I’ve been pretending to be a cloud (and I think I like it)

I always go on a little walk at some point in the middle of the day, because, you know, it’s good for me and all that.

However, sometimes it doesn’t do what I am hoping it will do. I get back from my walk and I am still tense or frazzled, and really while I have been outside, my mind has been stuck in the same place it was before I left: going over all the things I have to do, whether I have enough time to do it, whether I have done a good enough job on something, or whatever it might be (those are usually the themes).

Plus I am absolutely stomping round, thrashing my little legs (I really do have short legs in comparison to my body – perhaps more on that another time) like I am training for a walking race or something.

Today I wanted to do something about that, because I had an early start, I’d been at my computer for a long time and I really wanted to unwind for a bit. So, I thought about imagery.

Sometimes when I want to get myself into a particular headspace or to feel a particular way, I imagine something that captures it. One I use a lot is a bouncy ball: when I am a bit stuck in my head but I have some time with the kids and I want to be a bit more present, I picture a bouncy ball, as that is the headspace I want to be in. When I am doing a talk and I can feel myself getting a bit antsy, sometimes I picture a rock in a stream: still, calm, cool. I have written here before about using a rock when I want to be a little more assertive: a rock isn’t aggressive, it’s just solid, stately and it’s unlikely to move, so that’s how I want to be.

So, today I thought about a cloud. It’s a lovely sunny day and there were just a couple of clouds drifting overhead. In picturing them, I thought about drifting steadily and evenly, at the same pace, at the same height, and just sort of watching the world below from a distance. No judgement, not particularly attached, just watching and observing.

So that’s what I did. It made me hold myself a little taller, walk a little more slowly and steadily, and look around through the eyes of a cloud.

I know they don’t have eyes, but still, you take my point.

Sometimes imagery or metaphor can do for us what words or instructions can’t. Now when I say the word “cloud” there is a whole series of things that come with that: how it feels in the body, what it means in terms of how I think, all of which would take ages to explain, but I don’t have to.

I can just use “cloud.”

P.S. One of the great things about doing 1:1 work with people is that they will often bring metaphors that never would have occurred to me in a million years. A panther for someone feeling confident. A little baby armadillo curling into a ball for what it feels like when we get scared. Someone once described the heavy feeling that comes with depression as “bed gravity.” Images just do more sometimes.