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Most Buddhist altars include a flower, because it represents the fickle, ever-changing nature of life. An appreciation for change and impermanence helps you learn to go with the flow of whatever life throws at you. Let me explain how you can make a helpful practice out of a flower.
This is a very simple practice. Get yourself a flower or a bunch of flowers and display them in a vase in a prominent place in your home, a place where you will naturally see the flower every day, or better yet, several times a day. You can do this with a potted plant, too.

Make a practice out of mindfully taking in the flower’s current state. This takes only a few breaths. Simply sit or stand with a relaxed, comfortable posture and put your attention on how the flower looks and smells. You can touch it, too, if you like. Do this daily and you’ll experience the wilting and dying of the flower, a natural, inevitable process. By the way, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t water and care for the flower - even with your care, it will wilt and die. There’s no need to hasten the process.
Notice how the flower is never the same two days in a row. It changes continually, just as your own life changes. Its color fades, its leaves curl and dry, its stem bends. There is nothing the flower can do to avoid this process. The lifetime of the flower mimics your own lifetime. You, too, will change over time. You, too, will die. The process is inevitable and natural.
You might also be able to notice your emotions and feelings as you do the wilted flower practice. You might experience subtle feelings of pleasure or happiness as you appreciate the beauty and perfume of a fresh flower. You might be able to notice that you’re disappointed when the flower wilts. You might even find the dead flower causes feelings of aversion. The smell might disgust you. If you’re driven to get rid of the dead flower, see if you can leave it in place and contemplate it for one more day. Take in all these feelings. Just notice them for what they are. They, too, are a natural part of life.
What’s the purpose of this practice? To be a happy, healthy person, you need to deal well with change, and you need to make peace with death, because both of these are inescapable. Contemplating change and death in a flower helps teach you how important it is to accept change and acknowledge death. If you’re able to notice your emotions during the practice, you can also learn to tolerate both pleasant and unpleasant emotions, and to recognize that they too are undeniably part of life. 
When confronted with unwanted change in your life, you can apply mindfulness to acknowledge it and accept it for what it is. Acceptance helps you manage your emotional reactions.
I’ve created a short guided meditation where you can use your imagination to do the wilted flower practice. Let’s try it right now.
Do wilted flower practice with an imaginary flower
For a 10-minute wilted flower meditation (where you’ll imagine the flower), forward the podcast or video above to 3:15.
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