How I make the world feel more expansive

When the world speeds up and I feel stuck, this is one way I start to feel like I have options again

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed flowers more than I have this spring 🌸.

Each day it seems like there’s a new rose bush blooming in one of my neighbor’s front yards. Pops of pinks. Bursts of yellows. Clusters of white roses that feel straight out of an English garden.

Just today I drove past a block of bright magenta blooms I swear weren’t there earlier this week.

Noticing all these flowers has expanded my world with color and beauty and wonder that I would have otherwise never seen (or ignored).

I know, in the grand scheme of things, this is so small. But it’s the perfect example of how the mere act of noticing can expand our worlds.

If you feel like you:

• Have little to no options

• No agency

• Are stuck (or like everything is happening to you)

Then noticing can be a mental rupture.

Noticing as disruption

When your world feels small or stagnant or like you have no options, the act of noticing (something unexpected, beautiful, strange, out of place, etc.) can be a catalyst for cognitive expansion.

It can open a new loop. Spark a connection. Create a crack in the “I already know how this goes” narrative. And maybe even most importantly, it can return your agency.

It makes you wonder:

• What else have I been missing?

• What else could be possible?

• What else is hiding in plain sight?

Noticing isn’t just a nice idea

Lately I’ve been realizing: we are wildly underprepared for moments of disorientation. For volatility. For futures that don’t resemble anything we were taught to expect.

Like what it feels like to fill out your 100th job application while your bank account is shrinking by the minute. Or reading (again) that AI is going to take your job, and quietly freaking out. Or being told you should have millions saved for retirement… when you’re just trying to make rent. Or waking up and realizing the path you planned? Just isn’t there anymore.

Noticing is one way to gently expand a world that feels like it’s closing in.

It’s a low-stakes, everyday practice we can do to build mental and emotional flexibility in a world that’s only getting weirder, faster, and less predictable.

Think of it as the scaffolding we can build now so we can stand steadier when everything shifts. Because it will. It is.

Noticing gets framed as a way to pause and be present, but I think it’s bigger and more powerful than that.

Noticing is practice for the next unknown. It’s preparation; how we slowly reclaim agency.

When the options feel nonexistent, when the path isn’t clear, when your whole life feels like a stuck page… noticing interrupts the panic loop.

It reminds your brain that more exists. And it expands the world — just enough — for possibility to sneak in.

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What have you noticed lately that made your world feel even 2% bigger?