There was a time when Ofsted school inspectors actually went looking for ‘awe and wonder’ in lessons. And as with most things Ofsted, the aim was good but the execution was somewhat bullying! ‘Where’s the awe and wonder?’ they’d ask. If most people were asked to produce it every day in a maths lesson, you might find it normal to struggle a bit.
However, I think our education system should be full of awe. It’s what inspirational teaching used to be all about. And it’s not that hard as young children tend to access ‘awe’ more readily than adults because so much more is a first encounter for them and they tend to be more ‘raw-ly’ ‘experiential. (It might also help if the national curriculum was more awesome)! The world is filled up with things that can trigger awe if we know how to tune into them. I think our lives do well to try and fit in as much awe as possible.
So what is awe?
I see it as the feeling we encounter when something like art, music, nature, expansive thinking, or a spiritual sensation brings us a sense of something much bigger than ourselves, such that for a moment we feel almost gushingly overwhelmed with startling, shiny new perspective! It makes us feel ‘smaller’ in a healthy way and makes our own importance seem a little less significant as we have just witnessed something so completely beyond us and almost unfathomable. It is probably for this reason that awe tends to make us value others more, be more giving and collaborative and that is probably why we evolved it: as it can serve the interests of the tribe well!
Feeling awe just seems so beneficial. It enables a leap away from the mundane, it immediately shifts our mental and emotional state to a transformative place and it broadens our focus. It lifts us so we transcend the petty. It makes self-interest less significant. It creates moments of raw authenticity.
So is it possible to access more of it?
I think we can. And I don’t think it is necessarily about what we encounter so much as how we encounter each thing. If we take moments to truly and deeply appreciate something and marvel at its existence, it’s impact on others, its place in time, its place in the universe, how it came to be etc., almost anything can become awesome! And we can teach children to tune into awe too. Show a young child a flower in an enthusiastic way, explore and appreciate the magic of its detail and treat it like the treasure it is, your awe will be infectious!
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Here I describe how I find awe!
Music – there are no doubt pieces of music that fill me with awe. Some pieces like Phillip Glass’ Violin Concerto’s second movement blow me away! Likewise deeply haunting and poignant pieces of music like ‘In the Pines’ by Janel Drewis can strangely inspire an overwhelming awe in me. Music is extremely powerful emotionally for me (and most people). Give me a minor key and I’m off into the realms of awe!
History Whenever I think of the enormity of humanity, I become filled with awe. All those lives, experiences, passions, disasters, motivations, choices, loves, moments lost….. It certainly makes my life feel a tiny part of a very, very big 5D jigsaw! I can sit in an old cathedral and marvel at the sense of the many people who will have passed through over the centuries. I also think I love old paintings because they are a window to lives gone by that I can never fully know about.
Nature Nature quietly getting on with it’s many miracles fills me with awe. The changing seasons also give me a sense of the time continuum – the way they keep going round and round. The beauty of birdsong, a tree or a flower can take my breath away when I take a moment to really look at it. I can also look at the moon and wonder how many people are also looking at it, where they are, what they are doing and how they are feeling, which can make me feel miniscule!
Philosophy Sometimes simply asking philosophical and existential questions triggers awe in me. How did existence come to exist? What is out there in space? How can we think we know anything much?
Relationships The endless combination of ways we can interact with others (including strangers), feel love, tenderness, enjoy others’ uniqueness etc. gives me an awesome joie de vivre.
New adventures I can feel excitable awe when it comes to exploring new environments. What is one person’s everyday normal, becomes my novel and new experience!
Learning I don’t necessarily mean all learning fills me with awe. I am not sure I felt it when I learnt what the capital of England was but I bet I felt it the first time I learnt to ride a bike or wave particle duality! Some learning just leaves you astounded!
Presence When I tune into the moment and really see what is in front of me, I can feel an awesome bliss.
But….
I also recently saw this on social media. Maybe we start to search for more awe by simply appreciating little positives in any average day!
