Yoga invites us to slow down and minimize the busyness in our lives… to withdraw much of our external awareness and internalize our consciousness… to come home to the present moment again and again.

We also can move into a state of Yoga by externalizing our awareness far beyond our immediate circumstance and reminding ourselves of the bigger picture. I call this “Zooming Out.” Here’s how it works:

Realize that any anxiety, stress or concern you might have is happening inside of you as a single individual. Then zoom out and become aware that there are more than 6 billion fellow humans on the planet with you. Now, zoom out some more and see Mother Earth, billions of times larger than you, as a tiny ball swirling around our sun. Go further and visualize all the planets in our solar system orbiting around our star. Then zoom out further, shrink the sun down to just a tiny speck of light on one edge of our vast galaxy. Then, take it out further so that our galaxy becomes a little swirl in the vast universe, with billions of other galaxies swirling around with it.

Now, remember that the time we have on this planet, in cosmic perspective, is less than the snap of your fingers…. that we are amazingly small, swirling in space on a cosmic ride, dancing through the phantasmagoria of the universe.

From this perspective, our problems all but disappear and the miracle of being comes back into focus.

Try this practice several times when you are feeling contemplative and peaceful. Then, once you have a feel for it, revisit it when stress and anxiety arise and you find yourself caught up in some personal drama.