Scattered Thoughts on a Blue Pale Dot

Take a deep breath.

Every time I’m in a stressful situation, I heard the words: “Take a deep breath.”

How come we do that? What is it about breathing that can in a moment alter our feelings and state of mind? There’s a lot of research that has gone into this, but I’m more interested in the magic.

I’ve been taking a lot of heavy, long-term decisions lately. When I get really stressed out, I always imagine a close friend sitting next to me and telling me: *“Hassan. Take a deep breath, relax, and think about what really matters.” *Almost always, I somehow get transported to a world of deep thought, an existential maze that only makes sense with every deep breath.

My self inflicted dilemma is that I really love that world. I almost don’t want my problems to be washed away or the melancholy to vanish. Perhaps, that’s why I lovingly drown in sad melodies and music, and why I shed a tear at the happiest ones too. Some artists cry at the beauty and intricacy of art, but I actually see deep expressions of art within emotions, so a bit of the other way around. It’s a curse and a blessing, and I’m learning to see it as more of the latter.

So here I am making existential decisions, and the emotions and melancholy come sweeping around the corner, brushing aside most conventional logic. In that moment, I sit with my feelings and try to experience the sensations fully. It gets me closer to the answer. It gets me closer to what matters. And when I’m *almost *there, with the answer at my fingertips, my love for space, physics, and philosophy comes in, and suddenly **nothing matters **in in the face of our insignificance.

The loving hug of a mother towards her child, with the vastness of the universe in perspective

Did I lose you there? I’m sorry, but I also often lose myself. And when that happens, I simply sit by myself and imagine I’m in the arms of my loving mother, the purest heart of all. Surrounded by the warmth of her unconditional love, I listen to her tell me: “Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay.”