In perspective

Sometimes my attention is captured by obsessive thoughts, and I find myself “sweating the small stuff”. This is often unpleasant. But I can reduce it by changing my mind, by getting things in perspective. I have three, partly home grown, ways of doing this.

Doing a helicopter. The basic idea is to rise above the nitty gritty. I imagine a helicopter landing in the back garden. I get on board. It moves higher and higher. I see the street then the village, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the UK, the EU - and then into outer space from where I see the blue sphere that is planet earth. The nitty gritties fade away.

Doing the Cosmic Zoom. This is like doing a helicopter except that (a) it goes further out to give views of the solar system, the milky way, and the cosmos; (b) it also zooms to inner space eg me, my organs, cells, macromolecules, atoms, sub atomic particles down to quantum level; and (c) as well as space  (infinity), it zooms through time (eternity) from nanoseconds to 13.7 billion years ago which was the beginning of time with the big bang. (Note: the Big History Project builds on this foundation)

Doing a drone. A village worthy has a drone with a camcorder attached. He (it) flies over the village and he posts the results on FaceBook. This is like ‘doing a helicopter’ except that the drone cannot rise so high: but it has the advantage of producing ‘images’ that are real rather than imaginary. It gives a ‘bird’s eye view”. It is as if his eyes fly away from his head but he remains in remote control. This is wi-fi action at a distance.

Despite having trained as a scientist I still find drones to be miraculous. They rate alongside inside lavvies, hot and cold running water, and central heating as an unthinkable that became a reality.

My great grandparents (Kenneth Fraser Miller (1859-1920) and Margaret Jane Miller (ne Williamson) (1860-1926) ran Portsoy’s Shore Inn from 1900 to 1923. They raised a family of five one of whom was a rubber planter in Malaya and another was a policeman’s wife in China. Many of the things that we take for granted today would have seemed like sci-fi miracles to Kenneth and Margaret – for example motor cars, airplanes, washing machines, electric toothbrushes, the national health service, the welfare state, and computers and the internet which have given us Skype, Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, on-line shopping and so much more.

So, rather than continue sweating the small stuff, I kick my brain upstairs to the world of wonders where there is only limited room for negative thoughts, feelings and moods. For lasting peace of mind the trick is to positively point awe-full attention to a bigger a picture - and let it go. Then you are awake, aware and in perspective.