You are a star and so am I. We are all stars.
Or more accurately, we are all made from the same biomolecular material as the shelter of stars that luminously cover the night sky: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur.
For me, sometimes, knowledge like this can be a tool to help shift perspective when everyday life is a barely liftable weight and coping skills are on an extended vacation.
Mental health conditions are essentially issues of impairment in the neural networks in our complex brains, a brain that we really barely understand but influences everything we experience. For certain, it is not as easy as just shifting perspective.
Health professionals and researchers believe that most mental illness is based in the interaction between three main causes: physical, environmental or social causes. Sexual abuse or war trauma, extreme social isolation, or genetic makeup predisposing anyone to substance abuse are examples of causes of mental illness. Illness can happen to anyone: rich, poor or in-between.
With that in mind, the fact that we are not just existing in this universe, but we are of the universe can sometimes, somehow and someway, make some stressful situations more bearable. Knowing that I’m made from the same biomolecular “stuff” as everything from the great whales breaching in the ocean to a cluster of stars billions of light years away helps me reach a better perspective at times.
When I think the atoms in our bodies were created from generations of stars more than 4.5 billion years ago, I usually feel less intense or obsessive about where I’ve misplaced my iPhone or how gas prices are up, again.
From a global perspective, realizing humanity has 96.7 per cent of the same biomaterials as everything in the universe makes the many devastating wars fought over real estate, nationalism and religion seem particularly absurd and gratuitous. We are, actually, all made from the same basic ingredients.
Gaining some perspective in life has to be an action we initiate and can take many different forms depending on our situation and who we are. When unable to initiate changes to gain better perspective by oneself, mental-health professionals have many tools in their tool belts to help fix us. People can recover from and live very successfully with mental illness.
For some people, volunteering can give a sense or purpose and inspire a new perspective or mental outlook. Serving others has the fortunate by-product of social contact, an essential ingredient for mental health. Being a volunteer in the community qualifies you as the other definition of star.
“We Are All Made of Stars,” is not just a great song from early in this century by my favourite vegan singer/songwriter, Moby, it is an actual fact, as well.
You probably will not have to invest in a generic baseball cap and big dark sunglasses to avoid the paparazzi, but there is some solace knowing that, no matter what happens in life, you are a star.
Robert Skender is a Powell River freelance writer and health commentator.
