Pruning

I've been reading a book about mindful eating called If the Buddha Came to Dinner by Hale Sofia Schatz. Schatz likens emotional growth to gardening, saying that you have to "prune" in order to grow. She wants you to clear out the dead matter to make room for new growth...and urges clients to do some "internal pruning to clear out parts of their lives that aren't nourishing them." What a great concept--spring cleaning for your soul. And apparently both physical and spiritual pruning are fine...so cleaning out the closets can be good for your emotions too.

I started to examine what kind of things I have been "pruning" to make room for new growth. I identified a few spaces that were empty already, such as the spot in the morning where I wasn't eating breakfast. This is a great opportunity to stop reading the internet and cook myself a nourishing breakfast. But there are harder choices too when we decide to "prune." What about bad habits? What about people in your life that leave you emotionally drained? Is it possible to prune the biggest patches of dead matter in your life? I can pull a few emotional "weeds" here and there, but the idea of making major changes seems daunting. Do I need an emotional weedwacker or backhoe to get rid of these parts? If so, can I rent it from my local Spiritual Home Depot? I can already think of some major changes that I need to make in order to be truly mindful, yet I have no idea how to make it happen--how to cut back until you see the signs of life among the seemingly dead undergrowth.

I suppose that its just one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. I cleaned out my closets and put some unused items on craigslist to be sold. That's a small step. I get up and go out in the fresh air to exercise. That's another step. I bought my favorite green tea to nourish myself. Now hopefully I can get through some bigger changes in the same way.