Don’t sweat the small stuff, they say. Look at the bigger picture. Don’t get bogged down in details.
But we’re on a rock spinning in outer space: everything’s small stuff. Our entire existence, from first breath to last, is a whisper. As individuals, we don’t matter. Our only significance is as a part of the whole, our connections as meshed as the fibres on a web.
Humanity ripples and flows, extinguishes and sparks, spreads and contracts. This landscape is a magical, contradictory, awful and brilliant thing, and the only big picture is the one greater than all of us. It lies beyond the barriers of me and you, of moral senses, tastes and habits, in-groups and out-groups.
But going there is tricky. Whether it’s someone jumping the queue at the bus stop or a snide remark that wrecks your day, it can feel that however much you want to be part of the whole, it’s impossible when the whole doesn’t feel the same. Getting dragged down into the mire of other people’s psychodramas – their rages and sadness – closes you off from that connection.
Perhaps the answer, then, is to sit with the details rather than wish they didn’t exist. To recognise the miffed feelings, the upset, the turmoil generated in you by the actions of others. To learn where it shows up inside you. And then, once done, to zoom out to universe-level. Connect to the greater picture with a detail clutched to your heart. Go deep to go long.
This is about a heart-view of the human landscape. Underneath the education and conditioning, you are at peace – no matter what breaks your calm. Getting bogged down in details is an opportunity to escape them, too.
It isn’t about dismissing the validity of your emotions. It’s being with them as you simultaneously soar across the whole of everything. To breathe into the feelings – and to breathe them out. To connect with the core of yourself that connects with the whole of humanity.
You can do this whether it’s a person bothering you, or a life situation. Hold the material-world care close to your heart and take a broader view. Your actions in the here-and-now might be no different, but they might not take on so much heat. And in a world that sparks a flame with so little provocation, we need all the cooling down we can get.
So, when you feel yourself dragged down, be brave and fly up. Look over the beautiful landscape, and be with the peace and beauty that’s waiting for you, out there in the blue beyond.
How to take a broader view
- Notice when you get bogged down in worries, irritations or overwhelm.
- Recognise where it appears in your body – a clenched stomach, an aching heart.
- Then rise up, as high as you can. Take a breath and survey the view. See the beginning and the end of it, the ribboning out of cause and effect. See how it connects, web-like, to other people and other actions.
- Breathe out, and let the whole thing go with love.
- Come back to earth with a cooler head, and possibly a decision that’s been made.
- Whenever things get overheated, remember there’s always the landscape, waiting for you to take a broader look.
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