A World Beyond Ourselves | #50

By Armaan Athwal

Today's Overview:

• Clarity about the scale of life and our small part in it

• Letting go of personal importance and contributing to a larger story

• Quote of the day

Humbling Perspective

Sometimes I get these random moments where I’m hit with the realization of how big the universe really is. The fact that there is so much more beyond my little world—beyond what I know and what I experience.

These moments hit me in the most ordinary moments. When I’m sitting in my car, stuck in traffic, or walking through a crowded downtown. I see thousands of people around me, each going about their day, all caught up in their own lives.

Every single person I pass has their own family, their own problems, their own hopes and dreams—just like me. Yet, I don’t know them, and they don’t know me.

It’s humbling to think about. Thousands of people within just a few hundred meters of me, and I’m completely unknown to them, just as they are to me.

We exist in the same space, but in completely different worlds. And if that’s the case in one city, how much more is going on in the rest of the world? In the entire universe?

The thought pulls me out of my own bubble, reminding me how small I really am in the grand scheme of things.

A Greater Story

We often center ourselves in our own story, thinking everything happens to us or because of us. But when I pause and reflect on the sheer scale of life—how many people, places, and experiences exist beyond my immediate reach, I’m reminded that I’m just one of many. And that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it can be incredibly freeing.

When I realize that life doesn’t revolve around me, it helps me let go of the pressure to control everything or take everything so personally.

The universe is vast, and there’s so much more happening than I’ll ever be aware of. In a way, that’s a relief.

It’s not about diminishing my importance, but about finding peace in the fact that I’m part of something bigger. And that means I don’t always have to have all the answers or be at the center of it all.

What’s more, when you realize your place in this bigger picture, it opens the door to a deeper sense of connection.

When you serve others, even in ways that don’t benefit you directly, you become part of that larger story. In helping others, you help yourself by creating a sense of unity over self. You contribute to something meaningful, something beyond your personal gains.

It reminds me that life is less about what I can take and more about what I can give.

Quote of the Day

“Unhappiness, I saw then, comes to each of us because we think ourselves at the center of the world, because we have the miserable conviction the we alone suffer to the point of unbearable intensity. Unhappiness is always to feel oneself imprisoned in one's own skin, in one's own brain.” - Jacques Lusseyran