The Sky Never Clings
Every thought moves on in time
As I look out of my window, all I can see are white and grey clouds. I cannot see anything else: no blue sky, no sun, no rainbows. Yet I know that will change. Here in the UK, I can experience all four seasons in one day! Clouds come and go. They change shape and colour. Bright fluffy clouds turn into sheets of greyness that turn into blue skies streaked with wisps of white. All clouds eventually disappear, turning into rain that nourishes the ground. The sky never clings to the clouds.
It is this imagery that we evoke during this mindfulness practice. We imagine our thoughts and feelings are like clouds. When a thought appears, you let it float away like a cloud. The thoughts may be fluffy and bright, or dark and grey. Either way, the clouds move on, just like your thoughts.
This is one of the first-ever techniques I learnt at a local meditation class. I am grateful that there are so many mindfulness and meditation practices available for us to learn. I encourage you all to get curious and experiment with what works for you. If this technique does not work for you, that is OK. I am sure there is a practice that will work for you amongst the many I will be writing about.
Why practice this technique?
As with all these practices, the why is unique to you. The reason I teach it is that it often helps people loosen the iron grip that thoughts and feelings can hold over us.
Every person I have ever talked to has said they have thoughts and feelings they struggle to let go of. This seems to happen mainly at night when the world is quiet and we are attempting to get to sleep!
Yet the question I always come back to that helps me let go of those unwanted thoughts and feelings is - What are they? Can I hold them? Are they real or tangible like my bed or cosy duvet? The simple answer is no. We cannot hold a thought no matter how hard we try. They breeze through our minds, changing with our own internal weather system. If we are depressed, our thoughts may be grey, or even black and raging. If we are feeling joyful, our thoughts are more likely to be big and fluffy and light. If we are calm and peaceful, the thoughts may sit still in the sky like a summer morning’s sunrise.
Having said this, our thoughts are real to us and have a valid impact on us. If I were heading outside today, I would take a rain mac with me as the clouds do look like they are going to burst with rain. Just like the clouds seem real to me right now, looking out the window. It is useful to get curious about them. We might write a journal, talk with friends or a counsellor to help us do that.
Yet I can see the clouds are not solid when I fly through them on a plane. I cannot reach out and grab a cloud with my hand. If I lie on the grass watching the sky, I see the clouds floating away in the breeze. The fluffy white cloud I saw this morning will most likely have become grey and rained down on another part of the island I live on.
It is this dichotomy that makes clouds the perfect visualisation of our thoughts. They seem fixed, yet they are not. They seem solid, yet they are not. They seem permanent, yet they are not.
As someone with AuADHD I find this practice useful. My mind is often a tornado of ideas. Following a calming technique like flower hand breathing to calm my mind, imagining thoughts and feelings as clouds enables me to practice letting them go. This gives me peace of mind.
Sometimes, our thoughts can be disturbing. We can feel emotions and have thoughts that make us drop into the depths of despair. That is awful at best, traumatic at worst. Learning not to identify with every one of the thousands of thoughts that occur in our heads and having a way to let them go can prove to be life-saving. I do not write this lightly. I write this from the view of someone who has experienced this time and time again.
As someone sensitive to light and sound, like many neurodiverse and chronically ill people, I do not go outside much. When I was bed-bound, I could not. This practice was uplifting to do when lying in a darkened room with not much external stimulation to take my mind away from my thoughts, which were sometimes equally as dark as my room.
Yet there are some circumstances where this meditation might not work for you. For instance, if you have aphantasia and find it difficult to visualise images in your mind. In this case, even if you cannot see the clouds in the mind’s eye, I would encourage you to find a comfy, safe space to lie, see the clouds physically, watch them go by and link that to this idea of our thoughts and feelings being temporary. If you have aphantasia, I would be interested to hear of your experiences with this practice.
How do I practice the cloud technique?
You can close your eyes, or if you prefer, keep them open and soften your gaze towards the floor or the end of your bed if horizontal. You can alternate between opening and closing your eyes if that feels more comfortable to you.
In your mind’s eye, imagine your thoughts rising like clouds into a blue sky. The clouds might be light and fluffy or dark and depressing. All types of clouds still float off into the distance.
If you find yourself grasping onto a thought, without any judgmental comments, we simply let it go as a cloud and return to watching.
We can choose to help the clouds float away quickly by using our breath. Every time we breathe out, we imagine our breath as the wind, helping the clouds to move away.
Try this for a few minutes to start with, then adjust the time to a level that feels safe and comfortable for you.
NOTE: You can breathe out of your mouth if you are having trouble breathing through your nose. Colds, hayfever and asthma do tend to muck with our breath. Breathe in whichever way is easiest for you, given your current state of being.
Where can I practice the cloud technique?
You can choose to lie down, sit down, or stand up to do this practice. I find that if I close my eyes when I stand up, I can start to feel wobbly, so be aware that this might be the case for you too.
If you keep your eyes open, you can practice this anywhere you feel safe to do so. This can include sitting in a park, a hospital, or at your office desk, for example.
When we close our eyes, we can become vulnerable if we're outside or in a crowd, so I recommend ensuring you're in a safe place first before doing that.
If you come to my free ‘Mindful Monday’ online sessions, you can join in with me, as I often tend to guide this practice.
For more information on ‘Mindful Mondays’, click the link below.
Mindful Monday – 30 Minutes of Mindfulness to Ease You into Your Week
30 minutes of mindfulness and meditation practice with options for those with neurodivergent minds or chronically ill bodies
When can I practice the cloud floating technique?
You can use this technique to help calm your mind and let go of thoughts:-
before leaving your home to help calm your anxieties
whilst waiting for a doctor’s appointment or in A&E to help keep health worries at bay
on a busy bus or in a room with lots of people to quell social anxiety
at the office in the toilet or at home in a bath when you feel the need for a few moments of calm
at night as you lay in bed to help calm your mind and aid you in falling asleep
The list is endless of the times and places where this technique is appropriate, but I hope that gave you some ideas.
Mindfulness and meditation are practical tools that can be used at any time, day or night, as needed.