Words
An Immense World – Understanding Umwelt – A Skill for Expanding Perception-
- I recently came across a word that instantly deepened my understanding of how important it is to recognise that we all experience the world differently. The word is Umwelt. I discovered it while reading An Immense World by Ed Yong, a book that beautifully explores how all forms of life, human and non-human, perceive the world in vastly different ways.
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- Yong describes how every being experiences only a small fraction of reality, shaped by their unique sensory abilities. He writes, “Each form of life is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world” (p. 5). Umwelt is the term for this perceptual world—the way we interpret and interact with reality based on our senses and internal stories we believe.
Why Understanding Umwelt is a Powerful Skill
- We often assume that others perceive the world as we do, but Umwelt reminds us that our attention is often shaped by the stories we believe. Our personal narratives filter what we notice and how we interpret situations.
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I saw this firsthand during a workshop I led, where I asked participants to walk around the neighbourhood and to notice what got their attention. The results were fascinating—everyone noticed something different. One person was drawn to a dandelion and felt it reflected her loneliness, a sense of isolation from which she felt she had nothing to contribute. But when others shared their perspectives on the dandelion that they are healing plants, restoring nutrient-depleted soil—she was able to recognise that her story “I have nothing to contribute” was determining how she interpreted the world around her. What she once saw as a symbol of emptiness became a symbol of resilience and contribution at which point she started reconfiguring her story.
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This is the power of Umwelt. The stories we tell ourselves shape what we see, and in turn, what we see shapes our reality.
- Expanding Your Umwelt – A Practical Skill
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Understanding Umwelt is more than an interesting concept—it’s a skill that can expand perception, deepen empathy, and improve our relationship with ourselves and others. If we recognise that everyone experiences a different slice of reality, we open ourselves to new perspectives.
- Try This:
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Be curious. When someone shares their view, instead of reacting, ask yourself:
What might their Umwelt be?
- Use your imagination. Try to step into another’s world. What might the other be noticing that you’re not?
- Challenge your own stories. If something feels limiting, ask yourself:
Is this the only way to see this? What else could be true?
- Ed Yong reminds us, “All we know is not all there is to know” (p. 6). Imagine the compassion and relatedness we could cultivate if we practiced seeing through another’s Umwelt.
Why Understanding Umwelt is a Powerful Skill
- We often assume that others perceive the world as we do, but Umwelt reminds us that our attention is often shaped by the stories we believe. Our personal narratives filter what we notice and how we interpret situations.
- Dr Lori Pye, President of the VIRIDIS Graduate Institute of Ecological Psychology.
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- “Humans are ecological lifeforms; the same ecological processes that affect complex narratives and behaviours of Earth affect the complexity of human narratives and behaviour…
- Interrelated problems stem from human narratives and their practices – from our psychology.”
- What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming — Per Espen Stokness — A Guide to Transforming Our Climate Story
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I highly recommend Per Espen Stoknes’ book What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming. This is not just another book about climate change – to me this is a book about personal transformation.
He is a scientific journalist. His approach is pragmatic and easy to read. Stoknes encourages us to engage with our psychology – ecologically. He suggests we hone our awareness and recognise we are ecological beings that impact and are impacted by the micro and macro environments within and around us.
The stories we tell and believe shape our reality. Stoknes explains that peer behaviour is one of the strongest predictors of our environmental attitudes. We allow the narratives of our community shape us. The good news is we can change these stories, shift the focus toward renewal, creativity, and collective well-being.
He challenges us: What is your story of where we ought to go? We must define, repeat, and share our visions for a thriving world. Just as science is a discipline, so is storytelling—it can inspire or limit. Becoming aware of the narratives that shape our world is an essential first step in transforming it. Stoknes says the place to start is “to become aware of the underlying storyline in whatever is being said…. We all reinterpret the facts in light of a favourite story that sustains our understanding of ourselves…” (Page 149).
His final section, Being, is a practical guide for shifting our awareness, reclaiming and reconfiguring our stories. Conventional psychology often ignores the role of the environment in our emotions and mental states. But what if we saw ourselves not as isolated minds, but as beings related through breath, air, and the living world? He offers a profound realisation: ‘Our own life-breath is a small wind that interacts with the large wind around us.’ (Page 213)
Did you know the word psyche stems from the Greek psukhe, meaning “breath, life, soul”? Ology means “to give an account of.” Thus, psychology is giving an account of our life-breath—not just the study of the mind, but our deep inter-relationships with where the breath comes from and where it goes. As Stoknes says, “The air is not an object…we are intimately connected to the air and others through our breathing… (Page 203)
Try This:
- Pause and notice your breath. Close your eyes and feel air moving across your skin, hair, and face. Feel air entering your lungs. This air has been carried by winds around the entire earth – through skies, forests, oceans, mountaintops and soil. Within every breath, you inhale molecules of oxygen transpired by trees in the street and phytoplankton in the oceans. Every breath contains elements of a vast connection to all life. Breath is life. The air is not an object. Bring your focused awareness to your breath. With each inhale and exhale, recognise that your breath is your life.
- Observe how breath connects you to the world. As you walk around, breathe, sense how the air moves—across your skin, through the trees, between people. Let this awareness open you to the wonder of being part of something vast and alive.
Pay attention to stories. When you hear a narrative about climate change—whether full of possibilities or despairing—ask: What story is being told here? Is it limiting, or does it inspire action? Rewrite the story you find is self-limiting – remembering that your own stories circulate in the environment and impact those around you. Are your stories helping to create the life you want to live? This book is more than a read—it’s a mindset shift. If we change our stories, we change our future.