A daily dose of awe
Mountains in the Himalayas covered in snow
The power of awe
Years ago I walked the 10 day Jomsom Muktinath route in the Himalayas. Aside from a couple of days bravely trying to keep up with a Swiss mountaineer, I walked alone. At the time there were few people on the route. Some fellow trekkers, Nepalese villagers, Tibetan traders and a few sadhus, wandering Hindu holy men making the trek to the pilgrimage site of Muktinath (3800m). In hindsight walking alone was not the safest of activities, but it was spectacular and presented me one of life's rarest gifts - a perfect moment.
It was a beautiful spring day and I'd been hiking for a few hours when I entered a vast, barren valley. Rocky cliffs towered on either side of the valley and snowy peak loomed in the distance. I hadn't seen another soul for hours and have no memory of sound, only of light and shadow, eerie beauty, space, and awe. That intangible but powerful sense of feeling incredibly small, humbled and in awe of the beauty of this pale blue dot we all live and depend on.
Awe - an extraordinary mind expanding, perspective giving, gratitude adding, ego shattering experience that often eludes our everyday treadmill existence. Awe brings a range of benefits for our well-being including increased creativity and life satisfaction. And, as I experienced in my perfect moment in the Himalayas, feelings of interconnectedness and an expanded sense of time.
Writer and philosopher Frank White called this sense of wonder at the realisation that everything on earth is part of one cohesive system, the 'Overview Effect'. In the documentary Overview, NASA astronaut Nicole Stott mentions the sense of interconnectedness and wonder she felt when she first saw Earth from space.
"Awe' I think is one of those words that you have a better understanding of once you see it..."
Another astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell said seeing Earth from space develops an instant global consciousness…
"Suddenly from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realise this is Earth ... home.”
Mitchell also said:
"From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’”
Finding awe in the everyday
“Awe is not a silly, nice-to-have frippery; it’s not a distraction from more important events. It is not something that should rightly be dispensed-of by more serious minds. This is a need we hold within us, an artefact of our survival. It’s something that we should re-train in ourselves, so that we can pass it on.” Katherine May
In her beautiful post on why awe matters, Katherine May explores ‘small awe’ or ‘enchantment; and ways to rediscover it.
These include fostering curiosity, going on adventures and listening to other people’s wonder. Other than travel and adventures, my go to favourites for a daily dose of awe are:
a walk in the forest or on a beach, headphones off and ears and eyes on
gazing at the night sky
listening to trees in the wind or to stories told
visiting art galleries and museums.
However, if you’re desk bound, there are some amazing resources online:
At work I'm loving the Chrome extension Earth View. Every time I open a tab up pops a jaw dropping satellite image from Google Earth.
The Overview Institute website, which has links to 'Overview' the documentary along with a virtual reality program that allows you to experience the overview effect.
Visiting art galleries and museums; check out Mus3ums, a site that allows you to explore art in 3D in galleries and museums around the world.
Read more about awe
“Our crises of self-focus, loneliness and cynicism are in many ways crises of individualism. Today’s mindfulness movement, however well-intended, may only further entrench an individualistic view of our mental and social life, and perhaps unwittingly perpetuate these crises. It is time for a new mental state to cultivate in our 21st-century lives, one oriented outward toward the world, that recognizes our fundamental interdependence, and that reminds us of the good humans can do. It is readily found in cultivating experiences of everyday awe.” Dacher Keltner from the Guardian Here’s why you need to be cultivating awe in your life
The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, by Dacher Keltner