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It’s a New Year, friends! As we think about our dreams, goals, and intentions for 2020, we’re focusing on this message for direction & purpose: Plant Good Thoughts.
Why this theme?
In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh,Buddhist monk and peace activist,
Your mind is like a piece of land planted with many different kinds of seeds: seeds of joy, peace, mindfulness, understanding, and love; seeds of craving, anger, fear, hate, and forgetfulness. These wholesome and unwholesome seeds are always there, sleeping in the soil of your mind.
These seeds grow in our lives over time, but there’s an interesting aspect to their growth -- the role we play in which seeds thrive, affecting the qualities that grow strong in our lives. Thich Nhat Hanh writes that “the quality of [our] lives depend on the seeds [we] water:”
If you plant tomato seeds in your gardens, tomatoes will grow. Just so, if you water a seed of peace in your mind, peace will grow. When the seeds of happiness in you are watered, you will become happy. When the seed of anger in you is watered, you will become angry. The seeds that are watered frequently are those that will grow strong.
Which seeds do we water? Mindfulness & self awareness help us grow in our understanding of ourselves. Separating ourselves from our thoughts gives us perspective on how our attitudes affect our actions. If you’re like us, it’s so easy to become enmeshed in the day in and day out routine of life. Anyone else felt this? Our daily routine may not necessarily be a problem, but we may feel our routines without mindfulness can become ruts & habits that aren’t uplifting or propelling us toward the good stuff of life.
Moments of reflection can illuminate those seeds that may have grown into weeds. Then it’s time for a little pruning! Living this life to its fullest isn’t about achieving perfection or a destination, but in our view, it's a process of constant growth, checking in with ourselves in mindfulness & intentionality, and then growing some more.
Thich Nhat Hanh explains it like this:
Our mind is a field in which every kind of seed is sown—seeds of compassion, joy, and hope, seeds of sorrow, fear, and difficulties. Every day our thoughts, words, and deeds plant new seeds in the field of our consciousness, and what these seeds generate becomes the substance of our life.
As Hanh says, our thoughts become words and deeds in life. Truly this world we are all a part of is full of both difficulties and goodness, and for us, we want to spread positivity personally and professionally every day. Whether with an encouraging smile, a kind gesture, or a totally charming laser cut card, we want to be all about sharing those Good Thoughts with kindness & purpose!
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellows sums it up perfectly:
Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden and keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine, Kind words, and Kind deeds.
That’s what we want to be up to this year, and we hope this theme strikes a chord with you too. To celebrate it, we’re excited to roll out a new collection of journals designed by guest artist Flávia Mayer of Flattering Design. Stay tuned for their debut very soon!
From all of us at Hereafter, we wish each of you a New Year full of goodness!
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