Guided, clouds crossing a sky, loving kindness to finish. Music underneath
Your mind is not broken for being loud. It is a sky, and the thoughts are weather crossing it.
About 14 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.
A calm mind is not a busy mind that finally shut up. It is muddy water left alone until it clears. So we watch the thoughts pass like clouds, and notice the game they play: the second you catch one, the mind slips you another. Watch that game long enough and it gets funny rather than frightening.
Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on stevenwebb.uk
Thank you for sitting with me.
Steven
Who this is for
Your mind is loud and you have decided that means something is wrong with it.
It does not. It is a sky, and the thoughts are weather crossing it. A calm mind is not a busy mind that finally shut up. It is muddy water left alone until it clears.
What happens in this meditation
Muscles first, from the top of your head down, each one given permission rather than forced.
Then a short piece about the mind being like water. Turbulent, you cannot see. Calm, everything is clear.
Then the sky. Thoughts arrive as clouds and you watch them without doing anything at all. Some light, some heavy enough to block the light, all of them passing.
And then the game. The moment you catch a thought, the mind hands you a different one to see if you noticed. Watch that long enough and it gets funny rather than frightening.
It closes on loving kindness, for you first and then for everybody.
How to get the most from it
Fourteen minutes, and there is nothing to picture beyond a sky, which most people manage.
Notice that the relentless thought is never the same thought twice. Like a river that sounds identical and never is.
The line to keep is short. I have thoughts, but I am not those thoughts.
Questions people ask
Is a busy mind a problem?
No, and treating it as one is what makes it worse. The sky is not damaged by weather. You are not damaged by thinking.
What if I keep following the thoughts?
You will. Smile at it, thank it, and go back to watching. Catching yourself is the practice rather than evidence of failing at it.
Why finish with loving kindness?
Because it sets you up as the sort of person you actually want to be for the next few hours, and because clarity without any warmth in it is not much use.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
overthinking · mindfulness · present-moment
Read the transcript
Welcome to a little piece for an overactive mind.
So we'll begin just by finding a comfortable position and
just allowing your body to settle in.
Just feel the support beneath you.
And you may want to take a deep breath just to connect the mind and the body together.
Then simply allow your breath to be what it is.
You don't have to get involved in your breath. Your body's been breathing for a long time. Without you getting
involved.
Just become aware.
And we just give our muscles permission to relax as well.
Similarly to your breath, you don't have to force them, you don't have to do anything. Each
muscle knows how to relax, they're just waiting for you to give them permission. So
starting from the top of your head, working all the way down for your body. Just allowing the muscles to
relax.
Allowing the face and the ears.
Your chin, your neck and your arms. Your
shoulders down your back.
And your bum and your legs.
Allowing each muscle as they go down just to relax a little bit more each time. Breathing in calm. Breathing
out relax
And we don't have to do anything.
We just have to be aware.
And that's simply enough.
And as you're settling in, just let's reflect on a little bit of wisdom.
The mind is like water.
When it's turbulent,
it's difficult to see.
When it's calm, everything becomes clear.
This simple yet profound statement reminds us of the power of a nice calm mind.
Often our minds are like a stormy sea,
with thoughts crashing around each other,
creating noise and confusion.
It's very much like a pond with muddy water.
But beneath the surface there's always this depth of stillness and clarity. If we just allow it to settle
in.
And in our busy lives, especially nowadays, we often mistake mental activity for productivity
and intelligence. It's
just thinking. It's just overactive minds.
True wisdom often emerges from this stillness. You
cannot very often think yourself out of problems or... Think your way into trying to remember something
or do something. It's when we take a step back and relax and allow the mind to have space. That's
when the wisdom and clarity appears.
Now let's explore a way that we can have this peace amidst all the mental activity. So
imagine your mind is a vast sky
And your thoughts are like clouds passing through the sky. I know this is a very common meditation, but it
really does work. And it's simple. And we can all imagine this huge, vast sky. And we've all seen
clouds. And
all the clouds are different. There's never two the same clouds. Just the same as we think we have relentless,
the same thought. They're not. Every time you have a similar thought, they're subtly different.
You know, some of the thoughts like light and fluffy clouds and others a little more dark and heavy and
don't leave any room for light. But
regardless of their nature, they're all temporary. They're passing. Some of them travelling a little slower than others.
And as you just sit here, just begin to notice the thoughts as they arrive.
Don't try to change them or do anything with them.
Don't even try to push them away. Just observe them.
No different than just being aware of your breath. You're just aware of your thoughts.
Just like you're watching clouds drift away in the sky.
Very often at this point we notice how particularly active our mind is and how much it jumps from one
thought to another. From one story, one narrative to another.
It doesn't seem to stay on a single thought. As soon as you notice the thought, the mind's like, ah,
you've got me. And it brings up another a thought to try to trick you.
It's like a game of cat and mouse. Of awareness and thought. Ah, I'm aware of
you. And the thought goes, are you? And it changes it and it morphs into something different. And
you can almost do this as playing a game.
Just being aware of you doing it. Being aware of the games that the thoughts play.
And when you notice the thought takes your attention a little too much. And you start to go down in
the thought process and Following the thought. Just be aware, smile and thank you. I'm just coming back
and gonna watch you carry on
because often we become that thought when
we're never really that thought. We're just the witness of it but it sometimes feels so real and so true
that we almost think that thought's us.
You can say that mantra in your mind or a little affirmation. I have thoughts but I'm not those thoughts.
I have thoughts. But I'm not those thoughts.
And your mind really is like the big vast cloud. It
can hold everything. It's
as big as the sky as big as the universe. It's
as big as you want it to be.
And your mind isn't hurt by any of the thoughts. Your body isn't hurt. Just no different than the sky
is affected with a cloud going through it.
The sky is still there. The universe is still there.
It's just a cloud. It's just passing through.
And your true nature underneath all this just remains at peace. Awareness is almost always at peace. I
say almost always because I've never known it not to be at peace. But
maybe one day I'll find where awareness isn't just, ah, just sitting in this moment.
Just little spaces between thoughts.
Just little
gaps between my words. Just give you a moment of quiet.
And if you leave it too long, a thought jumps in.
Almost like the thoughts like my turn. I'm ready.
And in these moments a little clarity, you can repeat silently to yourself. I am not my
thoughts. I am the peaceful awareness behind my thoughts.
I am not my thoughts. I am the peaceful awareness behind my thoughts.
And stillness is always available to me. Even when the mind is feeling overactive and thinking a lot.
Stillness is always available to me. Even when the mind is being overactive.
So now gradually expand your awareness to beyond your thoughts. And notice the sounds around you, the sensations
in your body. And
the space in the room.
And as we prepare to end this meditation, let's take a moment to cultivate a loving kindness. I
always like to end the meditations on this because it sets us up for the compassion, caring and open-hearted people
that we are. But
it's always wonderful to remind ourselves.
Place your hand on your heart and say, May I be peaceful. May
I be at ease. May
I be kind to myself.
May I be peaceful. May I be at ease. May I be kind to myself.
Now we turn that around and we reflect it on the world. May we all be peaceful.
May we all be at ease.
May we all be kind to ourselves.
And when you see them and feel them really sink in, it
makes a profound difference. May we all be peaceful. May we all be at ease. And
may we all be kind to ourselves.
And now let's come back from five and with each number you'll become more alert and more aware of your
surroundings. So five, begin to wiggle your arms and wiggle your toes. Four, take a deeper breath.
Three, become aware of the space around you.
Gently open your eyes and
take a moment to stretch and move in any way that feels good.
Welcome back. Remember the peace that you've experienced is always available to you. Just gotta
step back and see it. Step back and feel it.
Beneath the surface of your thoughts, your presence and willingness to explore the inner world is deeply appreciated.
I hope with these feelings and this openness you can carry them throughout the day and just realise that there
is peace available to you. Just step back and watch the thoughts. Watch the chaos happen
and it'll just make a huge difference.
Thank you. I'm Steven Webb and... I've also got another podcast, Stillness in the Storms, that I bring them both
free to help you through difficult times. Open your heart and open your mind and just find a little
piece You
can see different ways to support the podcast and keep it free in the comments. Take care. Bye.
