Stop Looking for the Clouds

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Are you focusing on negativity, doubt, pessimism or being a victim in your own life?

Then you are always looking for the clouds in your own life.

Can you shift toward optimism, action and mindfulness instead?

If so, you can get rid of the clouds in your own life.

Let me tell you another true story.  

A little while ago I was on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, laying down on some grass just looking at the sky.  A high-pressure weather system was beginning to come in. 

In a high-pressure weather system, the air is sinking rather than rising.  When air sinks, it warms up and becomes drier, making it harder for clouds to form.  High-pressure weather systems lead to clear skies and dry stable weather. 

I spent several hours in a state of fascination watching the clouds dissipate in the sky as I was lying in the grass looking at the sky.

That experience made me think about something. 

Many of you have been focusing on the clouds in your life without ever realizing you can get rid of them and return to clear skies in your life.

The Metaphor of the Clouds

• What Clouds Represent: With respect to weather, clouds obscure sunshine, light and warmth and often create rain and snow. Clouds in your own life symbolize negativity, challenges, or self-doubt that obscure clear thinking or positive outcomes.
• The Skies Beyond the Clouds: With respect to weather, behind every cloud lies a clear sky.  The sky behind clouds in your own life represent, hope, empowerment and the potential for something different in your own life.
• Change Dissipates Clouds: With respect to weather, changes in sunlight, pressure, temperature cause clouds to dissipate.  Just as physical changes dissipate clouds, positive energy, self-awareness, and directed actions clear away the remaining mental and psychological negativity caused by the clouds dissipating in your own life.

What techniques can you use to stop looking for clouds in your own life?

1. Understand What Your Clouds Are

• Identify What Your Personal Clouds Are: Just as meteorologists categorize clouds, you can categorize the mental or emotional “clouds” in your life. Ask yourself, what are the recurring negative thoughts, worries or patterns of behavior producing clouds in your own life?  Then ask yourself questions such as: “What is causing these clouds in my life?”  “What am I doing to contribute to these clouds in my life?”  “Why am I allowing these clouds to occur in my own life?”
• Recognize The Negative Bias in Your Personal Clouds: Your subconscious mind is wired to focus on problems instead of solutions, that is, the clouds in your life.  This creates a negative bias in your life that needs to be recognized and acknowledged to remove your own clouds.  Recognizing the negative bias in your personal clouds allows you to begin to rebalance this bias.
• Understand Your Clouds Do Not Represent Truthful States in Your Life: Many of the “clouds” in your mind, are the result of self-doubt, fear, overthinking, etc.  Such clouds are not absolute truths but rather habitual patterns of thinking in your conscious and subconscious mind. You repeat them so often that they feel real, but when you challenge the validity of them, you will realize they have no solid truthful state or truthful foundation.

2. Reframe Clouds as Part of Own Personal Growth

• Embrace High Pressure:  You have actually experienced many high-pressure weather systems in your own life as weather come and go as the weather changes around you, just like I experienced that day on Kauai. Remember, high-pressure weather systems dissipate clouds and lead to clear skies, and dry, stable weather.  Embrace all high-pressure situations in your own life knowing they lead to the removal of clouds in your life giving you a new positive direction as change occurs.
• Look For Silver Linings: There is an old saying “Every cloud has a silver lining.” This phrase came from a poem by John Milton written in 1634. Milton was saying even a dark cloud can have a bright edge when illuminated by light. The challenges in your life that cause dark clouds also bring unexpected positive lessons and new opportunities for personal growth.  Look for the light reflecting the silver lining in all clouds in your life.
• Generate Positive Momentum:  Just as wind and air movement clear physical clouds from the sky, momentum clears mental and emotional clouds, the doubt, fear, procrastination, and negativity from your life.  Be your own wind and generate positive momentum in your own life.  There is another old saying, “Beginning is half done.” attributed to the Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle written in about 320 BC.  The idea is that getting started is often the hardest part of any task, and once you take the first step, you generate positive momentum to the outcome you desire.

3. Shift Your Own Mindset About Your Own Clouds

• Use the Blue-Sky Approach: Remind yourself daily that clouds are temporary and passing and focus on the blue sky you know is behind your clouds.  Just like the blue sky behind actual clouds, your true nature is clear, bright and cloud free.  One way to create a blue-sky approach in your own life is to focus on things that inspire you.  Music is something that inspires me. One of my favorite songs is Mr. Blue Sky by the 1970’s rock group Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).  You can use this song as starting point for inspiration to start your own blue-sky approach.
• Find Your Personal “Sun”: Your personal Sun is unique to you. It’s what lights you up, fuels your spirit, and reminds you of what truly matters to you. Identify what” lights you up.”  Ask yourself, “What is my personal Sun?” Then make of list of things that you really enjoy doing, things make you feel immediate and sustained joy. Is your personal Sun, art, music, exercise, deep conversations, humor, spirituality, nature, pets, adventure? Practice your own personal Sun at least once daily.  The more you feed your own personal Sun, the fewer clouds that will linger in your life.
• Keep Your Sky Clear and Your Cloud Away Through Intentional Daily Actions:  After shifting your perspective with the Blue-Sky Approach and embracing what energizes you with your Personal Sun, true transformation comes from continuous positive actions. Without intentional daily positive actions, your clouds can quickly return. Focus on consistent positive actions in the present moment that keep your mind clear and aligned with your soul purpose. Keep moving forward, keep choosing clarity, and your own sky will remain open, blue, expansive, full of light and full of unlimited positive possibilities to choose from and act upon.

If you stop looking for clouds, you can easily create a significant positive impact in your own life.

Out There on the Edge of Everything®…

Stephen Lesavich, PhD

Copyright © 2025 by Stephen Lesavich, PhD.  All rights reserved.

Certified solution-focused life coach and experienced business coach.

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