Turning the lens to Planet Self
Few years ago ( 2019), I watched a video called the OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.
Here is a video description from Vimeo
The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
When I watched it for the first time, I am not quite sure of the impact and yet it stayed with me.
Few months later, when I was grappling with the purpose of my life, the coach in one the coaching session asked me to step into my future self and look back at my current self. It was a profound and surreal feeling — a moment of awe, a feeling of seeing myself in a mirror. In front of my eyes, I could vividly see my vulnerabilities, my strength, my weakness, the path I will be taking to reach my purpose. The visuals were dancing in front of me and there was an uncanny sense of understanding the “bigger picture”
My mind immediately went to the video clip. I felt as if I have experienced something like those astronauts when they turned around the camera to the planet earth and, here, I have turned the camera to the planet self.
Since then, I have been revisiting the video quite often and each time I learn something new.
However, the biggest takeaway for me has been whenever I face new challenges, new disruptions in my life, it is an invitation to pause, turn the camera to myself, and ask “Who am I”? What am I here for? What is my true calling? And paying attention to what I am seeing, what I am experiencing and what I am doing or not doing with that experience?
Today, I leave you with an invitation to consider turning the camera lens towards planet self and ask yourself what do I need to do within myself in order to be able to show up in the world ?
When you turned the camera lens towards planet self, what is that you saw, you sense in your current context ?
References:
Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies — Katrin Kaufer and Otto Scharmer
