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Reconnecting with Nature: The Meditative Power of Gardening · Eye Opener Society

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Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Eye Opener Society. I am your host,
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Gary Dean, and I thank you again for tuning in.
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And things are, you know, like I said, have been changing. We have some announcements.
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Like I said, we are going to be bringing Hannah back in some form or capacity.
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Once we get the time, since we're no longer under the same roof,
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it's very difficult to get schedules together, but we're going to record some episodes.
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On top of that, we still have my co-host, Jennifer Miller.
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And I'm also going to bring back Brittany from the listener episode as well
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This way this could become a true society Giving everybody different voices,
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different perspectives And everybody can learn from each other So of course
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today I have Jennifer Miller with me And we are going to be talking about something
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that she's very familiar with Jennifer Miller,
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you are into gardening,
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Yeah, I've been gardening for a long time actually I we used to garden when I was younger.
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Um I started helping my parents garden when I was like around five or six because
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I wanted to help and Ever since then every summer spring and even fall i'm in the garden.
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So I really like it. It's Something that like is very relaxing.
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Um It also has benefits like grounding.
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Um And uh last year when I was grounding I uh stepped on a snake um
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Underneath the plastic because I put plastic down for walkways.
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So I don't step on vegetables or anything like that and Lucky me.
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I stepped right on a snake underneath the plastic and that was like the weirdest.
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Situation I think I could have ever Encountered Yes, I felt it wiggling under my feet.
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Yes, it creeped me out and I jumped on to the fence and I have to say that That
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makeshift fence that we did with pallets was sturdy because it held me. It held me up.
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And yeah, so I don't know if I'm going to be like barefoot in the garden this
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year, but definitely in the grass, like around it.
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That was an experience I won't forget.
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Yeah. Well, that's a good start because I'm bringing up gardening and probably
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the audience is wondering why I'm bringing up gardening. But I've always been
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into the entire meditational field.
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And gardening is one of those things where you could place and focus all of
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your energies into the earth, basically creating life.
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And it becomes a form of meditation.
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And I know you're very much into it. You're very much into, like,
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you know, all of the different types of plants, seeds, when to plant,
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how to plant, types of plants.
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I mean, you explain a lot of it to me and it's a great thing to be into.
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However, for your own benefit, do you find that the gardening actually helps to ease your mind?
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Yeah, actually it does.
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Yeah, it really does. When you think about it, it's like therapy in a way.
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I mean, I don't talk bad to the plants or anything because there is actually a scientific proof.
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Like if you talk to plants really like horrible they don't
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produce and they don't grow as sturdy so i mean
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when they're like little baby seedlings i'm
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always talking to them saying you're so lovely and i breathe really
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heavy on them i mean hopefully i don't have garlic breath when i'm
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doing this but um i you know you're so pretty
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you're gonna grow up to be beautiful and they they get
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really big but um yeah it you
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know when you're in the garden i feel like it's like a therapy session
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you know everything is just there like
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your hands are in the dirt so you're grounding so you feel better
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um you can watch the bees especially if
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you have echinacea i like to sit and watch them it's um
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it's a lot better than just like sitting around and melting your
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face off with tv you know like you just don't there's
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a disconnect with the tv with with gardening it's like
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you're connected you feel at peace um and it just kind of has like that serene
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like calming experience the whole world's going so fast around you when you're
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in the garden and just doing your little thing you know it it really um is a
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really peaceful serene moment like.
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Does that make sense? Yes, absolutely. And that's the whole reason I brought
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this episode up because I've always spoken before in the past where meditation
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could be whatever it is you want to make it.
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And some people like to cook. Some people like to clean.
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Some people just like to walk out in nature. But gardening just happens to be
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one of those things that kind of interests me.
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As of right now, I don't have the space to garden. But I always recall,
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even as a young child, I always liked, I mean, we literally used to get a little
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starter plants and cereal boxes back in the day.
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So it had the seeds and it had a little domed bubble that you used to wet the
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little sponge that they had in there and you put the seeds in and you just grew.
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I don't even know what kind of plants they were, but, you know,
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obviously simple and easy ones to grow.
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But it always fascinated me because you actually create that life and you're
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creating that ecosystem, like you said, now with the bees and everything else
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and the pollination and working with the soil.
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You are immersed in a whole nother universe.
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Yeah, I agree with that.
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Yeah, I mean, you are in your own little universe.
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I mean, minus the fact that you might have a gated garden.
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I mean minus that but when you're in
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that like element yeah you're just if you're crouched down
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on your knees it kind of looks like and feels like you're a
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kid again you know exploring digging in
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the ground which I I have a lot of ammonites in my ground so when I'm digging
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and I collect rocks and stuff out of the garden I've always got like ammonite
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fossils um so that's always like a pleasure for just that because some of the
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patterns on them are really pretty But then sitting and watching the bees,
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I mean, you know, it's fascinating to watch them because they go from like one thing to another um.
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And sometimes you see bugs, um, you know, if you have like tomatoes sometimes
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you see like like the um Tobacco tobacco worms.
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They're like these really big fat worms that will destroy your garden They're
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like you have to put like eggshells around like it's always like a little adventure,
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you know You never know what you're going to find out in the garden.
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So, I mean, it's relaxing and it brings peace.
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And it is like a venture. Like you're getting a whole bunch of,
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what do I say, experiences in like one area.
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And it's really fun. And you mentioned the cereal box.
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I mean, I don't remember that. But I remember as a kid, they used to have these
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kits that you could get at the store called Back to the Roots.
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Or was it Back to Roots or Back to the Roots or...
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I don't know but they're like a little kit and it sounds kind of very similar
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to what you were saying And um, I got my kids a couple of those last year and they really enjoyed it.
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Um, they grew micro greens so we started doing that this year and um,
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If you have kids and you you know want something good to calm them down like
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little things like that gardening things it's They like doing it.
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I mean they like getting dirty they like making something
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and they like watching something grow it's um
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it's a very immersive yeah it's very
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immersive because like i say being in that
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little spot of yours you have the feel the textures of the earth the plants
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the seeds then you have the aromas you're smelling the the flowers the outdoors
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uh there's just so much that activates all of your senses.
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You're seeing, you're seeing the beauty of what you have grown and all.
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So this brings me into that whole meditative state where I could even picture
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myself doing something like this.
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And people plant for different reasons. They may plant just for the meditative experience.
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Planting flowers is one thing. You're doing it for the beauty of it.
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And then you could do it for the survival of it if you're planting your own garden for food.
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So do you do a combination of all that or you just, you know, on one thing?
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There's some things like some flowers are actually edible, like lavender,
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magnolia, like you can pickle magnolias. Yeah.
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Oh, there's just, I can't even, I do a mixture. I mean, I crop garden,
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um, like lufos, um, cause I use them in my business.
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So I, I crop garden those like, that's a big crop. It's kind of like farming almost.
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Um, my little hobby garden, which I have, um, and I usually do that for pleasure and for homesteading.
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Um, but I think the herb garden, I really like, I really love that.
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That's like my my major you know
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because it has the smells it does it like when
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i say smells it smells good like time you rub
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your hands through it and just smell your hand beautiful put
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some rosemary in your hand smell it oh i mean
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it's very aromatic like i love the aromatic herbs but i i do do a mixture basically
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of homesteading and and planting for fun um flower wise i do grow a lot of flowers
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but it's mostly to sometimes keep pests away like marigolds.
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Really help but last year didn't help because i
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still got a snake and it stayed in
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there all summer we called him frank and the reason we
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called him frank have you ever seen the show um shameless okay
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i've heard of it i haven't seen it well this guy
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his name's frank he's the dad he's always around
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when you don't want him to be and and frank our
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garden snake it was kind of like that like he wasn't mean
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or you know aggressive he just chilled out but man he looked rough you could
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tell he was definitely an outside snake he had like scars on him he had one
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one eye and i felt bad because i did step on him last year which i'm surprised
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that didn't kill him because,
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he wasn't very big but frank had a rough life you can just tell so so he would
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just always be chilling in there and I was just always uneasy.
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But it's crazy because if you garden and you have a garden snake,
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it's really good because it keeps mice away. It keeps moles away.
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So that's the Frank Garden story. Just don't weave around.
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Which brings me again, you're so connected to everything, the ecosystem right
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on down from the seeds to the microbes and the soils and everything else.
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You become a part
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of that system something that you put your
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own labor into and you help to strive uh so this is the connect i like the bringing
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back to because i always talked about being part in nature and i never realized
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just how much gardening brings you so deep into that world.
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It does i mean you can also get
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it by forging if you like to forge like i like
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forging um like certain sorts of um mushrooms like
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hen of the woods or morales like those
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are my two favorite things to look for um but
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if you don't have like a lot of space like like pot
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gardening like you know like just pots you know because you
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can get certain seeds that are um specifically for
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like you know pots um i
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don't like really getting genetically modified ones but you
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know starting out it it would be
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okay um because i usually use like heirloom so
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like if you use heirloom you can always um let one or two plants go um and let
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them seed and i collect the seeds and do it that way because it will grow better
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in my soil next year because it came from from that plant from the same soil. So, yeah.
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Like there's a lot of stuff that goes into gardening. I mean,
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it's not just, um, you know, there, I mean, it is therapy because honestly,
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it gets your mind off a lot of the negative things that are going on.
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Um, it keeps you occupied and, um, you know, planting or just weeding,
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um, you know, ideas pop into your head. It doesn't even have to be related to gardening.
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It could be a way to fix something that's going on in your life, a project.
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Like me, I'm always working on candles and soaps and all sorts of stuff.
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I could be sitting there weeding and all of a sudden an idea for something just
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pops in my head, especially when I'm gardening.
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Like it's just because you're so relaxed, you're grounding.
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And I don't know if you know, but grounding really helps with, you know, circulation.
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So that helps with thinking it also helps with um relaxing and it helps your
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nervous system It helps your nervous system calm down And and that's I think
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like the really big benefits there is physical mental And you're actually being
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productive like it's all like you said,
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you know It kind of goes with the ecosystem that you've created and It's just
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a real pleasant experience.
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I mean i've been doing it for since i
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was five so it brings back good
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memories too so it's kind of like you
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know an all-encompassing thing i
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don't even know how to explain it it's just something you
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you know when you're in there right it's that's
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why i uh wanted to relate this to the
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meditation uh for those that may
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garden whether you're just growing one plant in
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a pot or you know 40 50 acres of
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land you are part of that you
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are now meditating and you're
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meditating in nature and i don't think anybody can
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feel unhappy in nature
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i never did you know and that's what
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the bug bite well bug bites yeah but you
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know hey but then again there's plants you could plant
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that counteract bug bites oh i
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have a pond that is kind
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of a swamp right now because it needs relined with clay so
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i get really bad mosquitoes so i get bit pretty
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bad and they swell like and i mean when i say swell i mean like welts like i
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look like i was just you know duking it out with the mosquito and uh it just
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swells so you know they do help some some do help um.
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But it doesn't keep them all away. You still get eaten a little bit. A little bit.
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Yeah, of course. But again, the yin and the yang of everything.
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There's always going to be some sort of negative mixed in with it.
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But there's always pleasure in nature.
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I've never been unhappy in nature. So immersing yourself in a gardening atmosphere,
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it's highly suggestive, at least from me.
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Again, I'm not a doctor, but for depression, for anxiety or anything like that,
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I think being part of a gardening experience, no matter how small or to whatever scale,
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find something that you could start out on and enjoy it from there.
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And if you go to Tea Leaf Readings in the Valley, I'm sure Jennifer would definitely
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help you out, you know, where to get started, especially for someone doing it
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since five years old. You know, I think that's pretty amazing.
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It becomes a part of you.
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It does. I mean I'm like really
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hardcore when I say I have like folders with
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like little pouches that hold my seeds in it and I I date
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everything so I mean even the
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oldest seeds I mean you could have seeds from like 10 years back if you just
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soak them for 24 hours in water and if they sink they're good if they float
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they're bad you know and you can pick out which ones will actually grow then I mean it's
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Like I said, I get pretty like hardcore with it. That's great.
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So, yeah, definitely. I appreciate your input on this and I appreciate you being
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here for this little episode and sharing a little bit of your knowledge because
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I know it's it's very vast and we could probably do like 20, 30 episodes on this.
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But I wanted the audience to try and connect a little bit with spirituality
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and the meditational part of it.
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Some people do find it difficult to relax sometimes. and I like to try and find
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different things that can help out.
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And I really do believe that gardening can be one of those things.
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So I do appreciate everything that you do with that.
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And again, don't forget, you could always check us out, iOpenerSociety.podbean.com.
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Also search for us on any other platform, any of your favorite platforms.
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And also don't forget, I'm also on YouTube as well. And there's a few little
17:49
bonus things that I have on there.
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And stick with us because we're going to have so many more different episodes,
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different topics and don't forget that we have Elaine's Arcane
17:59
Oracle podcast we have Haunted and
18:02
Waiting and we have Sunset Childs Out There
18:05
podcast three other great podcasts that I mean I always I love them I love those
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three ladies immensely they do such great work on their shows so check them
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out too as well Jennifer Miller thank you again for joining me and we will see
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everybody really soon thank you for joining us.