Find a comfortable seat.
Take a moment to settle yourself and tune into your body gently.
Just exploring,
Are there any areas of tension?
Pay light attention to the breath.
Maybe notice any areas that are feeling a little heavy.
Any places that feel light and spacious.
Maybe places that don't feel anything at all.
Imagine that you're somewhere perfectly safe.
Maybe a field or a meadow.
And as you're maybe lying amongst the meadow flowers and the tall grass,
Looking up at the blue sky,
You see billowing white clouds.
And as you look up at the clouds,
Notice the shape.
Maybe like huge,
Bright white pieces of cotton wool.
Watch as the big,
Bright white cloud starts changing shape.
And you notice that however slowly the shape is changing,
It is always changing.
And just notice these changes.
Imagine if you could touch that cloud.
How would it feel different from when it was big and bright white and billowing to maybe when it's thinner or stretched out more?
How does it feel different?
What's the different texture of the cloud?
Clouds represent shape-shifting,
This ability to take different shapes all the time.
To one minute,
Look like a giant ice cream in the sky.
And then even as you watch this cloud,
The wind moves it around,
Merges it into another cloud,
Or it travels away across the sky,
Gets thicker and fluffier,
It gets thinner.
And the ability to change shape is an ability that maybe your soul can recognize.
Because there may have been times when you have shape-shifted.
When you've changed your appearance,
When you've changed your behavior,
It's not good or bad.
Maybe you did it to impress somebody,
To feel different.
And always the way that we've shape-shifted has been to keep us safe somehow.
So we might have done things that we're not proud of,
Or fit ourselves into shapes that were not the shape we really wanted to be.
But what we know from looking at the clouds is that we can shape-shift all the time.
So we're not fixed into the shape that was good when we were five,
Or good when we were in that job,
Or was helpful when we were with that person.
We fit ourselves into certain shapes,
And then we change.
And just like a cloud on a still day that looks like the same cloud for quite a long time,
It's always changing.
It just might change a bit slower on a really still day.
And so maybe when you notice a feeling inside,
Or a way of thinking that feels so fixed,
I'm never going to get out of this,
I'm never going to feel differently from this.
This anger,
This resentment,
This rage,
This disappointment,
This sadness.
It feels so solid,
But imagine the breath as the wind.
And just gently,
Slowly,
Slowly dispersing the cloud.
So for the next few breaths,
Just spend some time maybe with a place in your body that feels tight,
Maybe a thought that seems so fixed in your mind,
Maybe a problem that you have at the moment that just feels like it's never going to go away.
Imagine it as a cloud,
Maybe a very dense,
Grey,
Dark cloud.
However it appears to you,
Wherever it appears,
In your chest,
In your mind,
Wherever it is,
Maybe it's a pain in your body,
Whatever you're suffering today,
Wherever you find it,
Imagine a cloud,
And breathe in,
Even if it's the tiniest breeze.
And as you breathe out,
Just know that that little bit of energy is like a breeze dispersing the cloud,
Even if it takes a while,
It's happening.
Just trust that it's happening.
Gently coming back.
Allow the breath to be easy and gentle.
Maybe let the cloud go.
Wherever it was you were holding it,
Maybe let it go.
And thank yourself for spending time with something difficult.
And maybe remember that everything is impermanent,
Even the things that feel like they're never going to change.
Just like a big cloud on a very still day,
It's changing,
It's changing.
And you can keep breathing and be the little breeze,
And it will change.
Invitation to bow the head in reverence to what is always changing,
All around us,
All inside us,
All the time.
Thank you for your practice.
Namaste.
