Learning from Overview Moments
Moments of profound perspective shift as educator
I learned this morning about the Overview Effect - “When astronauts first see our planet from space, they go through intense emotions. Seeing our home against the blackness of space is a profound experience that leads to a greater appreciation for Earth and its apparent fragility, and a deep connection to humanity as a whole” (Canadian Space Agency, 2022).
Scientists describe it as nothing short of a ‘profound neurological rupture’ that ‘re-wires’ the brain when an astronaut puts human activity into perspective from space, observing firsthand just how small and fragile our whole existence is when viewed from so very far away.
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But, do you need to travel to space to experience the Overview Effect?
While a shift of this magnitude is possibly something the majority of humans will never fully comprehend, many sources about the Overview Effect suggest even Earth-bound humans can experience profound perspective shifts in their relationship with Earth.
This was the prompt that got me thinking about my own Overview Moments:
“When is the last time you transcended the artificial boundaries in your own mind and felt that you are simply a small, yet breathing, part of this massive organism called Earth?”
For me, Overview Moments have always come while camping and hiking. When I’m perched on a canyon ledge watching clouds lift. When I’m clinging to a pine needled ground, separated from a wild thunderstorm by a thin veneer of tent fabric. When I’m all alone on the edge of the ocean, listening to the symphony of waves and wind crash all around me. These are three exact moments over a 10-year span I recall with vivid clarity as teaching moments when I learned something radical about myself, shifting my perspective on what was important, who I was in relation to on this Earth.
Photo Credit: Wren Anstey
Learning from Overview Moments
Think back on significant experiences of your own …
The view from the side of a mountain trail or from an airplane window…
…The act of creating something small, of imaginative play where you built whole worlds…
…. Times when you watched a bee or a butterfly or an ant, suddenly appreciating how it lives a whole life in the vicinity of a flower garden….
Labelling these moments explicitly as Overview Moments and reflecting on what these moments have taught us, helps us recognize the significance our own profound experiences and what these moments teach us in gaining greater appreciation for Earth and its fragility.
While we may never access the same degree of radical neurological rewiring available to astronauts on viewing Earth from space, but we can build the muscles of learning through our own, smaller Overview Moments. Building the skills of ‘Overview thinking’ equips us to learn vicariously through astronaut moments like Artemis II and the other-worldly, space-scale perspectives they send back to Earth.
If we never practice our own mental flexibility through our own significant Overview Moments - embracing the perspective-taking and intense emotions of suddenly seeing ourselves anew in grand, interconnection with the more-than-human elements that sustain us - then moments like these may pass us by as abstract, unimaginable snapshots from space:
When, in reality, we are seeing with our own eyes an Earthly truth reflected back at us, that we live on a fragile planet with a thin veneer of atmosphere that provides us with everything we need to survive.
Share your own Overview Moments in the comments -
What made the moment so profound?
On reflection, what did that moment teach you? What new perspective did it provide you about your relationship with Earth?
What new Overview Moments could you seek out in the future? How could you purposefully embrace those moments as an opportunity to build the skills of Overview thinking?