The Sun, Moon, Clouds and You: Four Practices For Self Realization

Like the light of a full moon, clouds come and momentarily all the light goes off in the visible sky. You can observe this on an evening with a full moon and passing clouds. The bright luminous light of the moon can be completely extinguished by the smallest patch of clouds against the vast sky. Similar to this phenomenon, we can see the effects that our thoughts and emotions have on our own light.

The cloud cover we create internally has the ability in our experience, to diminish our being or our light a sense of feeling diminished or a sense of darkness then ensues. We can experience this darkness in many ways. We may call it sadness, depression, negative thinking, anxiety, feeling alienated or isolated from the world around us, feeling somehow incomplete within ourselves. However; when the clouds pass, the light shines again completely. Why is this?

We are just reflections of the source from which we’ve come. Just as the moon isn’t beaming its own light onto us; it is merely a reflection of the sun itself. We are reflections of this eternal source of existence. When we remove the cloud cover, we shine brightly and exuberantly, revealing the essence of the source from which we’ve come.

If our intention or wish is to shine brightly, to be fully alive and connected with our source, it is critically important to acknowledge that it isn’t the clouds that are our problem. Clouds are simply products of nature, environment. They will come and they will go. Our work, as ordinary people seeking growth and fulfillment in a seemingly complex world, is to simply acknowledge this and accept it completely so that we do not fixate on or give too great importance or significance to these moments that arise.
Once we can acknowledge and accept this, we then have an excellent base from which to get down to the real work.

Observing and correcting the habits, thought patterns and emotions that give rise to the cloud cover is the where the work begins. It is important to notice and be aware of the cyclical and repetitive nature of our thoughts and emotions. Its crucial to notice that the clouds we experience are created by our own projections that don’t align with existing reality or the reality we wish for. So what to do?

1. Removing and acknowledging old belief systems that are not aligned with the version of reality you desire to live into:

If your happiness and well being lives in a future reality that doesn’t exist yet, you are living inside of a belief system that will leave you feeling incomplete here and now. Unhappiness and lack of fulfillment will always be the result.
How to recognize a limiting belief system? To put it simply, limiting belief systems sound a lot like any way of thinking, feeling or speaking that places a boundary or condition on to something else. When you’ve created a boundary or condition, you’re living inside of a belief system. Be it real or imagined. Apply this to ANY area of your life.

2. Shift in perception:

If your way of seeing the world hasn’t changed much to the extent that you have greater understanding, compassion, inclusion and sense of inner peace; it’s time to upgrade and shift your perceptions. But how to do this? If you pay close attention, you’ll notice the correlation between your thoughts and your emotions. If your emotions or moods tend to make you feel disempowered or less engaged with life in a meaningful way, then there is a perception there to shift. Pay attention to the thoughts or perceptions that come before the change in mood or emotion. Once you become aware, now you can work with this.

3. Observe old ways of seeing yourself and others:

If throughout life we’re not empowered by the kind of person we’re becoming, if we are not creating a Self that we love, this is a red flag. Time to shift. Observe the way you view yourself. How does it feel to witness what you observe? Shift perception as needed.  Secondly, observe the way you view others. What are the stories we make up about the people around us?  The way we view others is usually coming from a deep place inside ourselves that have some kind of trigger for us.  Just observing how we view others, we will learn loads about ourselves, and our own inner secrets or shadows yet to manifest in our waking consciousness.

4. Get out into the world and engage:

The greatest opportunity we have to create the version of ourselves we wish for, is to get out in the world and engage. It doesn’t make a difference what we think of ourselves in our mind, if it doesn’t hold up in the world we live in, it doesn’t exist in objective reality. Engaging with the world around us is the best way to practice the things we want to work on or work through, it’s the best way to experience ourselves beyond the limitations we’ve created in our minds, through years of unconscious conditioning. Sharing makes it real.

Bottom line, we always want to be on a quest of removing the limitations of thoughts that create a limited life, little by little as we unclutter and remove the junk, we will again shine as bright as the moon reflecting the sun. Cloud cover will undoubtedly come again, but with our new enhanced and sharpened perceptions; they won’t have as much power over our lives and sense of inner well-being. Like this we learn to become masters of ourselves by mastering clearing our minds of the clutter we’ve created in life, the clutter that has made living so self imposingly difficult.

As we become masters of our inner landscape we become masters of ourselves. We move through life as students to it, always learning, listening and upgrading ourselves with more life centric knowledge and less self-centric knowledge. We begin to move through life always in the context of becoming better versions of ourselves. Like this, with much practice, we become Self-realized in the contemporary world we live in, this is the modern day practice for self-realization accessible to all.  No checking out of the world needed, by checking in; you’ve got your own ticket to ride.

Elgar Richards

E-RYT 200: RYT 500

Licensed Massage Therapist

Wellness Consultant

Writer, Traveler, Knowledge Through Experience Seeker