An Uplifting New Lens of Self-Perception through a Space Station View

Most humans on the planet have seen photos or videos of the International Space Station (ISS). This habitable floating structure resides in low Earth orbit, performing various astrophysics experiments and observing our delicate blue-green gem of a planet. From the vantage point above and beyond the gravitational reality that keeps the rest of us earthlings pinned to the ground, astronauts on the ISS can see life on our planet through a different, largely more objective perspective.   

I recall a video of astronaut activity on the ISS at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The strikingly peaceful video of Earth from space provided a stark contrast to the chaos and fear unfolding on the planet’s surface. From their 248-mile distance, reality appeared quite different — serene, even, as our planet floated along against the starry backdrop of the Milky Way galaxy. There was no sign of Covid-19 from outer space.  

I often think of what I now refer to as the space station view of everyday life to re-orient the swell of fear, panic, and urgency that can so easily become a consuming part of daily human life. From space, no matter how big a person’s individual problem, no matter how terrified they may be of an economic crisis, relationship issue, career disaster, or global pandemic, it’s inconsequential from the perspective of the ISS.   

This perspective isn’t meant to minimize the significance of the trauma and drama in our lives, but instead stands as an offering to compliment it for the purpose of counter-balancing the depth of our suffering. It’s a reminder that we’re each small drops in the massive ocean that is existence, and encourages us not to sweat the small stuff — or even the big stuff. Though our individual realities feel of the utmost importance to each of us, we’re each the main character in the saga of our lives. Nothing is really that important in the greater scheme of the universe. After all, stars are being born and dying every day while we stress about our lifestyle choices and social media content.   

When you reflect on your life from the perspective of the space station view, you can re-enter the flow and surrender that’s required to exist within a reality where large amounts of your experience are beyond your control. And those aspects that are in your control? They may not be as earth-shatteringly crucial and delicate as you fear.   

This perspective allows room for mistakes. It opens space for grace and the release of rigidity. It fosters an invitation for you to marvel at the reality that, regardless of supernovae exploding mere galaxies away, we were granted the luck that Earth maintains the sweet-spot distance from our sun that allows warmth without incineration while providing rare availability of liquid water and breathable oxygen necessary for us to exist at all.   

You are here. Right now. Alive as a conscious speck in the midst of the sands of time and space, living your daily life and microwaving your leftover mac-n-cheese lunch at the office. 

Far from being a nihilistic impulse to minimize the grudges and worries of daily life, this perspective of the space station view invites sacredness back to your experience through awe and wonder — two qualities many have lost touch within the hustle and bustle of modern-day living. We get so inundated and obsessed with our daily tribulations, building mountains of drama for ourselves that wreck our nervous systems and our relationships alike, that we overlook all there is to marvel about. We forget to wonder at the miracle that any of us exist at all.   

I, myself, often to fail to remember that, along with the high unlikeliness that life would form and evolve on Earth at all, the fact that my great-grandparents met each other during a random social moment and came together to create my parents, who, out of all the genetic variations possible, created me, it’s just so humbling and re-orienting. Also, it’s profoundly relieving to surrender to the reality that there’s more I don’t know than what I do. It removes pressure.   

I can’t remember any of this if I’m stuck in the perception of life that sees my daily commute, strained relationships, and sensitivity to dairy as being all that’s real. I must step back — way back — in order to recognize my life for what it truly is: a mystery that plays out daily for my own experiential learning. I’m on a ride I somehow got a ticket for that takes me through existence on planet Earth where I get to consciously navigate the balance of daily minutia in relationship with existential enigma.   

To support the space station view, I recommend that you play with orienting yourself larger and smaller than your current reality by learning about facets of existence that divert the focus from regular human experience alone. Zoom out to astrophysics, zoom in to microbiology. Consider science-fiction and fantasy stories to open your mind, or read about the tiny Tardigrades, which are micro-animals living all over the world in mossy water-based environments (they’re cool — look them up!).   

As you learn to catapult yourself beyond the limited 21st century human perspective we so often get stuck in, I hope you will open yourself to access the fulfilling mindsets of wonder and awe. In the largeness of existential questions like why do we exist at all? or what happens when we die?, or the smallness of noticing the perfect golden mean spiral in a tiny succulent on your daily walking trail, you can choose what to perceive. The wider you open your lens, the more fully you will observe the world and your place in it. You will then feel yourself positively transform in to a more curious, open-minded, and open-hearted version of yourself.