You Are Not the Storm!
“You are the sky. Everything else is the weather.” – Pema Chödrön
Sometimes a quiet moment arrives and if we are lucky we have an awareness of how much our inner world has been running the show.
I had a constant background hum: “be careful… don’t get it wrong… you are not enough.“
It was subtle, yet so familiar that I never even questioned it ..
Over time I noticed I would shrink, over give, think and would try to stay ahead of the discomfort.
I didn’t know any better.
What I learned over the years was that this was like my internal weather. Just like the clouds, rain, thunder storms .. my thoughts and emotions where simply passing through – but I was attaching myself to them.
Mindfulness taught me something that many of us are never taught or have the good fortune to realise.
Why we get caught (and why nothing is wrong with you)
The mind is a powerful storyteller as it remembers, predicts and protects us.
When emotions mix with these stories, they feel convincing:
“I feel anxious” slowly becomes “I am anxious.”
We start believing we are the storm and suffering follows, because we simply forgot to look up and notice the sky.
The Part of You That Never Changes
There is something within you and me (all of us) that has always been here.
A steady awareness that can notice sadness without drowning in it, feel anger without acting from it and experience joy without clinging to it.
This awareness is not passive, it is strong, grounded and always present and from this space we begin to see more clearly.
Thoughts become echoes, not instructions.
We notice that emotions are signals not definitions.
We are not trying to, nor do we need to get rid of anything, we are simply learning to remember who we truly are.
When You Get Stuck (because you will)
We are not looking to be perfect, that would be boring.. we are here to experience everything and part of the process is the remembering and returning.
When emotions and thoughts arise we can get stuck in them, yet with some awareness we can notice they come and go like waves, so next time you feel stuck in one, try this:
- Notice — “Ah… worry/ fear/ sadness.”
- Pause — notice one breath in and one breath out
- Witness — Ask yourself, “Who is actually of aware of this?”
- Allow — know that it will move, like the weather always does.
The more we practice this, slowly something shifts from concept to lived experience and we can start noticing that:
I have thoughts
I feel emotions
I am not either of them
From here, we start to respond with more choice and less habit.
You Don’t Need to Fix Yourself
Mindfulness is not about stopping thoughts or calming emotions or pushing anything away.
It’s about changing how we relate to what arises.
When we stop confusing passing weather with who we are:
- Sadness can be here without taking over
- Doubt can appear without steering our choices
- Anxiety can move through without running the day
You remain, the witness of it all, becoming clearer, calmer, aware and enough.
We are not searching for peace we are reminding ourselves that its already within us and this is how we return to it, time after time, its always there beneath the noise and stories we tell ourselves.
Moment by Moment
Breath by Breath
Non-Identification
I am not my thoughts or emotions.
I am the awareness they move through.
A Gentle Invitation
If this resonated, this is the kind of work I offer. Simple, practical support for meeting life with more awareness and choice using your own inner connection.
If you would like support returning to yourself, I invite you to explore my work or begin with a simple conversation, which you can do by contacting Jo in person via hello@dhamasun.com
Alternatively you can email Jo personally with any questions and how to take the next step.
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