“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science.”
—Albert Einstein“Wisdom begins in wonder.”
—Plato
Happy Friday Dear Readers!
I’m excited and humbled to write to you today, sharing my
Top 5 Benefits of Awe,
Top 5 Practices for Awe,
and, finally,
a Personal Story of Musical Awe.
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5 Benefits of Awe
In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental; to be brothers, to be acquaintances, master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty.
—Emerson (1836/2009, pp. 3-4), qtd in Keltner and Monroy
Here, here to my TOP 5 benefits of awe!12 Let’s raise a glass…
To our Health. Evidence suggests that awe is a great de-inflammatory agent. And reducing long-term inflammation is a key to longevity. It helps that awe is linked to improving our mood and increasing our reported life satisfaction.
To our Humility: When we don’t put ourselves above the world, we can lose the edge of our negative self-talk. Awe deactivates the default mode network in the brain, which helps us perceive “self” and “world.”
To our Time-Abundance. Awe just might expand how we see time, increasing patience and feeling that time is plentiful. Awe puts us in the here-and-now.
To our Generosity. Research suggests that awe helps us feel more kind, increasing our focus on others and decreasing our focus on ourselves.
To our Connectedness. As awe often comes from rich cultural reserves of art and experience, awe can also bring us together as “inhabitants” of the earth.
✍️ Have you experienced any of these benefits first-hand? How did your awe feel?
Here’s a fun diagram:
5 Ways to Feel Awe
“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen,
among the beauties and mysteries of the earth
are never alone or weary of life.”
—Rachel Carson
I’m not alone in believing that we can practice our capacity for awe as a way of cultivating greater mental and physical health.3
Here are my TOP 5 deliberate practices for awe.
Go on Awe Walks. Get outside, tap into your peripheral vision, and notice what’s around you. If you like Artist’s Dates, bring awe along.
Read Awe-Inspiring Stories. Preferably of inspiring people who lived lives that astound you. Contemplate their moral beauty.
Listen to Music, or Go See Architecture. If music is architecture moving in time, then architecture is music frozen in time. Listen and see what moves you.
Jot Down Your Awe. Write down your experiences of awe in your journal or morning pages practice. Savor them. Like gratitude journaling, this will help “prime the pump” of your reticular activating system.
Practice Mindfulness : Gently bring your attention back to an open awareness of the present moment. Notice your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment.
✍️ What are your favorite go-to methods for experiencing awe?
✍️ When, and where, specifically, will you go on your next awe-date?
…..
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“Let the music of your life
Give life back to music.”
— Daft Punk
A Personal Story of Awe (and new music)
In the summer 2021, I had been hosting a kind of emotional numbness, not noticing my self-made cloud of dumb defeatism. But unexpectedly (as it often happens), at a Colorado cabin between summer recording sessions, these pine trees gave me this sense of the sacred mystery, of everything growth and strength and courage, and I saw myself — as a process — reflected back at me. This would become the second verse of “Cathedral Pines”4
I was scattered on the ground
Living in a lie
Almost broken
Then you came in the night
Gathered your wings
And made it right
. . .
I felt a deep humility and smallness, in a good way, and I could see my art not as something that I was making, but something that I was. Everything seemed to be in its place, and I kind of gave myself permission to let it all go. I remembered John Lennon, “speaking words of wisdom, let it be,” this great acceptance and allowance of finding my place in the symphony in the things. Like Emerson’s “transparent eyeball.”
And if it’s all the same
We’ll let it rise
Turn leaded eyes
Into saints
Cathedral pines
. . .
Ultimately, my original feeling of awe became humility, which became humor, then gratitude for the gift of making art at all. For being in the presence of something majestic and sacred, this feeling of letting nature speak in a symphony of tongues, and of listening so closely that we hear ourselves singing along.
Almost three years later, “Cathedral Pines” is officially here! 🎉
Anyway, this song speaks to me, so there’s a chance it speaks to you. And if it does, there’s a chance it might bring people together in the name of kindness, humility, and cosmic togetherness.
Here’s to listening and seeing what we hear,
Sean
“I listen with my body
and it is my body that aches
in response to the passion
and the pathos embodied in this music.”
— Susan Sontag
Keltner defines Awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.”
From “Eight Reasons Awe Makes Your Life Better,” Greater Good Center at Berkeley.
Drawing from the Keltner and Monroy’s “Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health,” in Perspectives in Psychological Science and Keltner’s full length book on Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder.
“Cathedral Pines” Written by Sean Waters & the Sunrise Genius (c)(p) 2024
Recorded, Produced, and Performed by Sean Waters
Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Synth, Whistling, Vocals by Sean Waters
Backing Vocals by Tyler Lindgren
Mixed and Mastered by Tyler Lindgren
Art by Ehren Crumpler