Hi, this is video number seven in the Financial Stress & Money Mindset series.
Last week we talked about gratitude—intentionally focusing on the little everyday things you appreciate and enjoy in life.
Right beside me are these incredible poppies. I mentioned them last week, and they’re still blooming a week later. They’re huge, colourful, and every time I look at them I get an incredible feeling in my body. It’s similar to watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset. For a few moments, you’re simply in awe.
The wonderful thing is that we don’t have to wait for a sunrise or sunset to experience that feeling. We can intentionally focus on small moments throughout the day that create appreciation, gratitude, and a sense of aliveness within us.
Today I want to build on that idea by talking about planting seeds.
Your Inner Garden
Those poppies are growing on what was originally just a pile of fill that had been dumped there. Somehow there must have been poppy seeds mixed into the soil because, a year later, these incredible flowers appeared.
Life is very much like that.
Every day we are planting seeds in our own inner garden.
Our thoughts are seeds.
Our emotions are seeds.
Our habits are seeds.
The things we consistently focus on are seeds.
One day, those seeds become our reality.
If we continually focus on thoughts such as:
•I’m not good enough.
•I always struggle.
•Nothing ever works out.
•I’m stuck.
•Life is unfair.
those become the seeds we continue watering.
Over time they naturally become the garden we experience.
Planting with Intention
Unlike those poppies, which appeared by chance, we have the opportunity to plant our inner garden intentionally.
If you want beautiful flowers, you plant flower seeds.
If you want vegetables, you plant vegetables.
If you want roses, you plant roses.
The same principle applies to your life.
If you want more confidence, begin planting thoughts and behaviours that support confidence.
If you want greater peace, begin planting moments of peace throughout your day.
If you want abundance, begin noticing the abundance that already exists around you.
This is where gratitude becomes so powerful.
Gratitude is not pretending everything is perfect.
It is intentionally planting seeds that support the kind of life you want to create.
Building Awareness
Throughout this series we’ve been developing the awareness practice.
Learning to sit quietly.
Connecting with your breathing.
Becoming present with your body.
Observing your thoughts without immediately believing them.
As you strengthen this awareness, you begin noticing when you’re watering weeds instead of flowers.
You notice when your attention repeatedly returns to fear, lack, worry, frustration, or self-doubt.
That awareness gives you a choice.
Instead of automatically continuing those patterns, you can gently redirect your attention toward what you do want to cultivate.
That is where gratitude comes in.
Each time you intentionally appreciate something—no matter how small—you are practicing a new habit.
You are strengthening a different way of thinking.
You are planting different seeds.
Appreciating the Everyday
Creating abundance isn’t only about money.
It’s about creating an abundance of goodness in your life.
Notice the things that already make you feel alive.
Maybe it’s a beautiful flower.
A sunset.
A quiet morning.
A smile from someone.
Completing a small task.
Feeling proud that you followed through on something you committed to.
These moments matter.
As we talked about in previous videos, if the essence of your goal is freedom, confidence, peace, accomplishment, or fulfillment, then we need to begin experiencing those qualities in everyday life instead of waiting until some future event finally gives them to us.
Little moments create big change.
Each small appreciation becomes another seed planted in your inner garden.
Designing Your Garden
Imagine creating your dream garden.
You don’t necessarily know exactly how every flower will grow.
But you do choose what kinds of seeds you’re going to plant.
You decide where different plants belong.
You decide what you want to encourage.
Life works much the same way.
We may not control every outcome.
But we do influence what we consistently nurture through our thoughts, attention, habits, and intentions.
Ask yourself:
•What do I want growing in my life?
•What qualities do I want more of?
•What kind of person am I becoming?
These questions begin giving your inner garden direction.
They help you plant with intention instead of simply reacting to whatever happens around you.
Pulling the Weeds
Every healthy garden also grows weeds.
The difference is that we don’t simply leave them there and keep watering them.
We pull them out.
We make space for what we actually want to grow.
Our inner world is no different.
As we begin creating a vision of the life we want, we also begin noticing the thoughts and behaviours that no longer support that vision.
Those are the weeds.
Perhaps they’re limiting beliefs.
Perhaps they’re old habits.
Perhaps they’re fear, self-doubt, procrastination, or constantly focusing on problems.
The awareness practice helps us notice them.
Then, instead of continuing to water those patterns, we begin making space for something healthier.
Holding the Vision
As you begin imagining the life you want, remember that you’re creating something that doesn’t fully exist yet.
It’s like looking across an empty backyard.
There’s no garden there yet.
But you can imagine it.
You can picture where different flowers might grow.
You can imagine a small pond.
A pathway.
Different colours.
Then you begin planting.
One seed at a time.
One intention at a time.
One appreciation at a time.
One small daily action at a time.
This is how meaningful change happens.
Be Patient
One of the biggest mistakes we make is expecting immediate results.
Imagine planting seeds and digging them up every day to check whether they’re growing.
They would never have the opportunity to develop.
Instead, we plant them.
We water them.
We care for them.
We trust the process.
Some seeds grow quickly.
Others take much longer.
Life is very similar.
Some changes happen quite quickly.
Others require patience, consistency, and continued attention.
But if you consistently plant supportive thoughts, supportive behaviours, appreciation, gratitude, and intentional action, those seeds will eventually begin appearing in your life.
Expect Challenges
Even while your flowers begin growing, weeds will continue appearing.
Life will still bring challenges.
Unexpected bills.
Stress.
Disappointments.
Moments of self-doubt.
This doesn’t mean your garden isn’t growing.
It simply means you continue tending it.
When weeds appear, you remove them.
When discouragement appears, you acknowledge it and gently return to your intention.
When fear appears, you notice it without allowing it to take over the entire garden.
This is one of the reasons mindfulness and awareness are so valuable.
They help us notice where our attention has gone before those weeds completely take over.
The Garden You Water Will Grow
If you continually focus on lack, fear, frustration, and everything that isn’t working, you continue strengthening those pathways.
If, instead, you intentionally cultivate gratitude, appreciation, confidence, follow-through, patience, and the essence of the life you want, you begin strengthening an entirely different garden.
You aren’t pretending difficulties don’t exist.
You’re simply choosing what deserves your attention and energy.
Little by little, that becomes your new reality.
Reflect This Week
This week, spend some time asking yourself:
•Am I living the same way every day while expecting different results?
•What thoughts am I planting most often?
•What habits am I watering?
•What weeds need to be pulled?
•What flowers do I want growing instead?
Remember, if you want your life to change, you need to become willing to change.
If you continue living from the same level of thinking and focusing on lack, you’ll continue strengthening those same patterns.
Instead, begin holding onto your vision.
Plant the seeds.
Water them consistently.
Be patient.
Trust the process.
Then continue tending your inner garden one day at a time.
Explore the Full Financial Stress & Money Mindset Series
Explore the full Financial Stress & Money Mindset series for a deeper understanding of limiting beliefs, subconscious patterns, emotional habits, manifestation, confidence, gratitude, self-worth, and practical mindfulness tools for creating lasting change.
Each video builds on the previous one, helping you develop a stronger inner foundation before moving into practical strategies for creating greater abundance, emotional resilience, confidence, and healthier financial habits.
Financial Stress & Money Mindset Series:
Free 1-Hour Video Consultation
If you’re struggling with financial stress, limiting beliefs, self-doubt, fear of success, fear of failure, or emotional patterns that continue pulling you back into the same financial habits, I offer a free 1-hour video consultation. Together we can explore the deeper patterns contributing to your current situation, discuss your goals for healing and change, explain my mindfulness-based counselling hypnotherapy approach, and see whether we’re the right fit to work together.
FREE Self-Help Mindfulness Series:
This free mindfulness training series can help you develop greater awareness of the subconscious thoughts, emotional habits, limiting beliefs, and stress patterns that may be influencing your financial mindset and daily decisions.
It can help you:
•Build greater awareness of limiting beliefs.
•Strengthen focus and emotional presence.
•Develop healthier thought patterns.
•Reduce emotional reactivity and overwhelm.
•Build consistency and follow-through.
•Strengthen confidence and self-trust.
•Notice when you’re “watering the weeds.”
•Create a stronger inner foundation for abundance and lasting change.
Counselling Hypnotherapy
I offer mindfulness-based counselling hypnotherapy sessions online through video sessions and in person in Victoria, BC.
Counselling Victoria
Hypnotherapy Victoria
My work focuses on helping people understand and transform subconscious beliefs, emotional patterns, anxiety, self-doubt, nervous system stress, confidence, and the habits that may be limiting financial well-being, personal growth, and overall quality of life.
Final Thoughts
Continue the awareness practice this week.
Notice what seeds you’re planting every day.
Notice what you’re watering.
Notice which thoughts and habits support the life you want, and which ones continue strengthening the patterns you’re trying to move beyond.
Little daily intentions, practiced consistently, gradually become the garden of your life.
In the next video, we’ll begin exploring practical morning and evening intention practices that can help you consciously start each day and reinforce the direction you want your life to move.
Arne Pedersen
