I love hot yoga.  I love my yoga studio.  I love my yoga partner, Scott.  I have a particular love for a certain yoga teacher named Tony.  He is a naturally gifted yoga instructor.  He doesn’t rush.  He makes sure you set yourself up properly in each pose so that you get the most from every second of class.  It is easy to forget to square your hips to the front of the room while setting up your Warrior I, but Tony reminds you.  He makes you work hard for your Savasana; you feel like you’ve truly earned it.  He also continually reminds you that you have to let go.  Let go of the nagging thought. Let go of the hectic day.  Let go of your to-do list.  Let go of a jealous feeling you have about someone else or a negative feeling you may have about yourself.  Let go of the chaotic mess in your brain that accumulates throughout the day. I’m not able to spend an hour and a half with him as much as I’d like, but I feel much more aligned (physically and mentally) after one of his classes.

So, like yoga, we gardeners also have to let go.  We plant our seeds at the intersection of winter and spring, when all we want is green and life and renewal.  When our seeds start to come up, we want to keep them all.  They are our little babies that we’ve chosen special bedding and nutrition for (dirt), made sure they’ve been properly hydrated, and even set up incubators (grow lights) to give them the healthiest chance to thrive.  Then, when they do, we have to make tough decisions.

Which ones do we say goodbye to?  Which ones do we cut?  We can’t keep them all.  Keeping them all would mean that none of them will grow up properly because they’d be fighting for nutrition and space.  Kind of sounds like our thoughts eh?  Having too many thoughts floating around up there means that we can’t focus on just one and we end up feeling depleted and unhealthy.

So, fellow gardeners, it is time to say goodbye to some of your seedlings if you haven’t already.

you typically over-seed to ensure you have a good number of healthy plants

healthy seedlings under the grow light that are ready to thin out

Two seedlings in the same pod or very close means you have to let one go. It is important to use a scissor and cut the plant. Do not try to pull it out or you could damage the roots of the nearby plants.

Let’s be honest–it is hard to see the healthy seedlings clipped!

you can toss the clipped plants outside or into your compost bin

By letting go, you’ll end up with large, healthy, firmly rooted, strong thoughts–oops, I mean plants.