“When you desire peace, visualize your favorite place and go there whenever you want. Place yourself in a wonderful beautiful garden – see your favorite trees, flowers, smell the most beautiful scents, feel the warm air, hear the birds sing. It is a very simple practice…. Sitting quietly, constructively using the senses, is one way to relax and to rest to your central nervous system. The mind is absorbed, contained, and focused…”
As you focus on colors, scents, birdsong or space, the nervous energy that is within you, whipping around like an untrained animal, levels off and calms down. It is this absorption in our immediate environment that sedates us. If we can stop long enough to do this, our ever demanding need for Paxil will be greatly minimized!
Serenity gardens are meant to enhance our awareness of things, great and small, in Nature. Anything that catches our attention, whether it is minute or grand, is worthy of attention. This may be the dark green, crinkled leavees and fragrant purple flowers of the luscious Heliotrope
(Heliotrope 'Fragrant Delight')
the bold, bright stripes of a White Striped Century Plant
(Agave americana medio picta alba)
or the ‘pow’ of a garden walk, knowledgeably designed, expertly installed and meticulously cared for. It catches our eye and we admire its structure, its purple and orange accents and more.
(New York Botaanical Garden - The Flower Gardens Outside their Magnificent Conservatory)
If you can appreciate that the walk shown here is patterned with borders of rectangular bluestone, that the focal point is set upon a 4’ tall plinth or that the white pine tree in the left rear stands sentry over the garden then your mind is absorbed and alert which is a nice ‘mind space’ to be in.
Observation and appreciation of such things cultivates our focus. This leads to a quiet, calming and relaxing state of mind.
Thus a serenity garden, filled with a myriad of natural wonders, offers us a blissful way to relax.
(Heliotrope, 'Limelight' Helichrysum, Pink Petunias, White Bacopa - Johnsen Landscapes )
