Transform your mind: star fire

Our daily focus is predominantly forward, and predominantly down. The latter even more so as our attention is increasingly drawn into the kaleidoscopic maze of pixels ever at our fingertips. But to look up? Apart from space exploration, modern civilisation has little necessity to look at the heavens.

The giant glowing embers of our cities have made it even less likely for us to gaze starward, the heavens obstructed by the orange haze of light pollution. When we do finally look up lying in bed, we find our view impeded by the ceiling. It should be noted that ceilings are generally pretty bloody boring. So with a sigh and a million racing thoughts we close our eyes and retreat into the grey space of our minds to ready ourselves for tomorrow’s next repetition bouncing around in the boxes of our lives. Upon waking, our consciousness, at its most relaxed and creative, is limited by that which contains it.

Sight is the most expansive of senses, determined by the existence of light. We can see further than we can hear, taste, touch or smell. If light can reach us, then we can see it. Without sight the stars would not exist for us. But they are there for us to discover, to expand our vision, thinking, and imagination.

We think in separation, boxes, rooms. Our minds race, jumping from one thought to another, as we travel in high speed vehicles from one place to another, pumped with sugar and caffeine. We hunger for material wealth and individual “success” as we are flooded by examples of others’ wealth in the mainstream media. The manmade structures that we live within predominantly shape our minds.

Yet there is another space in which we can shape our minds. An environment which came before civilisation and seemingly exists separate to it, where humanity began and where the view expands infinitely above us on a clear night: nature.

Time spent being in nature whether it’s the forest, mountains, meadows, ocean or beaches has a deeply levelling effect. We relax into our bodies, slowing down as we orientate with the natural pace of life itself, as if we are finally plugged into the vital electricity which charges our deepest core. It is a completely different way of being from that of the rat race. Stress slowly dissipates and we find ourselves beautifully and simply here and surrounded by the breathing web of life. We settle in ourselves like the stillness and knowing self acceptance we sense in the trees.

If we don’t retreat back into our manmade structures, the stars can entertain and realign our minds, possibly as we gravitate around the living heat of a camp fire. Looking up means seeing infinitely further than our day-to-day lives ever allow; such an experience has a deep inward echo, prompting us to contemplate the truth behind humanity and maybe beyond. A celestial realm of possibility, of nothingness; imagination’s pure potential littered with the coded twinkling of ancient fires.

The stars refresh perspective, re-aligning goals with nature, and heartfelt truth, as opposed to marketting campaigns. And then we shine like stars ourselves, unstoppable fires, burning deeply in the moment. Don’t let your fire be tamed.

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