Finding and Creating "Awe" in Our Work

The article hit me the first week of the year, as the concept of "creating new opportunities to find and experience awe" is what I feel that the 2023 plan for the PilatesSistersSquad has turned into.  Finding and creating new opportunities to find and experience awe.  More and more as the structure, foundations, and basis of our lives, businesses and communities seem to be adjusting and changing rather rapidly.  Our work, practice, needs and the tools of the ever-evolving movement teacher, have drastically changed. 

We keep rolling with it.  In a way, we have no other option.  Every day that we open our doors to teach,  we provide a source of insight and inspiration for many that may find themselves stuck in the mud.  

How a Bit of Awe Can Improve Your Health

“Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world,” said Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

It’s vast, yes. But awe is also simpler than we think — and accessible to everyone, he writes in his book “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.”

While many of us associate awe with dramatic, life-changing events, the truth is that awe can be part of everyday life. Experiencing awe comes from what Dr. Keltner has called a “perceived vastness,” as well as something that challenges us to rethink our previously held ideas.  Awe “is its own thing,” he said‌. Our bodies respond differently when we are experiencing awe, than when we are feeling joy, contentment or fear. We make a different sound, show a different facial expression. Dr. Keltner found that awe activates the vagal nerves, clusters of neurons in the spinal cord that regulate various bodily functions, and slows our heart rate, relieves digestion‌ and deepens breathing.

And, awe is something we can develop, with practice. Two of the four ways mentioned that struck a resonate chord for me were:

• Practice mindfulness - We cultivate awe through interest and curiosity,” Ms. Salzberg said. “And if we’re distracted too much, we’re not really paying attention."

Mindfulness helps us focus‌ and lessens the power of distractions. “If you work on mindfulness, awe will come.” And ‌some studies show‌ that people who are meditating and praying also experience more awe.  “Awe has a lot of the same neurophysiology of deep contemplation,” Dr. Keltner said. “Meditating, reflecting, going on a pilgrimage.”  So spending time slowing down, breathing ‌deeply and reflecting — on top of their own benefits — have the added advantage of priming us for awe.

• Choose the unfamiliar path - Awe often comes from novelty. So gravitating toward the unexpected can set us up to experience awe.Some people do this more than others, a personality trait that experts have called an “openness to experience,” Dr. Keltner said.  We can‌ work on developing ‌this openness through everyday choices. Choose a restaurant you don’t usually visit, take a different route to work or check out some music you aren’t familiar with.

In his book, Dr. Keltner wrote that people who find awe all around them, “are more open to new ideas. To what is unknown. To what language can’t describe.”

Read More of this NYTimes article and may we keep creating awe in your client/students movements and experiences with their bodies and Pilates.

by Pilates Sisters Squad Editor