The Awesomeness of Awe

by Nina

“By becoming less attuned to ourselves and more attuned to the rest of the world, awe helps us re-contextualize ourselves, said Paul Piff, an associate professor of psychological science at the University of California at Irvine. ‘It helps make you feel like there’s more going on in the world than just you. And it gives you that sense of being a part of something much bigger than yourself,’ he said. —Richard Sima, Washington Post

I read a really interesting article on awe in the Washington Post on Friday Why it is awesome that your brain can experience awe. According the article, studies have shown that experiencing more awe associated with living healthier and more meaningful lives. And other studies have shown that having more positive experiences of awe can:

• Increase feelings of well-being, life satisfaction and sense of meaning.
• Feel lowered levels of daily stress and have lower levels of inflammatory cytokines.
• Make us more curious, creative, and compassionate.
• Feel more connected with others and identify ourselves with more universal categories such as “a person” or “inhabitant of earth,” rather than individualistic, limited categories.
• Make us behave more prosocially, becoming more likely to help out, donate more money, and volunteer more time for strangers.

And according to Paul Piff above, feelings of awe can bring what sounds to me like a yogic experience of union with the all-encompassing universal consciousness (see my post Finding the Eternal for information about non-dual yoga).

I personally have found the practice of cultivating awe very helpful during the past few years and I know my husband has, too. I didn’t know about all the benefits listed above; I just knew it was uplifting and calming to take a kind of “moment of awe” break from both the mundane aspects of work and chores as well as from thinking about all the problems in my circle as well as around the world.

My husband and I have been raising Monarch butterflies partly for this reason. If you want to experience awe along with us, you can watch this video, where we, along with our neighbors, witness a Monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. (If you are reading this post in your email, click on the post title to play the video on the blog itself.)

We’ve also been intentionally walking to elevated spots in our neighborhood where we can get a good view of the San Francisco Bay, Mount Tamalpais, and the Golden Gate, which is directly west of Berkeley. I never fail to find those expansive views truly awesome and my mind feels like it opens up into majesty I’m witnessing. And we’ve also gone on nature adventures on Mount Tamaplais, out in Point Reyes, and on the Monterey Peninsula. Being in the redwoods or on the beach are also experiences that being me many moments of awe, whether I’m noticing something large or small.

I do use yoga techniques to enhance my feelings of awe. When I’m at the beach, for example, I intentionally close my eyes and meditate on the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. And when I’m looking at something small and interesting, I use the focusing techniques I’ve been developing with my concentration meditation practice, letting go any thoughts of the past or future that creep into my mind and returning my attention to the thing in front of me that I’m really looking at and appreciating. (It’s your witness mind that tells you when your mind has wandered away from the object that’s creating your feelings of awe.) When we were tide pooling in Asilomar last weekend, we spent a lot of time watching tiny crabs move around in their small but complex environments.

In the article, the author and Paul Piff have lots of suggestions for how we can experience awe but they typically, like the ones I mentioned above, involve going outside. But what can you do if you’re in the house and can’t go out in nature?

Well, I think you can experience a feeling of awe when you’re practicing yoga poses. If you approach your asana practice as a mindfulness practice and focus your awareness on one or more of your senses, either internal ones (interoception, proprioception, and vestibular system) or external ones (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste), you may experience feelings of awe at the way our bodies evolved to interact with both our inner and outer environments. I know I do.

Simply using your witness mind to notice, without judgment, the sensory input coming into your brain as you move through your poses can make a basic asana practice an “awesome” experience. See my post Coming to Your Senses in Yoga Poses for information about how to practice this way.

 

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