Through my experiences, from the desolate and hopeless dusty valleys of depression to the sweet and lush highs of connection, for me, a large part of mental wellness and health is a journey toward perspective: a healthy perspective of my own to navigate the highs and lows of the journey on my terms; a desire for ownership of my thoughts and, as well as, feelings and actions.
I need to be the one who flips the switch that ignites the electric sparks pushing neurotransmitters around my brain, the initial cognitive energy which has a domino-effect-like influence on how I view and experience the world.
Usually following those thoughts of ownership are feelings of responsibility and a reality that can be sourced from a place of rationality and goodness. At this point, it is possible to see the world as a better place.
When perspective is influenced by things which widen the landscape of our experience in a positive way, feelings of empathy or understanding of other people's perspective can be extremely welcoming and a motivation to connect.
The recent successful 1.5 million kilometre voyage and subsequent high resolution transmissions from the James Webb Space Telescope has, surprisingly to me, widened my perspective in a positive way. Light takes time to travel and when it reaches us we are looking at images of what the universe looked like 100 million years ago.
During constant war, famine and deforestation, is the exploration of the cosmos a very expensive distraction, or a flicker of hope that people’s perceptions can widen and our planet will be revered instead of raped?
When I feel a wave of depression lurk nearby or a trigger to use drugs drifting in the shadows, I try to summon the perception influenced by the, almost impossible to articulate, vastness of what is behind and around our relatively tiny solar system. It is not a magic bullet to fend off the circling wolves of addiction, however, it is one tool among many.
When we have looked 100 million years into the universe, hopefully our collective perspective can be changed to realize a consumption-based economy will grow until there is nothing left, including, as we know right now, planets to replace the earth.
Using football terminology, in a way, could the James Webb Space Telescope expedition be a Hail Mary pass for humanity? Is it a final chance to see our planet, in a true perspective, as an exquisitely beautiful, globe-shaped rock pulsating with life, circling around a 15 million degree ball of plasma which radiates the energy to warm our petite planet?
The new space telescope has found that, around our galaxy, there are 200 billion other galaxies, give or take a few.
With NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) was and is an important partner in construction and calculating the path of the telescope.
Our changing perspective in life can increase our empathy for others and the planet. From a personal mental health experience, I have found a widening perspective is evidence that work around my mental health has progressed, bit by bit, to a better, bigger world.
Perspective is reality and, as the James Webb Space Telescope shows us, that reality is stunning, beautiful and mysterious.
When care is taken around mental health, mine, yours and everybody’s perception can shine like the stars and suns 100 million years away.
Robert Skender is a qathet region freelance writer and health commentator.
