Be amazed.
Do so early and often. It’s critical to unlocking a deeper understanding and appreciation of life.
As a meditation teacher recently told me: ‘look to astronomy, look to the stars.’ By this, they were pointing to something I had long been aware of.
Wonder
This universe we live in, this planet we live on and all the diversity of nature there is to experience is incredible. Add to that the near infinite human culture available to read, listen to and talk about, and the amazing sports, games and activities that we humans have invented. We should be deeply grateful. More than that, we should be amazed. Early and often.
Jump out of planes. Gaze at the stars. Swim with wild dolphins. Listen to music. Reach for the lasers. Laugh with friends. Hug family. Consider the scale of the universe. Watch the garden snail move its eye. Talk about neurology. Revel in the extremes and the mundane alike.
And be amazed.
It’s not about collecting humble-brag-worthy experiences. Instead, this is the process of deeply connecting with the world around you and in doing so allowing a sense of awe and wonder wash over you, fill you up, pour through you. It’s an important source of joy in life. And life is here to be enjoyed.
More. Life is incredible enough to merit a profound appreciation of that vast, all encompassing thing that enables life – existence.
(Here I mean existence in its broadest sense. If you’re a person of faith, this would go further to include your relationship with God. If not, existence itself is vast and mind boggling enough to still merit a sense of awe and gratitude that can verge on and spill over into the reverent.)
Actively engaging with our experiences of nature, of culture, of the richness of existence, allows us to develop a sense of something far greater.
This sense of something greater is an enhanced direct experience of how incredible existence is. This is not something that can be explained or reasoned, only experienced. What we can explain, however, are the directions to help others look for and experience this for themselves.
Embrace
I have enjoyed the act of immersing myself in this profound awe for many years, pausing early and often since childhood to recognise and bask in how amazing it all is, the vast and the minute alike. The experiences often don’t last long, minutes or seconds few. But they add up, and their effect on the way we view the world is lasting.
Yet many people go the opposite way, and many have told me they don’t like to dwell on the size of the galaxy or the universe, that at the first moment of feeling overwhelmed by the hugeness of the cosmos and the smallness of us within it they recoil.
Whatever form that fear takes, I say sit with it. Don’t shy away. Allow it to develop a sense of cosmic vertigo – a clumsy term, but near enough. Channel that vertigo into a sense of wonder and marvel. Even if it comes mixed with a sense of fear or overwhelm. Think of it as standing on a cliff edge looking out at the sea spanning beyond the horizon, or on a summit seeing the mountain range extend beyond you into the blue. Or any other reminder that nature is vast, dread, beautiful and humbling all at once.
(Admiring, by Kathrin & Stefan Marks, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Yes, we’re small. And the context we exist in is vast and incredible. But we’re incredible, too. We are utterly distinct from the matter we see around us – mountains, planets, stars and all – in one fundamental way.
We are conscious.
Contained within this tiny physical space of roughly half a melon is an object that emerged from the natural processes of the universe to allow us to think.
So don’t be afraid of the sense of scale around us. We’re still important, we still have our place. We are within and part of this incredible thing we call existence. Take opportunities to marvel at that early and often (and yes, I did just use ‘early and often’ a third time – using it as I intend it to be used, because this is important).
Inspire
If you need some cosmic inspiration, a great place to start would be the Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition – where amateur folk with camera and tripod, and not-so-amateur folk with garden observatories, gaze up and capture incredibly creative images of our cosmic back yard.
However, if this all leaves you a bit geeked out, find your own reasons for awe. Like all things, being amazed is something that can be learned.
“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.”
Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (1962) [taken from Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend (2020)]
Measure
Awe is scientific. In fact, it is formally studied and even measured on its own scale. Abraham Maslow investigated it in the 1950’s and ’60’s and others since, like Scott Kaufman, have picked up the trail.
Kaufman has in fact designed a set of tests to measure your own experiences on the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S), freely available to complete for yourself in a few minutes here. Self reflection, structured through these tests, may help you better connect with your own experiences.
The plot thickens.
Where I was describing my own experiences of awe as contributing to a lasting connection with the world around us and our life within it, Maslow, Kaufman and others have formalised this with research.
Through their studies, their studies, decades apart, they found a strong correlation between people who had experienced profound awe and those who were better able to self-actualise – who could find their calling and pursue it well.
(A fascinating one for another day. Tangent pending on self-actualisation: pursuit of one’s calling.)
Bucket list
This recognition of awe and its importance is something I’ve been doing instinctively as a child. It’s deepened a sense of how rare this all how, how lucky we all are to be alive and able to experience it, and how important it is to consciously appreciate this gift while we can.
And yet, many people may not lean towards this. I recognise that absolutely without judgement – this is not an exercise in gloating about a love of awe but rather sharing it.
In fact, there is one special experience I want to share with you all that is truly awesome. As above, I don’t just want to share it with you conceptually in writing, I want to share it with you physically in real life. I will do my level best to get this on your personal bucket list and to experience it for yourself.
Aurora
In the next part in this mini-series, I will explain to you exactly why the aurora are such an incredible phenomenon.
In Part 2, I will explain why the aurora borealis – Northern lights – and the aurora Australis – Southern lights – are so much more than a light show.
In Part 3, I’ll share a taster of my experiences.
In Part 4, I promise you what I honestly believe will be one of the best practical online descriptions of how to plan and execute a trip to see the aurora for yourselves. That is a bold statement that I stand by. I researched the science behind this extensively and share my 5 Aurora Hunting Rules to maximise your odds in the hope that more people have this jaw dropping, life affirming, ever-memorable experience of awe.
Share this to help someone you know start their journey towards seeing the aurora.
Plot spoiler: they’re immense.
(Arc of light – Aurora borealis in Svalbard)