Why do people enjoy a good view? It helps shift perspective.
The view from your home, a hotel, a plane, or from the top of a mountain you just hiked. Whether it’s a view of water, mountains, a town or city, there’s something special about it.
One of the reasons I’ve always loved flying is because of the view. Give me a window seat and I’m set. Even on a 12 – 14-hour flight, I can happily sit for hours just gazing out the window to the earth below.
I hiked a local mountain here in North Vancouver yesterday, where from the top, there’s an incredible view looking back at the city. You can see it from the photo I took above.
There’s really something magical about seeing the world from a distance. It speaks to something deep in our heart.
But what is it?
In this blog post I’m going to talk about what’s happening in our heart when we enjoy a view and how seeing the world from a distance relates to finding peace inside yourself.
Distance from the Familiar
There are the cities, towns, and places we live that are so familiar. There’s a certain activity, interaction, emotion and even drama that takes place there in our day-to-day lives.
There’s work, family, getting kids to school, relationships, navigating peak hour traffic, construction noise and disruption. Of course, between all of the stress and drama of life there are a lot of good things too, but what I’m pointing to here is the familiar sense of your daily life.
You know the feeling, right?
But then you see it from a distance. Perhaps from a high mountain or looking down from a plane and it all seems so distant… Quiet.
Take a moment to recall a time when you enjoyed observing the world from a distance.
How did it feel?
Now, as you read on, keep this feeling with you and let it grow.
There’s distance from the collective hectic, noisy and emotional life in those places that helps shift perspective. Even though you might still be able to see things like moving traffic, there’s a peacefulness that comes from being distant from it.
There’s space between you and the usual environment of your day-to-day life… And that space, creates a sense of peace.
Looking back and observing the world that you know so well, but without being immersed in it.
The environment of the places we live are a collective soup of everything that goes on there – from human interactions, traffic, construction and technology for example.
Unless we make conscious effort, it becomes easy to forget that we live in it and interact with it, but we’re not of it.
We can shift perspective to realize we are more!
Creating Space
So, why am I sharing this with you now?
Because the peace we feel when we see the world from a distance, is the same principle for our inner world… When we gain some distance or space from the usual and familiar inner environment of our mind, we shift perspective and find peace.
Our awareness is so often caught in the thoughts, stories, emotions and dramas of our ordinary mind that we forget that it doesn’t have to be this way.
We become so identified with the goings on of our mind that we forget we’re far more than those thoughts and dramas.
Just as being able to look back at the world from a distance brings a well needed sense of contrast to our experience of the world, when we learn to create a similar space inside us between our thoughts and a deeper sense of our presence, this also brings a well needed sense of contrast to our experience of our self.
An inner peacefulness.
We have thoughts, but we are not the thoughts.
The Physical World vs the Mind
The beautiful thing about the realm of the mind is that we don’t have to climb a mountain or get on a plane to shift perspective and feel this sense of peace… We just need to train our mind.
Just because you’ve always had a busy and anxious mind, does not mean it has to always be that way!
Meditation and mindfulness for example, are two simple and powerful practices that train your mind to create space from the thoughts and stories that usually fill your mind. As you create space and distance from your inner noise you naturally reconnect to the peace and stillness your heart knows so well.
If you have a regular meditation practice, you’ll most likely know what I’m talking about. If you don’t have a practice or are at the early stages of your journey then rest assured that with practice you will understand.
The next time you get to observe the world from a distance, pay attention to the sense of peace it awakens inside you. Feel your heart respond.
Feel your heart calling you home… to the stillness and peace.
Know that this is always there, in the background of the usual and familiar environment of your mind.
Know that it’s possible to journey beyond the usual and familiar.
You have familiar patterns of thinking and emotionally reacting, but they’re not who you truly are!… They’re just some of the inner terrain you’ll navigate along the way.
That doesn’t mean it will be easy, but as with learning any skill, it can be learned.
This is why I create Finding Stillness.
Finding Stillness is a Comprehensive 21 Day Meditation and Mindfulness Online Program I created to help you find your way. To give you a simple and practical approach to creating distance from the noise in your mind and reconnecting to the stillness and peace inside yourself.
Each day over 21 days you receive new video lessons and guided practices. With each day building on the last you’ll develop the ability to quiet your mind and integrate it inti your everyday life.
If you feel your heart calling, and you’re ready to answer that call and take the journey into stillness, I’d be honoured to have you join Finding Stillness.
Don’t think about it too much, if now’s the time for you, you will feel it.
Wherever you’re at, take some time to observe the world from a distance. Let this perspective work it’s magic on you.
There’s a principle very alive in this experience… Let it show you how to create space from your overactive mind.
“To the mind that is still, the universe surrenders.” ~ Lau Tzu
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