Relief is just a perspective shift away
When things are too much – when emotions are amplified – meditate on the vast, open night sky.
It’s the perspective shift that brings instant relief.
Relief from anxiety. Relief from despair. Relief from anything that has become oppressive, stuck, unbearable.
As we lay, or imagine laying, under a sky teeming with stars, our physiology changes. Our breathing slows, our heart rate diminishes, and stress hormones subside.
We get a sense of how insignificant we and our problems really are in the grand scheme of time and space.
We get a sense that we’re not alone.
How we’re just one of countless souls on this planet, all having emotional experiences, some similar to the very ones we’re having right now.
And from this expansive vantage point, our thinking broadens; becomes less rigid.
Our self-talk softens; becomes less critical.
And we’re more likely to see that this emotional turbulence has some value.
- We can ask of anxiety: What’s the single most important thing you are tugging at me to do now?
- We can ask of anger: What are you signposting to me here that’s important, and what can I do to protect it?
- We can ask of shame: Whose ethics or values have I agreed to abide by, how have I fallen short, and do I still agree to uphold them?
- We can ask of depression: What situation is draining my energy? What are you asking me to rest from and assess?
- We can ask of grief: Who or what has been lost forever? How can I honour this death?
And from a spiritual perspective we might also get the sense:
The universe has my back.
How about that, hey?
