DO Look Up. Here’s Why

Lifting your gaze to the sky, particularly on a blue sky day, has an instantaneous calming effect. The clouds rolling by may invite your curiosity. The hue of the blue brings a sense of peace. It’s as if you’re infusing your brain with fresh oxygen – creating new spaciousness amidst your habitual thought patterns.

After watching the sattirical film “Don’t Look Up” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence – about the political and media sectors denying reality to a point of ridicule – this idea of looking up at the expansive sky versus looking down at our phones has stayed with me.

Every generation is increasingly tied to their smartphones. For those of us who grew up without them it is perhaps easier to pull ourselves away, but the way they siphon our attention and focus remains undeniable. For my teenage children, it’s much harder to break the grip of the phone despite not even having social media access. I catch them glancing down at their phones while watching a movie. At age 14, my youngest even tries to do chores with his phone in his hand. I hope to start implementing phone-free Sundays for the family to break the spell and help them re-engage with the world in other ways, but the patterns have already been created.

I notice the impact of this unnatural human behaviour on my own mind, and how easily many of my friends and family are unduly influenced by what they see on social media. I’m increasingly concerned about how the phones in our hands are changing our brains, our life experiences, our sense of reality, and how we interact with the world around us.

Finding Your Purpose

We came to this world of tangible form for a reason: To learn, to dream, to create, to love, and to find wisdom – by interacting with this reality and other souls who are here for the same purpose.

We each carry something distinctly special inside of us. A unique perspective, vision, humor, talents, inspiration, that wish to be expressed through us and shared with the world.

To hone in on what these unique qualities are, you need time to be with yourself. To be bored. To sit in wonder. To watch with quiet curiousity as your own particular perspective – and those things you’re most passionate about – bubble up to the surface. Following them helps you find your purpose and stay aligned with it.

Following Your Inner Compass

Your own compass that lives deep within must point the way. It communicates with you through your instincts, your intuition, and those subtle nudges that prod you to move in certain directions.

When you’re constantly exposed to other peoples’ images, words, versions of reality, it can become much harder to find your own. That most authentic part of your voice and instinct is easily buried beneath the distraction of news and social media feeds.

I fear that many people can no longer hear their own voice because their mind is too filled with the voices and influences of others. Their thoughts are hijacked by a steady stream of messaging designed to sell products, lifestyles, and services as solutions to problems we didn’t even know we had until we saw them reflected on our phone.

So in this envirionment, how do we know what we really think and feel? How can our inner compass point the right direction to guide us through life when crowded out by images and anxieties created by others?

Nature Supports You

We need to look up from our phones, at the beautiful blue sky. Take time to watch the clouds, the soaring birds, and feel the wind on your face. Reconnect with the earth. Let her calm your thoughts like a mother calms her child – with her embrace and her presence. This helps the child feel safe enough again to run off and play.

Reconnecting to the natural world helps break the spell of your phone. You reclaim control of a distracted brain and re-center. And begin to hear the whispers from your own soul.

What wishes to be birthed through you? What does your soul long to do? Or to express? What naturally comes up when you’re free from the curated influence of Instagram or Facebook or TikTok trends and images? What makes you feel excited or passionate? What fills your heart?

Phone and media breaks should become an essential part of our daily routine. To create space for our minds to wander and return to curiousity. And allow our inner voice to shine through. The natural world amplifies our truest self – because we too are of nature and born of the elements.

Let’s make the most of this precious life we’ve been given. Look up at the sky. Reclaim our thoughts. Hear our inner voice. Follow our compass. And find the paths we’re meant to explore in this short lifetime.