making me want to give back. In fact, the garden is a giving place; having received from the universe the miracle of fruits and flowers, it is a joy to set plants for the neighbour, share produce, and smile as your elegant anthuriums decorate the Church’s sanctuary.  On each bed, lettuce leaves neatly set like pages in a book, the gardener crafts his sentences with a salad of words.  Visitors would leave my garden with their baskets full.

 

MEDITATION PRACTICE 

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practicing a simple breathing meditation. Choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. If you wish, you may sit on the floor or in a chair. Keep your back straight to prevent your mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy.

 

With your eyes partially closed, turn your attention to your breathing. Breathe naturally, preferably through the nostrils, without attempting to control your breathing. Become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is your object of meditation. Try to concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else.

 

Attempt to resist the thoughts running around in your mind and remain focused on the sensation of the breath. If your mind wanders, bring it back to your breath. Repeat this as often as necessary.

 

As you practice this more and more, gradually your distractions will subside and you will experience a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Your mind will feel lucid and spacious and you will feel refreshed. The incessant flow of your distracting thoughts will become calm and you will be better able to concentrate on the breath. Stay in this state of mental calm for a while.

MEDITATION

   Nicole Benjamin de Perez, M.S.

With the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and overworked. Our stress and tiredness make us unhappy, impatient and frustrated. It can even affect our health.

Do any of these symptoms of stress pertain to you?

• Regularly walking, eating or working in a rushed way.
• Regularly thinking and worrying about the past or future.
• Frequent tension in the body (especially neck, shoulders, back and stomach).
• Feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders.
• Emotionally on edge.
• Regular tiredness during the day.
• Significant need for outside stimulation to feel good (e.g., coffee, sugar, sex, TV, etc.).

 

Taking steps to relax body and mind (in addition to getting adequate sleep) can be enormously healing and is highly recommended for those interested in healing acute or serious chronic illnesses or preventing future illnesses.

 

Whenever we encounter a stressful event, our bodies undergo a series of hormonal and biochemical changes that put us in ‘alarm mode’. Our heart rate increases, adrenaline rushes through our blood stream and our digestive and immune systems temporarily shut down. If the stressors continue and we stay on high alert for a prolonged period of time, we experience exhaustion and burn out. None of us can avoid stress but we can return to a state of balance and regulation through a variety of means including meditation.

 

When practicing meditation, your heart rate and breathing slow down, your blood pressure normalizes, you use oxygen more efficiently and you sweat less. You produce more positive hormones, your body ages at a slower rate and your immune function improves.

 

When you meditate you bring together all the mind’s energies and focus them on a word, a sound, a symbol, a comforting image, or your own breathing. The optimal setting for meditation is a quiet, clean place. People typically meditate sitting on the floor or in a chair with their eyes closed.

 

Meditation involves both effort and passive participation. It takes effort to bring your attention back to your chosen focus but you also become simply a witness to everything that happens: random thoughts, sensory input, body sensations such as itches and cramps and external stimuli. As a result, you incorporate them into the meditation experience. All meditation practices involve the development of mindfulness – being fully engaged in whatever is happening in the present moment, without analyzing or otherwise over thinking the experience.

 

Meditation is wonderful because it is free; it’s always available and is amazingly effective in short-term stress reduction and long-term health. Benefits can be felt in just one session. Meditation has no potential side effects. People with physical limitations may find it easier to practice than strenuous physical exercise for stress relief and no special equipment is needed. However, it does take discipline, commitment and motivation.