The truth is that the universe doesn’t give a flying fuck about you. Someone even wrote a book with that title.
But I’m talking about a term Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks coined: Cosmic Insignificance Therapy.
I had an aha-moment I heard this term because I had my first out-of-body experience when I was six. I heard someone talk about it on a podcast when I was climbing the mystical Mont Ventoux this summer and it occurred to me that is exactly what I experienced— naturally (there are methods you can use to induce this). I’ve been looking for an answer since. Is it a coincidence that someone came up with a term for it?! Or is it just cosmic intelligence?
Cosmic Insignificance Therapy is just a liberating reminder of how irrelevant we are on a cosmic scale.
Your life begins when you understand this transformational truth.
It’ll give you a sense of relief when you realize the definition we put on what it means to “live a meaningful life” is robbing you of your youth.
It’s just another label tied to conventions and expectations set by your parents, society, and trends— all meaningless man-made stuff that has zero significance in the wholesome intelligent design of the universe.
Simple labels are a blessing for our primal brains but to our minds, a savage curse.
Once free of this, you learn to do only what YOU think is meaningful to YOU.
Free from unrealistic standards. Free from other people’s opinions. Free from outcomes. Free to live life the way you want without judgment.
Cosmic Insignificance Therapy teaches you to go inwards and outwards simultaneously.
Cosmic Insignificance Therapy puts you in your place. It forces us to realize how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.
Just like the OG-super nova when the universe began, you are suddenly blasted with the staggering awareness of the infinite mystery of the universe.
It paradoxically pulls us inwards while simultaneously forcing us to be more focused and mindful of our present life.
Whew— that was overwhelming just to write.
Cosmic Insignificance Therapy is the secret to living unapologetically.
Experiencing this frees us from preconceived chains and most importantly, we realize that EVERYONE is going through their own journey. Knowing this:
- Frees you from the judgment of yourself and others
- Stops you from judging others.
The Downside Of Living Unapologetically.
Since I experienced this at a very young age, I lived my entire life not caring about what anyone thinks of me because I never judged anyone else nor cared how anyone lived their life because I was happy with my own life.
Create your own meaning and stay in your lane.
Unfortunately, 99% of the population will judge you if you live unapologetically (because they haven’t experienced this life-changing empirical breakthrough). Because we all begin our lives young and dumb, it probably came off as arrogant in my high school years, and insensitive throughout my 20s. It creates drama and distance from people with narrower perspectives because our brains are trained to see “different” as “danger”.
People who don’t understand the concept of “staying in your lane” and “living with zero judgment” will hate you or be intimidated by you but they’re not your responsibility— they are going through their own journey.
No one is perfect. I’m a work in progress in hindsight, it was selfish of me to expect everyone to see the world as I did. I didn’t judge anyone and expected that from everyone else but this only forced me to learn how to get “hard”.
Learn To Stay In Your Lane
You may come off as cold and unrelatable to those who don’t know you but know it’s also unfair for them to judge you when you don’t judge anyone else.
Don’t get distracted.
Stay in your lane.
I learned to emotionally separate myself from other people’s opinions and constant judgment by building grit and resilience through fitness while living on the edge of my comfort zone. It’s a life-long journey,
But imagine how different the world would be if everyone experienced Cosmic Insignificance Therapy early on?!
7 Reasons Why You Need To Experience Cosmic Insignificance Therapy
- Clarity: You become free from expectations, which are just distractions.
- Foresight: You level up quicker because you make better decisions.
- Intuition: You make better decisions because you are extremely aware of the world around you.
- Hindsight: You learn from everyone else’s mistakes.
- Presence: You don’t get worked up over failures and embarrassing moments because you know that’s a tiny blimp in time that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. You simply tell yourself: “get over it” or “nothing lasts forever”.
- Awareness: When you focus on the little things, you put yourself first which means you are setting the foundations for success— for yourself AND everyone around you.
- Focus: You stay in your lane because you have no reason to judge anyone else. You’re happy with your life.
It’s a great way to live! 🤞🏼
Cosmic Insignificance Therapy teaches you to create your own meanings.
When you realize how irrelevant you actually are, it forces you to shift perspectives.
Suddenly the promotion, the big house, and the new purse don’t seem important anymore. Your priorities have changed.
You begin to see joy and fulfillment in the previously mundane. You soon find yourself chasing the little things— simple moments that are easily achievable or experienced:
- the first snowfall of the year
- the cup of coffee in the morning
- the random hug from your partner
- the walks you take together after dinner
- the Sunday social bike rides with friends
- the nutritious meals you cook for your family
- the moments you spend sitting in silence with yourself
- the billions of pictures of sunrises and sunsets on your phone
Once you realize it’s these precious moments that are going to compound into the most joy in your life, that’s when expectations are released. You stop caring what anyone thinks of you. When that self-induced stress melts away, you are suddenly free to take more risks, chase your dreams, and live your best life.
7 Ways To Expand your Mind
Not gonna lie, I still get shiny-object syndrome but we can train ourselves to switch back to reality by reminding ourselves of our insignificance. It gets easier over time.
We’re born thinking that we are the center of our universe because that’s all we know from our extremely limited experiences. Some of us never get out of our tiny bubbles but it’s never too late to start.
Here is how to expand your mind:
- Be open-minded.
- Talk to people with opposing views.
- Stay curious and never stop learning.
- Stop thinking the world revolves around you.
- Travel as much as you can. Even move somewhere.
- Work in different coffee shops. New environments shift perspectives.
- Protect your energy. Limit time with energy vampires and people who don’t have a growth mindset.
Try practicing these daily and soon you’ll soon realize your bittersweet irrelevance in the grand scheme of things.
It will be hard at first but it will set you free to live unapologetically: free from judgment and unrealistic dreams that equate to mere nothing but debt, trash, trauma, and burnout.
How To Induce Cosmic Significance Therapy
This goal is to zoom out and learn to look at the bigger picture.
There is plenty of evidence that supports the effectiveness of visualization, and I use it almost every day to get closer to my goals. Your brain is constantly growing as it learns new things since it can’t tell what is physically happening or just a part of your imagination— let’s take advantage of this neuroplasticity!
The following is what happened in my out-of-body experience but we will use visualization to imitate it:
- Lay down comfortably.
- Take a few deep breaths to bring you to the present: inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds. Repeat 5 times (or as many as you need). Imagine the exhales as stress leaving your body and inhales as bright white energy flows through your body.
- Imagine yourself floating out of your body. You see yourself laying there.
- Now visualize the top of your house.
- You are now floating over your neighborhood as you continue to go further and further.
- You see your city, the country. Try to image the clouds. Take your time. What smells and sensations do you feel?
- You are floating above the earth. Visualize the oceans and continents.
- Continue expanding outwards into space as the earth gets smaller and smaller.
- Suddenly you are floating in space and looking down into the Milky Way. Take some time to see the stars and galaxies around you.
- You can continue to go as far out as you want. Make sure to explore the space around you in awe and curiosity. Don’t be scared but stay open and relaxed.
- Tell yourself, “wow, I am so tiny and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.”
- When you are ready, float back into your body.
- Wiggle your toes. Open your eyes. Come back to the present.
Practice this often with the other methods listed above to expand your mind. You are taking advantage of neuroplasticity to rewire a new perspective into your brain and this requires repetition and consistency.
The more you repeat these actions, the stronger the imprint becomes and your brain will respond as if it’s actually happening.
The Take-Away
- The magic of personal development is that physically you’re going inwards, but metaphysically, you are expanding outwards.
- As your perception of the world grows, paradoxically, you feel more insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
- Cosmic Insignificance Therapy teaches you to go inwards and outwards at the same time.
- Cosmic Insignificance Therapy is just a liberating reminder of how irrelevant we are on a cosmic scale.
- Cosmic Insignificance Therapy is the secret to living unapologetically.
- Living unapologetically has its drawbacks to people who have never experienced Cosmic Insignificance Therapy.
