Lessons in the Clouds

Sometimes I just like to look up and watch the clouds roll by. I never get attached to the clouds, emotionally or with my thoughts. I just appreciate them for the additional beauty they bring to an already beautiful blue sky.

We treat life differently. We might consider facing life as we face clouds.

When challenges occur, in our lives, when we experience experiences, we grab a hold of them, create an emotional attachment – even when that attachment is harmful – and hold on for dear life.

That emotional attachment becomes our identity.

We often allow our challenges, issues, beliefs, diseases, financial state, to become our identity. We hold on to these with emotional attachment.

We seek identity through things, and our expectations.

Things and expectations that can change at any time.

We allow experiences and things in our life to become our identity. We struggle to find ourselves, to understand ourselves, to appreciate ourselves…

…so we attach to anything we can find. We desire to be something, anything.

We attach, and we do not let go, for

fear of losing our identity, not knowing ourselves.

We will experience millions of experiences in our lives. Daily we experience many, and some we let go, we do not attach.

We go to the grocery store, and we do not form an identity around shopping for groceries.

We fill our cars with fuel, and we do not form an identity around pumping fuel.

We clean our homes, and we do not form an identity around the acts of cleaning.

And when we are at a weight above a level we desire, we attach. I am now “fat”.

And when we do not see results in life we expect, we attach. I am now a “failure”.

And when we do not live up to our own, or others’ arbitrary expectations, we attach. I am an “idiot”.

It appears we often seek to bring harm to ourselves through labels.

We seek to label ourselves and form some type of identification with outcomes and conditions. We are in desperate need of identity because we lack awareness of our own true nature.

Instead of just seeking happiness, love, peace inside ourselves, we seek to create a facade.

We seek to attach to a false identity created from

a single event, or multiple events in life.

As if we need to find a way to restrict ourselves to our past.

We need to validate ourselves in some way, whether that which promotes or restricts our growth and expansion as a human being.

We seek a way to confine ourselves.

Instead of just allowing experiences to pass by.

If you truly seek to find your true nature, you will notice those things that bring you happiness, your talents, and gifts.

Your true nature is you. You are happiness, love, and peace, just waiting to express yourself.

You are a shining light in a sometimes dark world.

You are not rich, you are not poor.

You are not fat, you are not skinny.

You are not clean, you are not messy.

You are not disciplined, you are not undisciplined.

You are not strong, you are not weak.

You are not good, you are not bad.

Those are labels that restrict.

Those are labels formed from experiences, from outcomes, from temporary situations which can change, and seek to confine you to the past.

You are more than those false labels.

You are happiness, love, and peace. Whether you can feel those today or not, they are your spirit.

They are waiting to express themselves.

Perfectly.

They are hidden beneath the false labels, the hurt, the pain, the suffering, the attachment to past experiences, comparisons to an arbitrary expectation…

…hidden beneath all that is not you.

Any of these things can change, can reverse, can be unattached at any time.

With a single decision.

They are not you. You choose to identify with them.

Attachment is a choice you make. A single decision.

And this attachment is not you. It will only confine you, restrict you, and prevent you from expanding.

Choose to release yourself today.

As you experience experiences, face challenges, find success, reveal outcomes, let go of attachment.

They are not you.

To release yourself is letting go of the emotional attachment to everything, to materials, to pain, to outcomes, to finances, to titles…

…knowing that they could change at any time.

Moving through our lives. Not stable. Not limiting. Not a true identity.

Moving through our lives like the clouds in the sky.

Clouds in which we are not attached. We do not emotionally attach because we know they will just pass through, dissipate, form into other shapes.

Our conditions, outcomes, situation, challenges do not cause us pain. Our emotional attachment to these things cause pain, suffering, and hurt.

Let go of expectations, of identities, of our emotional attachment…

…and the pain, suffering, and hurt release as well.

Clouds.

Today, look at the clouds. Watch them roll on by. Feel the happiness they bring. Feel the lack of suffering you feel as they pass by.

That feeling is the lack of emotional attachment you have to the clouds.

That is the true model for our lives.

True happiness in life can only be found in becoming detached from outcomes. From things that can change. From temporary states. From expectations.

Happiness is revealed through detachment.

Happiness makes you truly appreciate those things from which you have detached.

Happiness and appreciation bring additional happiness and appreciation, which makes life more enriching, fulfilling, and purposeful.

To begin, find joy in watching the clouds roll by.

Just enjoy the beauty of the clouds, without comparison to what they could be, what they should be, or what you would have if they were different, or what you will lose if they change.

They are simply beautiful clouds. Just like every second of your life is and has been.

A High-Performance Life is revealed by appreciating the clouds.

There is happiness in the clouds.

There are lessons in the clouds.

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Previously published on Mikekitko.com.

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