Thought Garden

If you’ve read Thought Garden, you know how passionate I am about cultivating a thought life grounded in God’s truth. His truth isn’t just a concept—it’s a source of compassion, love, help, and hope that we can plant in our minds and hearts every day. 🌸✨

When challenging thoughts and emotions arise, it’s easy to feel like something’s wrong or that we’re broken. But God’s truth tells us otherwise. Difficult emotions are not signs of failure; they’re signals from our bodies asking for kindness and care.

One way to honor this is by speaking compassionately to ourselves in moments of distress. Try saying something like, “It makes sense that I’m feeling anxious. My body is reacting out of fear, and that’s okay. What can I do to support my body and ease this anxiety?”

By naming our emotions and addressing them with kindness, we create space for healing. Remember, difficult feelings don’t define us—they simply show us where we need extra support. 💖

Let’s continue planting seeds of truth in our thought gardens, nurturing our minds with love and compassion. 🌱🌿

🌱 “To have the healthy and transformed thought lives that God wants for us, we must first acknowledge the thoughts that need changing.” 🌿

Taking inventory of our minds is the first step towards renewing them. As we grow, let’s open ourselves to change, knowing that transformation starts with awareness. 🌷🌿🌷🌿

✨ Nourish Your Thought Garden with Meditation ✨

Meditation works the same way as tending a garden. By watering our thought gardens through meditation, we develop root systems that are deeply nourished and anchored in Christ. 🌿🌷

This foundation enables us to weather whatever comes our way with strength and peace.

Remember, we’re all thinkers, and meditation is simply choosing to nurture thoughts that bring life and transformation! 🌸

🌿Feeling Anxious?🌿

When anxiety shows up, it’s important to pause and check in with yourself. Here are some questions you can ask to find peace and clarity:

1. What can I do to feel safe right now?
2. What’s within my control at this moment?
3. How can I invite more ease into this situation?
4. Can I set aside anything for later and focus on now?
5. What would feel soothing to my soul and body?
6. How can I release this anxious energy?
7. What would help me restore my energy and calm?

✨ Take a moment to breathe and reflect on these prompts. You are held by God’s love, even in your anxious moments. Trust that He is working in you and through you, bringing peace to your heart.

🌷Prayer:🌷
“Lord, I lift my anxiety to You today. Help me to release what I cannot control and trust in Your perfect peace. Calm my heart and guide me to rest in Your presence. Thank You for always being near. Amen.”

🌿 Do You Experience Intrusive Thoughts? 🌿

Intrusive thoughts are unwanted ideas and images that come to mind unexpectedly. Many people have them, and they don’t reflect your character or salvation.

The Good News:
Most intrusive thoughts are normal and pass through your mind without leaving a mark. However, some thoughts may stick, causing anxiety and leading us into one of two traps:

1. Avoiding the thoughts – distracting yourself with behaviors like phone scrolling, shopping, overworking, or substance use.

2. Fighting the thoughts – obsessively thinking, rehearsing scenarios, or feeling unable to let go.
Neither approach helps.

Instead, when intrusive thoughts arise, acknowledge them without giving them power. Don’t fight or avoid them. Simply say, “Oh, there’s that thought again. Ok. Whatever. It’s just a thought,” and continue with your day. Over time, this practice may help the thoughts lose their grip on you.

✨ Remember: Your thoughts do not define you – God’s love does. Nothing can separate you from His love. ✨

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39.

🌷💜🌼🪴

We all have a thought garden that needs tending. 🌱🌷

How are you nurturing yours today? Remember, with compassion and gentleness, we can cultivate a mind that reflects the image of God in us. Let’s grow together in this beautiful journey! 💜☀️🪴🌻

🌸Speak Peace to Your Nervous System🌸
Feeling overwhelmed? Speak God’s Word over yourself to help bring peace to your mind and body.

When you declare scriptures like these, your nervous system responds and can shift to a more peaceful state.

Let His Word soothe your soul today. ☀️🌱🌺🌷🌻

Come join us! 🌸🌷🌼

🌱 Trust the Seeds God is Planting 🌱

God is sowing seeds in the garden of your mind, heart, body, and soul. He is cultivating growth that’s uniquely yours. Know and trust that your harvest will come in His time. 🌸🌷🌼

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” - Psalm 34:18

🌱God invites us to bring our emotions to Him, trusting that He will provide comfort and guidance. Allow yourself to fully experience your emotions without judgment, knowing that God is with you in every moment.

🌱 When you encounter challenging emotions, take a moment to breathe deeply, pray, and acknowledge what you’re feeling. Our challenging emotions can be seen as an invitation to seek God’s presence and His peace. 💜

The first thing to know about back-to-school anxiety is it is normal! Starting kindergarten, returning to school, changing schools, etc., all of these changes can cause anxiety. Even parents struggle with the anxiety of a new year! Please know that you are not alone if the start of a new year feels overwhelming.

S.O.W. is a simple technique I use both personally and as a counselor. It can be used for a lot of different situations. It’s simple and easy to remember. I’ve given an example, but you can take it and use it however you want.

I’m praying for all the kids and parents as the new year begins. Remember, God is with us, and we can do this!🌷

📚🎒

Sometimes, it’s the toughest emotions that teach us the most. Anger, sadness, anxiety, and fear are integral to our growth and resilience. We can learn to embrace these emotions as they guide us through life’s ups and downs. It’s through understanding and integrating all our emotions that we truly grow and experience God’s unconditional love in new ways! 💕🌸🙏🏻🌷

We loved being with these amazing girls this morning and getting to share Thought Garden’s story! 🌸🌻🌷🌺

🌿 Our thought gardens are subject to storms no matter how hard we work to maintain them. Most of the time, we’re either walking into, walking through, or walking out of a storm. Life is full of challenges, and some trials are harder than others, but they are a constant part of our journey.

🙏 Jesus didn’t promise us Heaven on earth; in fact, He said the opposite. In John 16:33, Jesus reminds us: “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

✨ Let these words bring you comfort and strength today. Even in the midst of life’s storms, we can find peace and hope, knowing that Jesus has overcome the world. 🌈

Unhealthy boundaries cause emotional pain that can lead to codependency, anxiety, depression, and stress-induced illnesses. Creating healthy boundaries protects yourself, helps maintain a healthy thought life, and enables you to enjoy life and healthy relationships.

Examples of healthy boundaries:

🪴Emotional Boundaries:
- Respecting Feelings
- Taking Responsibility for Your Own Emotions
- Not Taking Responsibility for Others’ Emotions
- Understanding Your Emotional Needs
- Guarding Personal Information
- Emotional limits

🌸Physical Boundaries:
- Personal Space
- Touch
- Privacy
- Health-Related Boundaries

☀️Time Boundaries:
- Work-Life Boundaries
- Commitment Limit
- Scheduled Breaks
- Timely Meetings
- Time for Self-care
- Time spent online

🌱Relationship Boundaries:
- Respect for individuality
- Quality time together
- Conflict Resolution
- Emotional Support
- Mutual decision making

🌷Spiritual Boundaries
- Respect for beliefs
- Spiritual disciplines
- Spiritual discussions

🌻Work Boundaries
- Work hours
- Workload management
- Work-life balance
- Remote work boundaries

🪷Financial Boundaries:
- Spending limits
- Investing and saving
- Shared financial responsibilities

🌼Health & Wellness Boundaries
- Exercise and physical activity
- Rest and Relaxation
- Dietary choices
- Mental health care

We will go through messy and heartbreaking seasons. Consider, how it would help you and others to invite God to use your difficult seasons for your growth. These things can be offered to Him and when they are—we will often find they are the very things that spur us onward and forward. Nothing is wasted in with the Lord.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” Romand 8:28

Our emotions can be super complex and downright frustrating at times. Sadness, anger, fear, and even love can be difficult to feel. Many times it may feel a lot easier to numb or dismiss these emotions than deal with them. We often separate them from our spirituality, thinking they are two separate things, but what if God sees your emotions differently and deeply cares how you feel? If we’re willing to be vulnerable and authentic with Him, He promises to meet us where we are and bring healing and comfort to our deepest wounds. By acknowledging and bringing our emotions to Him, we can experience a deeper connection with God and find freedom in feeling all of our emotions.

I wonder where you are this Father’s Day. Father’s Day just like Mother’s Day (and every holiday) typically holds a complexity of emotions, feelings, beliefs, and memories. Let’s normalize that and be wherever we are in it. Honor your feelings today by not just thinking them but feeling them. When you do, they often get softer and easier to cope with. 🪴🌸🌻

It’s God’s will for you to live believing you are who He says that you are. He is a loving Father. He loves us so much that He saw to it that we never have to live in a defeated state of mind this side of the cross. When our identity is in Him, we will be firmly rooted so that we can grow beautiful thought gardens. This doesn’t mean we won’t have difficult thoughts or difficult feelings. We are human and bound to struggle on this side of Heaven. But when we are rooted in Christ we have a firm foundation to know we can handle the difficult thoughts and emotions that come our way. When we are rooted in our Christ given identity, we can hold space for the difficult thoughts and difficult emotions knowing God will help us transform them. It’s this transformation that help us to know His love in deeper more meaningful ways. 🪴🌸🌷💜

While the pruning God does can be painful at times, God prunes not to tear us down but to build us up. It sounds weird, doesn’t it—God’s way of adding is by subtracting? But that’s what pruning is. It is the process by which healthier growth and fruit are brought forth. We all have thoughts that need pruning. Our God, the Master Gardener, knows exactly where we need pruning. He prunes us carefully and lovingly. He knows what thoughts we have that are not producing fruit. He wants to prune them for us so we can have full and abundant lives. 🌸🪴🌻🌷

God never promises that we won’t go through storms, but He does promise to go through them with us. When we feel like we are drowning in the storm, we can choose to focus on God’s faithfulness and His promises to us. Let’s cling to Him in the storm. He will protect us.

Unhealthy boundaries cause emotional pain that can lead to codependency, anxiety, depression, and stress-induced illnesses. Creating healthy boundaries protects yourself, helps maintain a healthy thought life, and enables you to enjoy life and healthy relationships.

We all have areas in our lives that need healthier boundaries. Taking time to reflect and create new boundaries can be so helpful to our overall health.

Some examples of healthy boundaries might include:

🌸Limiting screen time

🌸Not participating in gossip

🌸Not working past 7 p.m.

🌸Not answering work emails on the weekends

🌸Only buying what’s on your shopping list

🌸Keeping a regular bedtime and wake-up time

🌸Clear boundaries with people who are hurtful, stress you out, etc.

🌸Limiting yourself to two cups of coffee per day

🌸 Speaking to yourself in kindness and compassion…especially when you notice you didn’t keep a boundary you set for yourself. 💜

“Get into the habit of asking yourself, ‘Does this support the life I am trying to create?’” – Author Unknown

Creating and keeping boundaries is hard. It’s nearly impossible to create healthy boundaries until you know your worth in Christ and see yourselves as deserving of healthy boundaries. Christ, gave us the perfect example of how to create healthy boundaries. It’s important we learn from His example to help nurture our heart, mind, soul, and body. Healthy boundaries are hard but unhealthy boundaries are harder.

“The reality is you will struggle deeply while grieving. You will need to learn to give much compassion to yourself. You will make mistakes in anger and deep sadness. You will have a short fuse at times and probably say things you don’t mean. You will forget things and struggle to focus. You will feel overwhelmed. These are normal experiences with grief. But beating yourself up for your difficult emotions or even your actions while grieving won’t change a thing. It won’t make things better for you or for those who love you. In fact, it will make things harder and worse and keep you in survival mode. “- Let It Be: When Grief Unravels Your Thought Garden Page 31

A harvest is never instant. A harvest is sown. We are meant to eat from the harvest, not the seeds. Take 💜 growth will come. 🪴🌷🌸💜