Sometimes I go all panicky thinking about how big the world is.

[TormundGiantsbabe]

Looking at a globe with ds, pointing out where stuff is and I look at the USA or Asia or Africa and start thinking about who lives on this blank bit here or there. Places that are too small or unimportant to fit on general maps. How many people are living there, what are they doing right now? Do they ever wonder about my little unimportant part of the map? So many people that I will never meet or know about it. Leading to the existential crisis of what the point? Where does the universe end? Where does it begin? What's outside it? Why, just why???? it's all a bit much for a Sunday afternoon.

As a child I used to lie awake at night worrying about stuff like this. Where does the universe end? If it ends what's on the other side? If it doesn't end?How CAN something go on forever?

I've done this all my life. Freaked myself out about all of this stuff. I think it's just an anxiety thing with me. I don't like it so I can stop it from taking over my mind now.

It's not that big.

You can travel anywhere and bump into someone you know.

You need to remember six degrees of separation (or Kevin Bacon) - namely we are all connected to everyone else on earth by six connections.

That will help you bring the scale down a bit.

The internet is supposed to bring us all closer together, rather than scare us all apart,

Good luck.

Me too! I think about how small we are in terms of other planets and galaxies and what other life there is somewhere... Because surely there will be! Have they evolved differently? What are THEIR worries? Do they have a mumsnet equivalent Also how old the Earth is and what a short time we've been here. And the depth of the seas.. It's all so huge and overwhelming compared to thinking about whats for tea tonight.

Oh how this resonates with me! I have an existential crisis over stuff like this, particularly when I think about the bottom of the ocean.

I've never met anyone who understands, so probably we are the strange ones!!

And the depth of the seas.. It's all so huge and overwhelming

And that we know more about the surface of the moon ( or is it Mars?) than we do about the depths of the ocean. That the universe is expanding and what if it expands just too fast and snaps back, what happens then? and suppose there's a black hole near earth, will we get swallowed up and what will THAT feel like?

So glad it's not just me who has existential panics like that.

YABU. It's tiny!

The size of the world doesn't scare me. The depths of the ocean does. It's so... Vast. And deep.

We can get anywhere on land, but underwater? Shit man, there's things down there that I bet nobody has a clue about.

I get like that too. Especially if flying over remote places when it's clear and you can see little buildings and tracks, and I know I will never know those people...

This probably won't help, but it's amazing...

The Scale of the Universe

I sometimes get a bit freaked ouy by planes really high up in the sky. There are 100 people up there travelling at God knows what speed and how high up! It feels a bit unreal. Who are they and where are they going?

I think of the world as tiny but I'm with you on the whole where does the universe begin and end and what is beyond it etc - this is the one reason I would LOVE to be cryogenically frozen then hopefully when I was brought back in thousands of years they may know some of the answers!

I can't grasp the concept of infinity at all.

Nothing can go on forever. It's impossible.

(I know it's not but my brain cannot get to grips with anything else).

Poodles YY and a plane doesn't look like it should be able to fly, does it? And when you're in one, the ARGHHH THERE IS NOTHING BELOW MY FEET feeling!

I get this feeling too, sometimes the universe and oceans are so vast I almost burst into tears

I know what you mean, especially about the earth in relation to the rest of the universe, just thinking about it makes my brain hurt.

I sometimes find it comforting though. If I'm really worried about something, say a job interview, I picture someone looking at a map of the world (or even just our country or city) from above and how I will just be an insignificant teeny tiny speck amongst all the other tiny specks who are all going about their business, cleaning the bath, sleeping, going to work, worrying about their own things, and the thing I'm worrying about feels slightly less worrying in the grand scheme of things.

I get this too. Particularly when flying - everything is so small underneath you - people, houses, cars, villages, towns, fields, mountains, oceans - yet every one of these things is so vast and complex with a million stories.

I also can't get my head around space! It either goes on forever, in which case what the fuck does forever look like? But if there is nothing, how the hell can anything be nothing?

Generally though I just find it quite reassuring. We are all but specs of little consequence really.

Same here. I'm forever browsing Google earth and dipping into somewhere unknown.

once I love that clip. I showed the dc's a while ago and they went all peculiar .

Oh yes I'm addicted to Google Earth. Think I use it as compensation for not being able to afford to actually travel anywhere. Love seeing everything from above though, I even spent a good hour just looking at the back gardens on our street

I know exactly what you mean. I use this book:

www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Whale-Biggest-Thing-There/dp/144512890X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464539345&sr=8-1&keywords=is+a+blue+whale+the+biggest+thing+there+is

to give primary children a sense of the enormity of space. It's fabulous, but the first time I read it, it blew my mind completely, I actually felt quite dizzy getting my head round how tiny the earth is.

Very good for putting minor worries into perspective!

I nearly panicked at Waterloo once, when I thought of all those there, with so many different backgrounds and experiences and links to different people. It just seemed utterly overwhelming. I have often been through Waterloo at rush hour, not to mention many airports, so I don't know why I felt like that. The world's never been quite the same since.