Conscious Minute #5
I Am in Awe of You…of Us
As we prepare for an unusual holiday season, many of us blaze ahead toward wrapping up school semesters and year-end work projects, craving at least some form of a break to catch our breath. As we reflect back on where we have come from since March 2020, we might consider allowing ourselves a moment to wrestle with awe.
Dictionaries define awe as “a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.” Awe is a multi-step experience. First, we perceive something vast or epic. It could be physical (a stunning mountain range, a cascading waterfall, a jaw-dropping work of art), interactive (a rock concert, a Broadway show, a sporting event), or conceptual (a peaceful protest, a moving political speech, poetry) that stops us cold. Suddenly, we feel small, insignificant, temporarily immobilized. As author Emily Esfahani Smith writes, “Awe challenges the mental models that we use to make sense of the world. Our mind must then update those models to accommodate what we just experienced.” As we vibrate from the electrical charge of awe, our minds sift and sort past memories, striving to incorporate this powerful new interloper.
Social psychologist Barbara Fredrickson explains that awe is so impactful because it teeters on the precipice of safety; it blends positive emotions like inspiration with other sensations like fear. But in the end, awe is self-transcendent. Riding the waves of an awe experience, ultimately, we merge with something much larger than ourselves. Awe can ignite positive change in the way we view the world and how we fit into it.
While of course we would much rather be stopped in our tracks by a beautiful sunset, an emotional impromptu performance by street musicians, or a captivating mural that appeared on the wall of a neighboring building overnight, this global pandemic — in a way — is an invitation to regard our world with collective awe. We are not alone in this experience; we are in it together.
While we each have uniquely pressing concerns about loved ones’ safety and welfare, urgent school and work deadlines, and emotional stressors we must navigate in the next few weeks, let’s take a moment to regard our humanity, our fortitude, and one another — with profound awe. The pandemic has challenged the mental models each of us rely on every day to make sense of our world. It has demanded we recalibrate, re-center, re-purpose. We have risen to the task.
We have been through a lot in the past 10 months — as individuals, as communities, as nations, and as one world. I am in awe of you…of us.
