After spending a hundred and seventy days and seventy-one million miles in orbit on the International Space Station, Astronaut Ron Garan had a transformative experience.
Being physically detached from Earth made me feel deeply interconnected with everyone on it.
Astronaut Ron Garan - The Orbital Perspective
Conversely, he firmly believes that we do not have to leave our planet to experience this new perspective.
However, we may have to leave certain issues within our inner-space before we can change our behavior. Conversely, we may be able to allow our behavior to change our inner-space.
The secret to doing this according to Ron is: "Pull back to the point where we can see all the pieces of the puzzle."
Too often we get paralyzed by our negative thoughts because we are not pulling back far enough to see all the things we have accomplished in our lives and how grateful we should be that we did the best we could.
Ron began to realize this when he saw the thin layer of atmosphere that actually keeps our earth intact, while also seeing the border lights between Pakistan and India that keeps people apart. Ron's Orbital Perspective is all about the blending of the small and big pictures.
During our conversation we also agreed that we too often get a distorted view from the lopsided reporting of only the bad news. How could we possibly see the big and small pictures of life if we are bombarded with only the trivial and negative aspects of our own humanity?
That is the real perspective we need to shift. And, if we cannot shift our thoughts, know that no matter what, you can control your actions. Plus, those actions and/or thoughts do not have to be major changes. They can be the simplest, smallest, first steps on the road to a new perspective.
Our ability to solve our world's greatest challenges is directly proportional to the extent that each of us, on a person-to-person basis, commits to contributing to progress and follows through on that commitment, no matter how large or how small.
My conversation with Ron, about his book The Orbital Perspective, airs this week on most of our PBS station.
Enjoy the show and keep it all in perspective.
Barry