A Simple Analogy to Help Shift Your Perspective

I recently heard a beautiful analogy in a guided meditation class about our thoughts, and it was so good that I had to share it: think of the mind as something akin to a snow globe.

Picture it — we’re all figurines frozen in a snow globe, solid and unmoving. The snow flakes are our thoughts, and there are a lot of them. When life shakes things up (which, let’s be real, is pretty much always), our thoughts go into overdrive, flurrying around us in an almost overwhelming manner. My teacher explained that meditation helps us to stay still, unmoved and unaffected. It helps us be less reactive to things when they’re all shaken up. I adore this visual — and I want to take it a step further. 

It’s only when you take a step outside the globe that you can see the beauty in and impermanent nature of it all. 

Yes, it’s easy to get frustrated and distracted by all of your thoughts when you’re in the thick of everything life throws at you. And it’s even easier to lose your way as a result and get pulled off course by external influences, “should’s” and what others have done before you. You no longer consider or honor what you want, what matters to you and what you want to do in any given situation. 

When you can separate yourself from your thoughts and realize that you are NOT what you think, there’s a new sense of ease, freedom and space that arises. Things become clear, and you can see through the storm. Better yet, an outside and distanced perspective helps you see that no matter what, the shake up will always pass.

Simple analogies like this one can lead to the subtlest and yet most profound mindset shifts. We can’t control or prevent the curveballs that get thrown our way on a day to day basis, but we do have a choice around how we see, think about and relate to them. We can pause, take a deep breath and do our best to step outside the situation to see things in a new way, reconnect to ourselves and take action from a less reactive place. 

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