Blue Sky Meditation: Finding Space Around Thoughts

If your mind feels busy, scattered or full of thoughts, this gentle meditation offers an opportunity to slow down and create a little more space around what's happening.

Using the image of a wide open blue sky, you'll be guided to notice thoughts, emotions and sensations with greater openness and ease. Rather than getting caught up in them, you'll be invited to watch them come and go, just like clouds moving across the sky.

As awareness expands, many people notice a greater sense of calm, perspective and spaciousness emerging.

This practice is a reminder that we don't need to get rid of difficult thoughts in order to find peace. Sometimes simply creating a little more space around them can change the way we experience them.

Return to this meditation whenever your mind feels busy, overwhelmed or in need of a little breathing room.

Transcript

Welcome to the Blue Sky Meditation. This is a really lovely meditation for when your mind is feeling very scattered and full of thoughts and when you're looking for a little more space in your mind and a little more peace. So find yourself a comfortable position, Shoulders back, Back upright but not too rigid, Feet gently on the floor or cross legged or if it's more comfortable lying down. And just taking a moment to settle in. And just seeing for a moment if you can find where the breath enters the body most naturally. For some it's the nostrils, The mouth, Chest or belly area. Just seeing where you find the breath right now. Seeing if you can sense into how the breath is feeling right now. And sensing into the natural rise and fall of the breath that's always there in the background. So just bringing awareness to the natural rise and fall of the breath, Not trying to change anything or force anything. Just sensing into how the breath chooses to be right now. And one of the reasons I call this meditation Blue Sky Mind is to try and help people find that sense of space we can all feel on a blue sky day. One of those cloudless blue sky days where anything feels possible and where there's a real sense of space and possibility. Not a sense of contraction, Stress and tightness but instead a feeling of open heartedness and freedom. So taking a moment, Seeing if you can visualize a beautiful blue sky in the mind. For some of us that might be easy because it's a lovely blue sky day today. Or perhaps it's going to take a real leap of imagination to bring that blue sky to mind but just taking a moment to imagine it in your mind's eye. Really allowing yourself to visualize a bright blue sky in the mind. Open and expansive and wide, Infinite even. Noticing what happens in the body as you visualize this expansive blue sky in the mind. Seeing if the body is able to open up a little more, Untangle. Maybe the shoulders move down and back a little. Maybe the heart feels a little more open. Just really allowing that sense of looking at a blue sky. Imagining yourself taking in a beautiful, Beautiful, Wide blue sky in the mind. How does it feel to open the mind and allow the sky in? Seeing the sea and the sky and the nature all around you as a container of everything, A safe container. So that when thoughts come, Which they will, You can simply watch them pass by. The sky holding the thoughts like clouds passing on. So as thoughts come, Perhaps difficult ones, Anxious thoughts, Angry thoughts, Stressed thoughts, Seeing if you can imagine them sitting in a cloud passing through this wide open blue sky and then disappearing. So just practicing that in your own time for a moment. That wide open sky holding all thoughts, The easy thoughts, The more difficult thoughts, Just that neutral safe container of everything. Just watching those thoughts pass by, Feeling grounded and safe and strong as you visualize blue sky in the mind. Perhaps sensing the sky filling the whole of you, Not just the head, But the whole body. So that the whole body is filled with a sense of spaciousness and calm. And in the same way you watched the difficult thoughts pass by, Perhaps now sensing into any difficult sensations in the body. Perhaps tiredness or hunger, Pain even. Seeing if you can hold the sensations in that blue sky of awareness. That open expansive space where there's no judgment, No right or wrong, Just space and awareness. So sensing into the body for a moment now, Allowing that blue sky to hold all sensation as it passes through you. Really enjoying that sense of spacious awareness. The sense of the whole body being open, Expansive and strong enough to cope with whatever comes its way. Be it difficult thought, Difficult sensation. And now perhaps moving your attention to sound. So often we place labels on sounds, Good sounds, Bad sounds. Seeing what sounds you notice right now and again seeing if you can watch them move through that blue sky of awareness. And seeing that just as good sounds pass, So do the more difficult distracting sounds. They arrive in that bright blue sky and then they move on. If the mind's distracted, Which is normal in all part of the practice, Just visualizing again the brightness and blueness of the sky in the mind. Imagining yourself looking up at the most beautiful blue sky you've ever seen. And as we come towards the end of the practice, Just really sensing into how that feels to be utterly present, Surrounded by blue sky. Surrounding you and above you, A real sense of spacious, Safe awareness. Blue sky mind. Really sensing into it for the last moment or so. Taking in all the benefits of the space and awareness that you've created by taking this time to meditate today. And sensing back into the breath, Just coming back to that natural rise and fall of the breath and the body. And in your own time, Gently wiggling the fingers, Wiggling the toes, And in your own time, Gently opening your eyes. Thank you so much for choosing to meditate with me today.

Reviews

Wonderful, thank you!