Finding peace in deeptime

Daily worries getting you down? Think about the scale of the Universe, says Mark Westmoquette - the Big Picture will make those anxieties so much smaller

- Mark Westmoquette

Many people say to me: “Whenever I look at the stars, it makes me feel so small and insignificant; it scares me.” It’s true – from one perspective, we are but a minute speck of dust on a tiny pebble, orbiting a dim star in a galaxy among billions, existing for half a blink of a cosmic eye.

The problem is that this speck of dust easily gets very caught up in itself, always worried, but wanting to feel important. We worry about where our life is going, how to fix the broken toilet, whether to move house, what to cook for dinner tonight... the list goes on. The worries can get so all-consuming that we can’t see out through the tangle of thoughts and emotions to see the bigger picture.