There’s one practice that has definitely changed my life in the midst of chaos.

When I’m not able to find inspiration or feel safe, I go outdoors and look up.

As soon as we go out and look up at the immensity we are part of, we can gain security back and feel calm. We remember how we are part of the universe, which is a miracle. We remember that it is a gift to be on this planet, at this exact time, living this exact life, which is ours.

This means we are able to feel certainty, clarity, and security, based on the miracle of being here.

How easy and human it is to forget, to get lost in the story of our isolation, in the routine of the “should” and “shouldn’t,” and to forget that each second we’re standing, living, and existing on a planet that is part of the universe.

It is easy to forget the miracle that each moment has and the certainty of knowing that everything is okay and in perfect order, beyond what our minds can understand.

Here are three of the greatest benefits and reminders that looking up to the sky can bring us as a doorway toward peace and healing:

Redefining “success.”

What is “victory,” anyway? When we connect this way with god, with what we consider as sacred, infinite, pure, and real security, victory and success become a completely different story than the one we’ve adopted.

Using gratitude as a doorway to feeling safe.

If someone asked us to reflect on the things that make us feel safe, then we’d get to the practice of gratitude.

We will notice that when we’re in a state of gratitude, when we give thanks for everything we’ve lived—the good and the bad—we give value to life and appreciate whatever happens. Also, to acknowledge the worth of every experience, no matter what it is, will always make us feel safe.

Gratitude allows us to know without a doubt that everything is and has been for our greatest good. That everything’s alright in our life and that we are safe.

This certainty we get to feel toward existence—however it comes, however it will be, by giving thanks for situations that happen in our life—helps us see the lessons.

This is why gratitude brings the gift of security and certainty. Giving thanks instantly gives us access to the lesson and blessing that lurk in each encounter, fall, illness, event, place, and so on.

I believe a lot of times that life calls us toward security through illnesses, challenges, relationships, and endings.

There are many ways in which we are invited to connect with this security and inner safety. Sometimes, it feels intense and forced, sometimes it is more subtle, other times it happens in just one second.

It happens when there’s no option but to find certainty, the lesson, the faith to fully surrender and be open to understand, to let go, and put the situation or our lives in hands of what is greater than us.

It is in that moment when we have access to feel safe and protected. Looking up can instantly put us in that humble and surrendered state.

Because I believe that the feeling of being safe is not related to our minds at all—it is related to a feeling, which can only come from our being, our center, our heart; from god.

So the next time we experience fear, uncertainty, or an overwhelming experience, let us look up and access that gratitude.

Give thanks to the situation.

The next time we feel stuck as if life is not moving or changing, as if there’s nothing new in a relationship or in any other area of our lives, let us go to gratitude.

Complete this sentence as a practice to learning from our experiences.

“Thank you for……..(the challenging situation/person) because it has helped/taught/allowed me to……..”

This way, we will instantly acknowledge the “why”—what has this situation brought me here for. And if we go deeper, we might notice that we are the ones who called for this situation in order to get us to a much more meaningful “being safe” feeling.

For there is no way to know and appreciate security and balance, if we don’t know its opposite: uncertainty and chaos.

Live it.

If we are experiencing a confusing stage in our lives, let’s live it fully.

Breathe it. Go into it.

Let’s love ourselves in the midst of chaos. Let’s love ourselves when we’re being chaotic.

Because feeling love toward our own chaos means finding unconditional love for ourselves. And when we finally go through it, we will have developed a compassionate love toward others and the human chaos in general.

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