Strangely enough, being humbled is an empowering experience.
When you truly come to see how small, insignificant, and not-the-center-of-the-universe you are, your mind cracks open and your ego retreats like a worm back into its hole. Suddenly, something breathtaking shifts and changes within you, and you go from perceiving life through the limited “me” perspective, to the expanded “we” perspective.
If you want to experience what it’s like to be humbled, read through the following mind-altering crazy facts about life.
15 Crazy Facts About Life (That Will Shift Your Perspective)
I love anything and everything that broadens the mind and reveals just how small, yet infinitely expansive and interconnected we all are. We go about our lives constantly stuck in narrow, self-centric patterns of living often failing to remember just how minuscule and inconsequential our problems are in the “greater scheme of things.” Of course, this is not to say that we don’t suffer or that we shouldn’t try to better our lives; just that life is more enjoyable when we’re aware of the myopic, restricted perception of life the ego creates.
If anything, these absurd, awe-inspiring, crazy facts about life below will show you just how intricate, layered and interrelated all of life is, and the amazing role you play in this huge cosmic dance. These discoveries will also show you just how much you’re truly “unaware” of, and how amazing you truly are:
1. We are made up of around 7 octillion atoms.
That’s 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or seven billion billion billion miniscule particles. (Source.)
2. We are literally stardust.
Your body and nearly everything on earth is composed of the residue formed from the cataclysmic explosion of star matter that occurred 13.7 billion years ago.
3. We are 99% empty space.
We are made up of atoms, and only 1% of an atom consists of protons, neutrons and electrons. The other 99% is empty space. In fact, if you were to take away the empty space of every human being on the planet, we would all fit into a sugar cube! (Source.)
4. Our unconscious (not conscious) mind is running the show.
The unconscious mind has been proven to make decisions before we consciously decide anything. This causes us to wonder, if you and I are not consciously responsible for making our decisions … who or what is? And where exactly are our thoughts and choices coming from? (Source.)
5. You only use 10% of your brain. The other 90% is unconscious.
You are only aware of a tiny percentage of what is going on inside of your mind. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud compared this to an iceberg: only the tip of the iceberg can be seen above water, but below the water looms the rest. Professor of medicine Dr Bruce Lipton compared the mind to a computer: our unconscious mind operates at 40 million bits of data per second, whereas our conscious mind only operates at 40 bits per second. (Source.)
6. Most of the universe is invisible.
27% of the mass of the universe is dark matter, and 68% of the mass of the universe is dark energy. Both dark energy and dark matter are invisible. Only 5% of the universe is normal, observable matter. (Source.)
7. You were once a tiny sperm that triumphed over 250 million other sperms.
“Congratulations! You were the sperm that impregnated your mother!” – said no one ever. But if you think about it … your existence is pretty astounding. You literally won the race of survival and triumphed over millions, even billions of other sperm cells. (Source.)
8. We barely know anything about the ocean.
Only 10% of the ocean has been explored … imagine what shocks, oddities, and wonders the other 90% holds! (Source.)
9. Every 5 seconds …
500,000 chemical reactions have occurred in every single cell of your body; 1.5 people die of starvation; 10,056 pounds of edible food is thrown away in America; the average person in the world makes $0.01; the universe has expanded about 46 miles. (Source.)
10. Time is an unsolvable mystery.
No one can definitively prove when time was created or when it will end. Many people believe that time is a construct of the human mind and is therefore an illusion. (Source.)
11. The universe probably has no end.
Plus, it is expanding rapidly as we speak. NASA scientists confirm that the universe is probably infinite. (Source.)
12. There are most likely thousands of “alien” civilizations out there that we know nothing about.
The odds for intelligent life existing “out there” in space are overwhelming. The universe contains billions of galaxies – and we inhabit just ONE galaxy – therefore, it is extremely likely that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of alien civilizations out there that we know absolutely nothing about. (Source.)
13. According to quantum theory, there is no past, present or future.
Instead, everything – past, present and future – is occurring simultaneously right now. Also, did you know that according to quantum theory, particles can be in two places at once? (Source.)
14. Our consciousness creates reality.
Numerous scientists and physicists alike have demonstrated that we create reality. In other words, the universe only becomes real when we “look” at it. (Source.)
15. We are all clinging to the surface of a giant rock that is hurtling through space around a massive ball of fire … and we’re still alive.
If that isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is.
You’re welcome to share your own humbling and crazy facts about life below! I wish I could include all the fascinating, mind-blowing, and awe-inspiring discoveries about life here … but I would literally be writing this article for the rest of my life (and the rest of time … if that even exists).
I find that when I empty my mind I discover nothing. I suppose that may be both good and bad. From a cultural perspective, I am unimaginative and perhaps lazy, that is only the beginning of my shortcomings. From my lack of perspective, I sense life as it is occurring, The real beauty and ugliness that make up the magic before me. I don’t discover anything, I am noticing it, just where it has always been.