Like most of us I find it easy to agree that seeking awe and wonder on a regular basis seems like a good way to live. We’ve all seen the magic that happens when children light up with excitement whenever they encounter something new. But let’s face it, as we get older, we’ve been around a while and observed and experienced a great deal. So, while it is easy to think of seeing wonder as something good, when was the last time you or I felt an overwhelming absorption of awe? Can you remember a time you felt humble in light of something universally large? Or did we lose our sense of wonder as we’ve aged or just forgotten how to find it? Perhaps we need to relearn the skill of wonder-seeking.
Why Wonder And Awe May Be The Cure For Worry, Fear and Narcissism
Every summer my husband Thom and I rent a house up in the mountains about an hour from our home. We do it mainly to get out of the summer heat of our desert environment. But behind the more obvious reason is that it connects us to feelings of beauty and nature that we can’t get sitting at home in front of the computer in our air-conditioned house. So, when I happened upon an article that offered an even better reason why our yearly sojourns have become so important, I wasn’t surprised. It turns out that being in nature, and finding and experiencing an ongoing sense of awe and wonder, is critical to our feelings of happiness and wellbeing. Oh, and besides that, it also makes us nicer people to be around. [Read more…]