Lessons from the Sky
The body has its own weather system, and it’s mysteriously similar to the earth’s. Have you ever noticed after a miserable cold front, clear sunny skies follow? And after a warm front, rain. Or after a long summer of drought, floods and storms. Maybe you study weather patterns and know the science behind these atmospheric shifts and balances. These patterns explain how the earth has natural cycles of energy, moving through, balancing the ups and downs to prevent stagnancy and to spark life and growth.
The body does this, too. Have you ever been cruising along in life then one day woke up on the wrong side of the bed and wondered why all of a sudden you feel in a funk? Or maybe there’s an obvious reason for this moodshift. Whichever the case, these moods are necessary for the human spirit to bloom. And if life doesn’t hand you something to stir up your inner rain cloud, your body will start stirring inside for you. Those gray stormy days are just as necessary as the sunny clear ones for your growth and nourishment.
Crying is the body’s way to cleanse the system, and in doing so, it releases stress hormones and clears out toxins. Have you ever felt an empty feeling after crying and letting it all out? Not empty in a lost way, but empty in a starting over sort of way - in a refreshed way. Crying has a vital purpose in the healing process and for the human body, just as rain is crucial to life on this planet.
Anger is the body, mind, and spirit’s way of all coming together and saying, No. And when boundaries continue to get crossed, whether by someone else or maybe from not listening and honoring your own inner cries the first time they needed attention, an inner storm can build up and eventually release. Have you ever felt relief and a new energy after one of nature’s storms passes? Anger can have this effect, too. And, most importantly, boundaries that weren’t there or being respected before, can be established.
Often times, we tend to stuff our emotions down, drown them in alcohol, work, exercise, shopping, eating, relationships…anything to distract ourselves from the upsetting feeling in our go, go, go lives. Some of us have stuffed such old pain down that we are completely unaware of the pint up storm building in us, sometimes unleashing it at irrational times or perhaps still waiting to cause a flash flood on our life. Doing this is just as detrimental to our wellbeing as a flower never receiving rain. For a plant, no matter how adapted it is to a certain environment, eventually it needs rain just as much as it needs sunshine.
So in those moments when you feel you have it all figured out, and then life taps you on the shoulder, just remember, it’s all a necessary part of growth, to keep the energies flowing through you, moving out old stagnant energy and clearing space for the new, and after the storm, there will be sunshine and clear skies waiting for you on the other side.
Altocumulus clouds over Sedona.