… always more mystery …

Welcome to Tuesdays with Chel.

Each week Chel Micheline of gingerblue dot com will offer her perspectives on our Bliss Habits. Please enjoy the wisdom and clarity she offers.

“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.”
– Anais Nin

Let’s talk a little bit about awe, okay?

Awe is *crucial* to well-being. I didn’t know this until I started doing tons of research on neuroscience and positive psychology.

Apparently, a feeling of “awe” triggers the childlike curiousity and wonder that every single human is born with. By experiencing awe, we are tapping into a sense of wonder and innocence that may have been pounded out of us in the stresses of daily life. It seems that as we age, awe becomes replaced with skepticism, doubt, hesitance.

Getting in touch with that feeling of awe, that sense of wonder, is sort of like the sky after after a big storm- everything gets washed clean, and the clouds and darkness slowly begin to clear away. Everything in our lives, including the things we are most familiar with, look just a little bit different, a little bit new, a little bit more inviting. We become engaged with our lives instead of simply going through the motions.

But what happens if you have lost touch with that sense of wonder? That was the case with me. I had to figure out how to not only find a genuine sense of awe, but keep that spark alive. It took a while, but it sort of came down to just a few simple steps.

 

– Identify
All of us have *something* that makes our hair stand on end, that fascinates us, that makes us take notice. We may have forgotten these things in the overwhelm of day-to-day life. Other things may have taken precedence. The key to figuring out what inspires awe in ourselves is simply to think back to childhood. What was something that fascinated you, that maybe even freaked you out when you were a kid?

On Friday, my husband and I went to see “Prometheus” at the movies. I have been waiting for this movie for months and I *loved* it. I felt awe-inspired and overwhelmed, but in the *best* way. I left the theater feeling wonder and spark and pretty much giddy from the experience.

As my husband and I drove back home from the theater, we talked about space and creation and things like that. I felt energized by the mystery of it all, the sense of wonder giving me a buzz. I want to feel that more often. I want to get back in touch with that emotional high on a regular basis.

I have had a deep fascination with space and  the stars and the planets since I was very little. I used to spend hours looking at photos of the solar system, checking out books on astronomy just to look at the photos and diagrams. Even as an adult, looking at photos of the planets *still* gives me goosebumps. And I am still outraged that Pluto is no longer an “official” planet- it’s sort of like the United States deciding that one of the coastal states is no longer a part of the union.

What were the things you loved as a kid, even if you couldn’t have them or didn’t have access to them? It’s really important to just be honest about what they are and identify them.  Even if these “awe-inspiring” things aren’t reasonable or if they don’t “fit in” with your day to day life (space is not a topic that comes up in my regular life, and is not something I know a tremendous amount about, I can tell you that much…), it’s so important to just acknowledge them.

 

– Inquire
 After you identify a “source of wonder”, start figuring out when, where, and *why* you stopped being interested in that particular thing.

For me, it was college. I took an intro to Astronomy class and even though I did fine in the class, the second I realized astronomy was about numbers and physics and *science* and not just about looking at beautiful spherical colors floating in the black mystery of the universe, my interest seemed to disappear.

Looking back at that, I realize that I somehow made the assumption that because I didn’t love the science part of astronomy, it must mean that i didn’t like space as much as I thought I did. That was *so* wrong. There are so many ways of appreciating space without needing to become a PhD in Astronomy. I realized I abandoned a whole entire interest of mine because I realized it wouldn’t, and couldn’t, make complete sense to me.

 

– Approach and Incorporate
So now what? I know I am awe-inspired by space. I also know I’m not much interested in the hard-core science of it.

As I thought about it, I realized that there were still SO many ways to tap into my interest, and that sense of wonder it always held for me.

To start out, I could do a little googling for images of the planets. Surely they have been very updated since my days of laying on my bed, gawking at all the blurry photos in different books from the library.

I could read several websites devoted to amateur stargazing and astronomy. There are tons online. I could subscribe to one or many and get regular, approachable, and interesting information on a regular basis that would inspire wonder in me.

I could buy a telescope- they are REALLY inexpensive now and easy to use.

I could use my creativity to draw maps of the stars at different times of the year. Or I could paint images of the planets, in all their fiery ringed glory. I could use my weird obsession with space as a jumping off point for other creative endeavors.

I could even dip back into the scary science of it all, and take another “Intro to Astronomy” class at a local college or online.

What I’m getting at is that space *still* inspires feelings of wonder and awe in me, even though I’m a sometimes-grumpy 38 year old lady with my feet firmly planted on earth. I have no dreams of becoming an astronaut or an astronomy superstar. And even though space is not part my day-to-day life in ANY shape or form, it can still be something I regularly access and get in touch with for that necessary sense of wonder and awe.

 

So brings you a sense of wonder? What did you abandon in your life to make room for the more “realistic” responsibilities of day-to-day life? I’d LOVE to hear- please share them in the comments!

Whatever it is, give yourself permission to get back in touch with the things that have always inspired awe in you. I promise you that regularly indulging in a little wonder will change your life for the better.