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If you’ve attempted to do guided meditation at some point, you may be familiar with the analogy some meditation instructors use to describe our thoughts: they’re like clouds in the sky—they come and go and are constantly moving.
The first time I heard the comparison of thoughts and clouds, I didn’t understand the analogy’s depth. I mean, I understood the concept, but I didn’t put the picture together completely. I only got that my thoughts were coming and going. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the analogy, and if you are, I’m not sure if you’ve taken the time to analyze all its parts, but I’ve been deepening my understanding around this analogy, so I’d like to share my perspective about it with you.
Have you ever lain down on the grass to see the sky? I used to do that a lot when I was a little girl. I loved to see all the different shapes the clouds would form for the short time they were in the same place. It was a fascinating show for me. My innocent mind (and I still believe this) was convinced this display was one of God’s ways to play charades with me. If that’s not the case, how in the world can you explain the perfect shapes the clouds form sometimes? It must be to make us guess!
But I digress. Anyway, clouds serve many purposes. Before you start yawning, don’t worry—I’m not going to give you the whole scientific explanation about cloud formations or how they work. We all know the basics: clouds are masses of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere. The easy way of understanding the purpose of clouds is to understand nature’s needs. Sometimes, when our Earth needs water, the clouds get full and dark until they don’t have any option other than to release the water in the form of rain. At other times, our Earth needs some rest from the intensity of the sunlight, so we get a sky filled with clouds that provide us with the shadows we need at that particular time. At still other times, we need the sun with all its intensity, so the clouds take a break and disappear for a moment, and we see only the intense blue color of the sky.
These are the reasons clouds come and go. They aren’t permanent, and they move around because nature needs them to do so. They appear and disappear. They release their contents until they’re completely empty. Don’t we live under a smart, amazing system?
After this superficial explanation of how clouds work, I can easily see how our thoughts are very similar. Our thoughts aren’t permanent; they come and go. If you close your eyes for a moment and dedicate your attention to your thoughts, you’ll see how transient they are. The same way clouds appear and shape themselves in specific forms only to disappear and reform a few seconds later, a thought can appear in one specific form in our minds only to disappear a few seconds later. When/if it reappears, it’s very likely to do so in a totally different form.
Our thoughts (even when we have a hard time processing them) serve many purposes. We need them the same way our Earth needs the clouds. Sometimes our thoughts get full and dark to the point where we can’t hold them any longer and we let those tears out of our system. The same way the rain cleanses the Earth, crying cleanses our bodies and minds. At other times, our thoughts serve as a shadow that protects us from external burns. When meditation finds us, and we become aware of our thoughts, our mind may become that blue sky for a while. See, clouds and thoughts have many things in common. So, the next time you hear the analogy, you may see the similarities between the two.
In my opinion, the most important takeaway from this analogy is to understand that clouds and thoughts are not permanent. They come and go as we need them. Good thoughts and the not-so-good ones always keep moving. They take different forms depending on how we feed them. So, enjoy the good ones for as long as they last, and be aware that the more negative thoughts will eventually go away or take a different form if we put in the work to reshape them.
Maybe our thoughts are another way God plays charades with us, but we don’t pay enough attention, and that’s why we often miss the point He’s trying to make. I’ll take a closer look at this idea from now on. I’ll dedicate a portion of my daily meditation practice to playing the game and see if I can guess His messages through my own thoughts, and I’ll write about it as soon as I have some examples.
Thoughts are like the clouds in the sky, my friends! No more, no less! They serve many purposes, and it’s our job to become aware of them so we can work with them as a team. The moment we become mindful about our thoughts, we stop being their prisoners, and we start working WITH them to become our best selves.
Love,
Irene
