In meditation last year the idea of the blue sky occurred to me. It came up multiple times, so I stayed with it. As I meditated and journaled on this experience, the metaphor of the blue sky found new meaning. It has fundamentally changed the way that I approach life.

If asked what color the sky is, most people will typically answer “blue.” We know the sky as being blue. If it’s cloudy or smoky outside (as has often been the case in the past year), when asked what color the sky is right now, people will typically answer “grey” or “brown.” While when looking up in this situation, the sky does appear grey or brown, it’s only those colors because that’s the color of the clouds or the smoke. The sky actually remains blue! The sky (during the day of course) remains blue, and it’s what comes between the sky and us that change our perception of it.

The clouds and smoke will pass, as they do, and the sky will once again appear blue. This is because the sky’s natural color (during the day) is blue. It doesn’t change, what’s in the sky changes our perception of it, but once those things pass, our perception of the sky goes back to blue. What can we learn from this?

We can be as the blue sky. We can have an identity that doesn’t have to shift with the passing clouds and smoke that will almost certainly afflict us. When we over-identify with the things that are going on around us, we take those problems, challenges, distractions, and obligations and begin to identify ourselves by those things rather than an identity that we want or hope to have ourselves.

Having a journaling habit, I began to write my “Blue Sky” in my journal each morning – reminding myself of my identity every morning. I realized that I had been well on my way to identifying with the problems of the day, and the problems of the world. I realized that when I truly wanted to explore my identity, my “Blue Sky”, that I wasn’t sure exactly who I was without my response to the problems around me. I kept writing my “Blue Sky” every morning, first thing in the morning, to remind myself first thing who I am.

I learned from my friend Chris Orwig that who we are is infinitely more important than what we do. I guess I just hadn’t internalized it this way before. Now I had found a framework for putting “who I am” into practice, each and every day by journaling my “Blue Sky.”

I started to disassociate myself from my challenges. I began to see how I was identifying with thought distortions and distractions. As I journaled, my Blue Sky began to expand as well. It started with a statement of “I am healthy.” Even if I don’t feel it or feel like I look it, I started to tell myself “I am healthy” every day. At first, that’s all it was. Then that identity began to creep into my everyday thoughts, all day long. I found myself making healthier choices throughout the day, almost every day. All the effort and time spent on trying to “become” healthy was a never-ending battle, because “healthy” was always something I wasn’t, and getting there was “difficult.”

Once I identified as being healthy, I realized that “because I’m healthy, I make healthy choices and do healthy things.” It was really that “simple” so to speak. I now had “being healthy” as part of my identity because I chose it – it was part of my personal “Blue Sky.” When I realized that I get to choose my identity, and that I’m not a victim of what happens around me, that was a powerful moment. My Blue Sky expanded. I continued to write my expanded Blue Sky Statement every morning in my journal.

I believe we all have our own Blue Sky. It’s our identity, it’s who we choose to be regardless of the clouds and smoke that will eventually pass. Just as the sky is blue, we have a nature that is far greater than the challenges, distractions, and obligations that are sure to come and go themselves.

As a side note, the journal and planner that I use is something I designed specifically for myself. As I’ve used it and others have seen it and used it for themselves, they’ve found value in using it as well. You can find it at makeroomplanner.com.