Prompt: sky meditations
“Paying attention to the rhythms of the natural world helps us to recognize the places within us that call for blossoming, fruitfulness, releasing, and resting.”
-Christine Valters Paintner–
Giving our attention to the sky (moon phases, sun rises/sets, weather patterns and other sky-view events) can serve as a meditative practice.
- Being outdoors (or near a window) can be time of being at-ease, checking in with ourselves (being in our bodies, noticing how we are feeling, and redirecting our tendencies to overthink and worry).
- I often snap images of the sky and create art for the lunar phases as a creative way to pause and ponder the details of my living and my internal/external “weather.”
It is a healing and restorative practice to be “as the sky is to the weather”—to hold steady (and abide in the expansive space we need) amidst whatever “weather” comes.
“[Equilibrium]—it’s the kind of state of mind that cannot be perfumed in any way by anything that happens outside you. This kind of confidence that comes from there is like the confidence of the sky… [The] sky sees the impermanence of the clouds, and the impermanence of the rainbows, and you have to develop an inner state of mind that’s as impervious to all the good shit and bad shit that happens to you as the sky is to the weather.” -Caroline McHugh
- A sky meditation is to abide with the sky above us on any given day, to consider it invitation to pause and feel whatever we are feeling—to be a mindset of spaciousness, spread out like the horizon line and observing our personal “weather” (blue sky, clouds, or weather fronts; emotions/moods as colors in a rainbow—or lightning ⚡ bolts of clues).
- A reminder that we cycle like the moon—and we can trust in the progressive phases of each and every cycle.
Sky meditations (abiding in stillness and listening in-spirit) are a major part of my creative practice. Each and every day the sky offers us new views, reminding us that everything cycles; inviting us to be [live, feel, experience] the constant changes and unpredictability of our living like the sky is to the weather.
We must prioritize time (and energy) for pondering + reflecting on what we want.
We cannot hope to receive anything we want if we are unable to identify what we want. And we cannot receive anything we do not believe we are worthy of receiving.
Today is Day 11 within the tradition of Twelve Days of Christmas, and I invite you to compile a 21-day log of your sky meditations. (In sequence, or simply a chronicle of 21 different sky meditations.)
- Allow this time to be a devoted time of solitude and stillness.
- Jot simple notes + snap views of the sky.
Sky meditations can serve as both a portal and a refuge as we ponder and reflect on our values and worth, and devote attention to our dreams and desires.
Sky meditations are for quieting our thinking-mind and redirecting our focus to the Divine.
➡️➡️➡️ As a daily prompt I have been posting oracle cards, content + free downloads here to offer ideas and resources for self-compassion + expression + attention + reflection.