It wasn’t too long ago that I was able to pull myself away from my family and create some time for myself to go camping down the coast with some friends.

I arrived in the evening and was instantly whisked out of my car by my friend to walk to an area of the camp ground with no trees.

On our way, I could tell my nervous system was so switched on to “fight or flight mode” and tense, that I jumped out of my skin twice from the random animal noises coming out of the bushes we past…. Yes this made my friend laugh, but it was definitely a red flag alerting me to the fact that my body was confirming that I really needed this time in nature.

As I was intensely focused on the ground trying not to stumble over branches and rocks in the dark, my friend tugs at my arm and tells me to look up. My jaw dropped as I felt my breath escape with a sigh.

All I could see was the sky alive with glistening stars. The more I stared the deeper the night sky pulled me into its layers and depth of pulsating light. I couldn’t help but sing to my self the opening lines to Coldplay’s song Yellow:

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow……

It really did feel like the stars were shining for me, I could feel my brain light up (pun intended) and my body begin to soften, my breath began to slow down and somehow in that moment, I was reminded of all the beauty and awe that exist in the vastness of this macrocosm that I am a tiny part of. I felt reconnected to nature, to my body, my breath….. I remembered to feel whole again.