Simply Deep: awe

Simply Deep. A short reflective piece for Arise Blog with something simple yet full of possible complexities.

Before going on let’s pause and take a moment to ponder.

Maybe even look around at your surroundings and listen.

Or close your eyes to notice what appears in your imagination or thoughts.

What is captivating you today?

awe

—'‘an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc.,

produced by

that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like”

Awe and Wonder were often paired words when I was teaching in the classical school within my local community. I felt a loving exhortation and was drawn to making this connection each day I walked into my classroom. It was exciting to spend the day with my students (always a loving bunch of lively 2nd graders) and to get to point out the beauty, brilliance, and awe of any subject or play outside. And sometimes, a glance out the wintery windows, we’d be surprised by snowflakes falling from the sky. I would hear “Awe, Mrs Nixon, Look, look, it’s snowing!”

This week I was drawn back in by these words within the pages of 52 Ways to Walk by Annabel Streets. My oldest son and daughter in law have payed attention to how I often spend my time each day, and the inspiration that comes from my walks, so for my birthday I received this book.

The chapters within offer a different way of walking for the 52 weeks we have in a year. In my usual informal and jump around way, I’m using the titles of the ways of walking to guide my weekly walks. My eyes glanced over the table of contents, and landed on Week 44: Seek Out the Sublime (even though we are only in Week 7 of 2024). Without even beginning to read, I was already taken with awe and wonder. When opened, I quickly found my inner voice saying, “Well of course.”

Awe and Wonder are one of the gifts of our minds that God connects to our physical bodies. He chose “walking”—a simple movement we all can do even if we are weak in our legs. We can be partly carried by a crutch or a friend can come alongside to help us be stable enough to walk. In our modern times, we have strollers, walkers, and even wheel chairs that lighten or even bear our burden of this physical movement, for those needing assistance. The simply deep is that we can no matter where we are “seek out the sublime” way of walking.

God gave us the simple and natural stride of walking— a kind exercise to get us outside and to see His creations: sky and clouds, trees and cacti, flora and fauna (flowers and animals), sand and rocks, light and shadows, radiant sunsets or the morning’s dawn, and so much more.

You can name and describe your own surroundings.

Pause for a moment, go outside and see where you are.

Breath in some fresh air.

In 52 Ways to Walk, Annabel Streets gives a most encouraging exploration into sublime walking and awe; a neuroscience reality. Her writing on this topic is fascinating. Awe is offered; it is proven by experienced research to reveal amazing findings, though I imagine not surprising, a connection with AWE to our emotional health. This connection happens all through the simple exercise of a sublime walk.

Here are some of these findings:

*

—Psychologist Michelle Shiota, noticed that “awe wasn’t signaled by smiling but by mild expressions of shock—widened eyes, raised eyebrows, dropped jaws. She noticed that awe-inducing scenes changed the brains of observers.” (182)

“She found those who felt awe subsequently demonstrated stronger analytical skills and more rigorous thought processes. Other researchers reported: being exposed to AWE was linked to better cognitive processing.” (182)

*

—”Professor Melanie Rudd argued that awe expands our sense of time, enabling us to better focus our attention. When exposing individuals to awe, she noted that they felt less time-pressured, less impatient, than their non-awed counterparts.” (183)

*

—Another researcher in psychology, Dacher Keltner noted that “his experiments showed that exposure to awe-inducing scenes engendered greater feelings of humility, curiosity, happiness, and altruism. He also found that awe facilitated feelings of belonging, making participants feel more emotionally connected to one another and better able to deal with uncertainty.” (184)

*

—“Wonder more than any other positive emotion, appeared to improve physical well-being, according to Dr Jennifer Stellar. She wrote in her report, “Awe, was the strongest predictor of lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines.” (184)

The effects of awe-guided walks

cumulatively suggest

that “the more we seek out awe while walking,

the greater our potential of well-being” (184)

I Wonder if this is why Jesus and his disciples spent more time walking outside than inside… (you are free to fill in the rest of the statement)

“Anyone can cultivate the capacity to marvel.”

—Annabel Streets

Interested in reading more, enjoy 52 Ways to Walk by Annabel Streets