There's an awful lot to worry about these days, isn’t there? There’s the big scary things, global things; war and pandemics and economics and politics and climate change. And then there’s our personal worries; raising children, caring for elderly parents, our grocery bill, our health… some days it feels like there isn’t a single second that belongs to you in between all of the responsibilities. We wake up under a weight and go to sleep every night under the same weight. Adulting is hard! But what if there was a way to step back and gain a fresh perspective on your life that could bring you some peace of mind, even amidst the chaos? What if you could start to minimize your feelings of urgency and anxiety just a bit?
Sometimes, near the end of Savasana, you might hear me say “you are everything and nothing all at once.” What do I mean by this? How can both of these be true at the same time? Follow me...
It is a scientific fact that you were an egg cell inside of your mother when she was still a fetus inside of your grandmother. Everyone who is in existence right now actually already existed generations ago, and so on, all the way back to the dawn of man, like one long chain of DNA being stretched out from the beginning of life on Earth until right now. This means that you are not actually distinct from all of mankind or the entire tree of life; you are not an individual. You are not a single independent organism; you are actually a part of the one gigantic organism that is Earth. A new life doesn’t begin every time a baby is born; rather, life itself already began a billion years ago, that one time, and since then it has simply continued without end. You are just a part of the one thing called life; a piece of it. You are a leaf on the tree that began growing billions of years ago; the tree lived long before you were aware and when you die the tree will remain.

Add to this idea the fact that all living things on Earth are made up of the same exact building blocks; we are all made of cells that and the same basic ingredients as all other living things on Earth. We are all just borrowing our carbon and nitrogen atoms while we are alive, and when we die, we will have to give them back, forever recycling the same ingredients over and over again in the circle of life. You are not distinct or separate from the planet Earth; you are a small piece of a planet that got up and walked around and looked at stuff for a little while. You are just energy experiencing human-hood for a short time. Your religion doesn’t matter, your race doesn’t matter, your politics, your finances, even your most beloved people and objects are fleeting and minuscule compared to the system that we are existing in. In 100 years you will be dead and so will everyone you know. All of your possessions will be thrown away or belong to strangers. Someone else will live in the house you live in now. The elements that existed in your heart and your brain and your body will be existing in some other form in some other living thing.
Your life is so short and so fragile that nothing matters and everything matters at the same time. Every moment you are self-aware is the most precious moment of your life. Every single bit of experience you get to have, from the smell of your coffee this morning to the sound of someone sneezing in the next room is precious. The way the air feels on your skin and the way you write your name on a piece of paper is precious. The way your phone feels in your hand right now, and the way your nose itches is precious. Everything you see, feel, think, and say is an experience passing that will never happen exactly the same way again. It’s already gone. This one moment you are in right now is a freaking miracle and it will never exist ever again. You, in this body, in this moment, having this experience is the most important thing to ever happen.
You are nothing and everything all at once; a cog in the machine and a singular experience at the same time.

Of course, just because you are nothing doesn’t mean you lie down and completely give up on life. And just because you are everything doesn't mean you can spend your whole day just floating around and feeling the air, either! You still need to raise your children, buy your groceries, vote, pay bills, do your dishes, and exercise. But when that crushing weight of responsibility feels like too much, try to conjure up the way you might feel standing in front of the ocean or at the top of a mountain; how you feel exhilarated and alive and at the same time minuscule and inconsequential. You are a piece of stardust come to life, and you will return to the Earth just like every other human that has ever or will ever exist. So, I suggest that while you still have to do the adulting, go to work, cook dinner and feed the dog, you should also remind yourself as you do these things that you are, in fact, everything and nothing all at once. Perhaps then that to-do list you are stressing about won’t seem so paramount that you allow it to destroy your inner contentment.
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