New Year, New Start: Cultivating Your Inner Garden 🌱

Imagine your mind as a beautiful and abundant garden full flowers, plants and trees of all colours, shapes and sizes. We're all aware of the effort it takes to care for such a lush space. Now, consider applying that same principle to your mind. When was the last time you tended to the inner workings of your mind? I'm not referring to sudokus or other mental exercises; I'm curious about how you look after your own inner narrative—the ongoing story we all tell ourselves about ourselves.

As we step into 2024, it strikes me that now is the perfect time to explore the delicate balance between the blossoming encouragement of your inner cheerleader and the persistent weeds of self-doubt from your inner critic. If you fancy wielding some gardening shears on your own mind, read on.

1. The garden of voices

Visualise your mind as a lush garden, where the vibrant blooms represent your inner fan. Cheering for your accomplishments and strengths. From time to time, weeds pop up. Your inner critic —inevitable and even necessary sometimes to protect and guide you, but more often than not, overshadowing the beauty. How can you maintain this garden, ensuring it's a place of balance and growth?

2. Nurturing your blooms

If you visualise the voices in your head as a variety of plants then you'll know that each one needs specific care and attention. Take sunflowers and hydrangeas for example. Whilst both require well-draining soil and some sunlight, sunflowers require at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day, whilst hydrangeas require partial shade, especially in the afternoons. In the same way, take the supportive and self-compassion voices of your inner fan. The supportive voice encourages and applauds your efforts, achievements, and positive qualities, whilst the self-compassion voice emphasizes self-kindness and learning. Each voice will be required in different doses and volumes depending on the situation. You are the wielder of the gardening shears, so it's up to you to decide the timing, dose and volume of each. 

3. Your garden, your rules

In this horticultural adventure, think of me (your coach) as your gardening companion. I offer insights to help you identify the blooms of your inner fan and navigate the weeding process of your inner critic. Picture the satisfaction of having considered all of those voices and knowing which ones you'll need in which doses and when - of being the master gardener of your own thoughts. That would allow you to cultivate a landscape that aligns with your dreams.

4. The fruits of mastery

Why embark on this gardening journey? Because mastering your mental landscape yields you empowerment. As you shape your own thoughts, you sow seeds of resilience, confidence, and purpose that bear fruit in both personal and professional realms.

What might this exercise look like in a coaching session with me?

Whilst every client, coach and coaching session is different, typically when exploring the inner voices at play for a given client, I support them to identify all the inner voices at play, and often within the context of a specific situation. To amplify clarity. From there, we give each voice a name and explore its distinct personality. And then we delve into the origin, purpose, and usefulness of each voice, assessing its current volume and envisioning the desired volume that aligns with the client's aspirations. This personalised exploration is a powerful means to raise awareness, foster understanding, and ultimately empower you to navigate your inner landscape with intention and authenticity.

What did I discover when I did this exercise?

I vividly remember the first time I explored my own inner voices during my coach training course with Barefoot Coaching Ltd. Whilst demo-ing the tool to the rest of the cohort (with the incredible John Fleming as the coach/tutor and me as the coachee), we delved into two of my inner voices, which I ended up naming Miss P (Miss Perfect) and Grandma. 

John guided me to explore these characters, from their appearnce, to their tone, to their purpose, to their impact on my life. Realising that the voice inside my head championing me for all these years as been my Grandma's was incredibly moving. 

And now, when Miss P starts placing demands on me with her impossibly high standards, I kindly ask her to pipe down, reminding her that imperfect action is good enough. In parallel, I turn up the volume on Grandma's voice, the one that believes in me and backs me all the way from heaven, just like she did so fiercely here on Earth.  

Let's tend to your inner garden

Interested to explore your inner voices further? Let me accompany you on the journey —a hands-on investigation where you hold the shears, foster the growth, and craft the landscape that mirrors the life you envision. Here's to a new year, a new start, and the fertile possibilities within your grasp! 🌿

#CultivateYourInnerGarden #2024Goals #CarmelTheCoach"