This article describes one of many techniques developed by Adventures in Spiritual Living to encourage and support personal spiritual experience. It can be used by individuals or enjoyed as a group activity and sharing.
Description
“Enjoying a Peace Garden” is a technique to help you attune yourself to your inner spirit. In this exercise, you are going to be led to create in your imagination a tranquil garden to visit in your quiet time. Your Peace Garden is a place of safety, calm, and comfort deep within yourself. It is a place where you can meet and visit with your inner spirit. It is a place of inner peace. It is also a place where you can pray or worship.
You will go to an imagined place within your inner world where you can apply your imagination to create a garden. Create your garden to suit yourself. It may be a wild profusion of flowers like an English cottage garden. It may be a formal, orderly garden with symmetrical walks. You may prefer a woodland meadow or a cozy walled garden, complete with a gate. It can be a Japanese garden of rocks, plants, water, and a tea house. It may be a memory you have of a place that sooths you. Choose whatever setting makes you feel comfortable and yet free.
Observe and remember everything about your garden, what you see or hear, what feelings you have, and what is happening there.
At one place in this process you will be invited to imagine the deep love God has for you. God’s love for you may be more imaginable to you if you call up your memories of your intense feeling of love for your children, or your pet or your parent, or your spouse. And then realize that God’s feeling of love for you far exceeds that.
Creating Your Peace Garden
Get comfortable. Sit so that you are balanced. Uncross your arms and legs. Feel free to close your eyes or leave them open, as you like. Take a comfortably deep breath. As you breathe out, release any tensions. As you breathe, breathe in God’s immense affection for you. Continue to breathe deeply and, each time you breathe out, let go of more preoccupations and tensions. Relax.
Now travel deep within yourself to the very best place for you to establish your Peace Garden. You are at a level of mind where you are relaxed, but alert and able to remember everything that goes on. This is your private place. Only those you welcome will ever come to your garden.
Imagine that you are standing at the entrance to your peace garden. Look around. What do you see? [… pause…] What do you hear? [… pause…] Notice the colors and textures, the feel of the air […pause…] Walk in your garden and enjoy what you see […pause…] Now find the perfect place to sit and enjoy the restful atmosphere. [… pause…]
Sense the security and sacredness of your sanctuary. This is a place of calm and spiritual nurture. Your refuge. Feel your whole body relax even more. Feel yourself being filled with assurance, love and peace. [… pause…]
Allow God to Love You
Just like you can spend quiet time enjoying the company of a human being who loves you, you can also spend time simply feeling God’s love for you. God knows you better than any human being and loves you unconditionally and eternally.
God is your loving, trustworthy, and most loyal friend.
Open yourself to receive God’s love. Imagine feeling God’s love for you. You may spend as much time as you want here in your garden relaxing in God’s love.
(allow 15 sec.)
Now you may return to the present feeling alert, refreshed, and energized. Continue to feel the love you experienced in your time with God. After all, God is with you all the time. God’s divine love for you is constant. God’s spirit lives in you and experiences life with you. You may not always be aware of this divine presence and love, but it is always available to you.
Use Your Peace Garden Often
Consider for a moment what you have just done and how useful it might be to take time to feel God’s love often. […pause…] Imagine slipping into a trusting, receptive frame of mind, relaxing and feeling comfortable and calm…any time you want to.
- When under stress, relax and enjoy God’s love. Ask for what you need — strength, patience, persistence, courage, stamina, resilience, acceptance, or encouragement. These and so many other qualities will come to you. They will empower you and enrich your life.
- If you must face a challenge, prepare by enjoying God’s love and support beforehand. Spending a little time in your peace garden allowing God to love you can bring you what you need to face the challenge.
- Imagine simply taking some time in your garden, allowing God to love you—for no reason other than the pleasure of being loved by God. Spend time with God in your peace garden often.
Using“Enjoying a Peace Garden” as a Group experience
If you are fortunate enough to have a group who will share their experiences with each other, discuss beforehand the need to create a safe place of friendship for each person to share his or her inner thoughts and feelings without criticism or advice. Here are some suggestions to create a safe place:
- Slow down and relax your bodies and minds.
- Express genuine interest in others.
- Accept their sharing with appreciation.
A member of the group can lead the Peace Garden exercise by reading it aloud to the group. Everyone else follows the instructions using their imagination. Quiet, relaxing music played during the time with God may deepen the experience. The group members will benefit if they gather after the imagining to share with each other their experiences or any thoughts or insights they have. Sharing spiritual experiences is often very meaningful and unifying.
