Each year, my husband and I make the pilgrimage to our special place.
Sometimes we go twice.
It’s the place where we both share the delight and exhilaration of being surrounded by natural beauty and exult in being far away from the maddening crowd. We greedily suck in the clean air and seek to absorb the solar energy of the sun that keeps our bodies warm.
It’s truly awesome.
We know, too, it’s doing us good, both physically, mentally, and emotionally.
It’s where I can put on my best Julie Andrews “The Hills Are Alive” voice or hum along to Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” tune in my head.
It’s where we hear different bird calls, the roar of the wind in the trees, and the glorious silence of no other humans.
Awe can look and feel different to different people.
My husband is at his happiest when up in the mountains, especially if there is a ski slope. I am, too, when I can sit and look out over a magnificent vista of a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains.
What does awe look like to you?
The reason awe matters to our mental well-being.
Awe is important for shifting our mental state towards feeling happier, healthier, and more connected to the world around us and others.
It’s that delicious feeling of “Wow!” that simultaneously calms our nervous system. This triggers the release of oxytocin, our “bonding” hormone and expands our appreciation for what we have and are witnessing. The reward of awe can trigger the release of dopamine, our reward neurotransmitter, making us feel joyful and wanting to have that same experience again.
It’s when something stops you in your tracks and takes your breath away.
Awe can be experienced in nature, when we get “the chills” from certain pieces of music, or when looking at art. It can be mesmerising, can conjure enormous respect for our natural or human endeavours. It can even create fear, as when watching a big storm surge or volcanic eruption. That’s the paradox. Awe can engender a feeling of being very small compared to the enormousness of the world around us. It’s humbling.
Whether you’re seeking greater calm and serenity or appreciation for what you’re observing, the psychological impact shifts our focus from the day-to-day stress and minutiae that can bog us down, helping you to feel calmer, more relaxed, in a better mood, and more pro-social. It broadens perspective.
Awe can heighten your sense of curiosity, helping you to think more deeply, come up with new ideas and be more cognitively flexible.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, bogged down by a challenge you can’t find a solution to, finding greater awe is a great way to make you more adaptable to your circumstances. Now you can see all the possibilities that await.
Maintaining better mental well-being is also beneficial for your physical health.
A regular dose of awe reduces the level of chronic inflammation that accumulates in our bodies, which can promote the development of chronic disease like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or depression and reduce our tendency to ruminate.
How to find more awe outside.
1. Step outside into nature.
You don’t need to book a trip to the mountains. Visiting your local park for a walk or simply to sit and observe is a great way to slow down and take in your surroundings, noticing the things we often fail to see as we rush through our busy lives. Take out your earbuds to listen to the local birdsong or natural sounds. Look up to the sky and watch the clouds. Look closely at the leaves and flowers of the vegetation around you. What do you notice about the patterns and colours?
Did you know, a fifteen-minute walk once a week in nature over 8 weeks lowers stress while boosting compassion? Why not schedule a weekly awe walk, alone, with your faithful hound or with friends?
If you’re a morning person, watch the sunrise; or if you’re an evening person, watch the sunset.
If it’s raining, watch the rain or go for a walk in the wet. With appropriate wet weather gear, of course!
And if you can’t get out, look out of the window.
My Mum spent the last years of her life in an aged care home. She was relatively immobile and rarely had the opportunity to get out unless accompanied by a staff or family member. The bright side was that her room had a large bay window overlooking the garden, so she could watch the blackbirds hopping over the grass and report the increase in height of the sunflower growing in the garden bed.
2. Watch the night sky.
If you’re fortunate enough to live in a place where artificial light or cloud cover doesn’t dim the nocturnal majesty of the universe we sit beneath. Looking up at the myriad of stars is breathtaking. However, even on a cloudy night, gazing up at the moon as it waxes and wanes, or peeking out between clouds, is also beneficial.
3. Get curious to explore the tiny and the new.
Our kids are the masters of curiosity. Why not tap into your inner child and observe the beauty and intricacy of tiny creatures we take for granted? Watch an ant carrying its gargantuan load, or a spider weaving her web. The more we look, the more we see and wonder at.
Being creatures of habit, we often fail to move beyond the realm of what’s familiar. Why not look for new places to explore or visit?
4. Turn off your smartphone.
We don’t notice much when our heads are buried in our smartphones. Turning them to silent and focusing on your surroundings will reveal things you may never have seen before on your daily commute. Studies have found that talking on your smartphone while walking outside or listening to music or a podcast greatly diminishes the positive impact of being outside. This is because it reduces the sensory input needed to be fully present.
How will you give your brain a technology break when you get out into nature?
5. Share your experiences with your children.
Awe is best savoured in the company of others. O.K., that’s a personal opinion, but one of the greatest gifts we can give our kids is to share awesome experiences with them. Pausing to show them nature’s gifts and make the ordinary more extraordinary will enable them to learn to create their own awesome journeys as they get older.
This could include the simple joy of picking a cherry tomato and popping it still warm into your mouth to savour.
Or pointing out the tadpoles in a pond.
Revel in those small moments of goosebumps and embed them into your memory banks to savour time and again. This emotional muscle memory then makes it easier to conjure up those awesome memories and be ready to create the new.
Have you had awesome experiences that help you maintain your mental well-being?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
