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The Courage to Be Happy It's All in the Perception A Moment Like This The Train We Ride The Winter of Our Discontent Standing on the Edge As the Days Shorten A Moon That's the Colour of Bone An Attitude of Gratitude Belonging to Tomorrow, Missing Today
When the Weeds Take Over the Garden Practising Who You Are What We Get is What We Are Lighting A Candle The Blues of Spring The Path of Change Beating the Valentine's Day Blues A New Year, A New You 
When the Weeds Take Over the Garden
Recently, I was helping a friend who had been going through a bit of a rough spell. He had been in hospital and so had left his garden untended for a while and the weeds had lost no time in flourishing.
So there I was, stooping and bending, and in my own very small way tilling the earth. At the end of the day, my back naturally felt a little sore, but in a strange way, merely pulling up those weeds had refreshed and lifted my spirit.
Perhaps it was the simple act of re-connecting with the earth, or maybe it was the feeling of satisfaction that comes from having taken a step, small though it may have been, in helping a friend to put things in order.
For the Anglo Saxons, August was Weod Monoth - weed month - because they saw it as the month in which weeds grew most rapidly.
In August and in every other month, clients often come to me with the feeling that the weeds have taken over the garden. They feel stuck and unable to move forward and are looking for a way to grow and to get on with their life.
They are, quite simply, ready for change.
Yet in order for things to change, we need to change. And that is something that each one of us has to take personal responsibility for.
Until this readiness and the willingness to take personal responsibility for change is there, very little can be accomplished.
Indeed, part of my job as a therapist consists in helping people understand that while hypnotherapy can most certainly help and rapidly accelerate the process of change; neither it nor I can change for them.
After all, if your feet hurt, what good is it to you if I change my shoes?
No, real change is something that happens within the individual. It is something that cannot be done to or for someone. It can only take place when the person is prepared to take responsibility for that change.
It's easy to feel stuck. In one way or another, we've all been there.
But there really is no need to remain stuck, challenging though change may sometimes appear.
We know that life is full of challenge. It's what keeps us moving forward and growing. Can you imagine a life without any kind of challenge?
How boring and unproductive that life would be!
Yet we know too that challenge can produce many different feelings -- from elation to disappointment. And it's often the feelings of disappointment that fool us into thinking we are stuck, leaving us feeling unable -- or afraid -- to move on.
If you are feeling stuck, with too many weeds in your garden, then there really is something you can do about it.
No matter how much life has seemed to disappoint you, no matter how much you may feel that you have disappointed yourself, you can move forward. And the only way to do this is to take the first step.
Now, here is the thing: You can take that step in any direction you like, but you need to do it from where you are. And there really is no better time to start than now.
As the sage once said: 'The tragedy of life is not that it is too short,
but that we wait too long to begin it'.
Why wait any longer? If you are truly ready for change, why not take that first step today?
Be the change, and your spirit will surely reward you.
'What you will be is what you do now. '
Buddha
Buddha Copyright © 2008 Peter Field - All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any form is prohibited
Reproduction in any form is prohibited
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