Many Greek philosophers - Epitect, Plato, Aristotle ... - share the idea that human consciousness is only a fragment of a greater intelligence that guides the universe. Writer Jules Evans relates that they attempted to cultivate their "cosmic consciousness" by making imaginary journeys into the cosmos with a visualization technique called "vision from above."
Do you want to do it with them? Imagine that you start to ascend into space. You are looking down and you see your street; then, as you soar, you see your city, your country, and finally you see the entire planet from space.
This "flight" helped our sages to expand their minds, to distance themselves from their particular tribal and personal ties, to be more cosmopolitan, citizens of the universe. Contemplating the universe was a form of therapy for the ancient philosophers. And certainly, the cosmic perspective calms our anxious egos and fills us with wonder. Put things in their place!
"View from above" is what psychologists nowadays call "distancing" or "minimizing." When we "make a mountain of something" it is because we are anxious: we focus so much on our problems that any obstacle seems enormous. With Heraclitus we can practice the opposite: take distance so that the problems recover a dimension more in line with reality. It does not matter if we believe in God or not, this journey through the cosmos, which we can do mentally or by immersing ourselves in a NASA documentary, can help us calm down and enjoy the amazement that realizing that being alive on this extraordinary planet is something that we cannot stop celebrating and admiring.