On Garden Injuries

As a movement coach, I hear a lot about injuries.

People usually hurt themselves in ways completely unrelated to exercise, (despite the punchline of a recent New Yorker cartoon).

Many of my clients and students hurt themselves gardening.

As a newbie gardener myself, I’m not surprised.

It’s not that the particular movements of gardening are dangerous (it’s not skateboarding afterall).It’s the absorption that gets you into trouble. Inside the flow-state fixation that can easily overtake when working on a garden project, you can miss those quiet body cues telling you that you’ve reached your edge.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a flow state. I love to be transfixed, even possessed, by a project.

But a flow state can quickly become “push mode” if you aren’t mindful. And push mode is the gear where you are more likely to hurt yourself.

One of the greatest lessons gardening teaches is that life is a process, a continual unfolding, ever-changing, never fixed.

In life, as in gardening, there is no destination called “Perfectly Done and Complete.” Or if there is such a destination, it exists only for a brief moment. Very soon it will morph. Something will grow taller or die back or get devoured by a deer.

As you head back into your gardens this spring to prune and dig and carry, remember: A garden, like life, is a process forever in process. There is no finished place where you will arrive and live forever in perfect circumstances.

And because it’s all a process, forever in process, there is no need to push or rush or ignore the meaningful messages your body is sending you.

I’d love to see pictures of your gardens, hear about the projects absorbing you these days or get some good gossip.

Don’t be shy! Send me your reply!

Happy spring, sweet friends.