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What Do Your Emotions Have in Common With Your Lawn? (Part I)

Believe it or not, taking care of your emotions is like taking care of your lawn, and in Part I of this two-part post, I’ll share with you how these seemingly unrelated things are similar.  Then in Part II (coming later this week), I’ll suggest three simple stepsyou can follow to care for both your lawn AND your emotions.  Now that’s one-stop shopping!

Today marks the first day of summer (in my corner of the planet, that is), and for many people, that means spending more time outdoors.  For many of us, this also includes spending time tending to our lawns and gardens.

Sure, some people don’t feel the need (or the desire) to bother with yard work, but for many, maintenance work in your patch of the great outdoors is a necessary step if you want to enjoy a lush, inviting lawn and garden whose beauty can be appreciated and enjoyed.  For countless others, gardening is even considered part of our summer fun.

So here’s the analogy between yard work and emotional maintenance.  There are some people who don’t feel the need (or the desire) to pay much attention to their emotions, often shutting them down entirely.  Some don’t seem to know what to do with their emotions, either lashing out or alternatively, internalizing the feelings in destructive ways.  Others yet seem somehow to get away with paying little heed to their feelings and still managing to “grow” a pretty good life.  But there are a rare few people whose life circumstances are exactly right for them all the time, who live in a constant state of true peace and contentment.

Prickly weed

For most of us, ignoring our emotional health can result in rough personalities, wilted spirits, or tangled relationships (akin in the garden to infestations of prickly weeds, rotting vegetation, or those weeds that look harmless at first glance but turn out to be noxious and end up choking out all the good plants in the long run).  For many years, I admit that I found myself in the camp of people that really wasn’t sure what to do with my emotions (and that’s if I even stopped to register what I was feeling in the first place).  I still really have to work sometimes at figuring out what I’m feeling, interpreting what my emotions are telling me and then deciding what to constructively do about them.   Living optimally is an ongoing endeavour.

The reality is that most of us can benefit from being proactive in tending to our emotional well-being, just like our lawns benefit from the same regular and proactive care.  So that’s what this week in Optimal Living is all about - Emotional Health.  My guests this weektalk about the how your physical body is a tool for interpreting and expressing your emotions in constructive and healthy ways, and why it’s important to look at all the areas of your life when facing emotional challenges – and triumphs! 

Catch Optimal Living on Rogers Cable 20, Tuesday at 1:30pm and 9:00pm (9:30pm in Stratford), and Sunday at 6:30pm, and watch for Part II of this post coming later this week, where I’ll share three simple stepsyou can follow to develop a healthy lawn AND healthy emotions.

To your emotional health!

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©2023 by Kelly Wagner

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