The Power of Awe: Heal in Nature's AWEsomeness
/Awe. Inspiring Health, Naturally.
It is an AWEsome time to slow down in nature and up our mental and physical wellbeing.
In a study published January 19th in the journal Emotion, researchers found that positive emotions—especially the awe that comes with a deep connection to nature, art, or spirituality—are linked to lower levels of inflammation-producing cytokines. Dacher Keltner, UC Berkeley psychologist and a co-author of the study reported, “That awe, wonder and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines suggests that the things we do to experience these emotions – a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art – has a direct influence upon health and life expectancy."
Read and watch some of the AWE-Inspiring research, and make your plans for the rest of the month:
Science and NonDuality: The Healing Power Of Awe
Nature Travel: The Health Benefits of Awe and Anticipation
Amazing Ted-Talk That Will Awe You in the Beauty of Nature
Awe Inspiring Natural Wonders in America for Your Bucket List
IN THE OPEN SPACE OF AWE, WE CAN REMEMBER OUR "ORIGINAL SELF"
Thomas Moore describes the Original Self so beautifully:
“Far beneath the many thick layers of indoctrination about who we are and who we should be lies an original self, a person who came into this world full of possibility and destined for joyful unveiling and manifestation. It is this person we glimpse in another when we fall in love or when we idealize a leader or romanticize an artist. This is the person who comes to life in us briefly as we get married, start a course in school, or try on a new joy - before worry and cynicism have set in. Chronically trying to be someone other than this original self, persuaded that we are not adequate and should fit some norm of health or correctness, we may find a cool distance gradually separating us from that deep and eternal person, that G-d-given personality, and we may forget both who we were and who we might be… When that ever-creative soul is allowed to rise up from the deep reservoir of life that it its home, we become unpredictable and not easily squeezed into narrow expectations of what a person should be….. (our lives take a shape) that we could never plan or design.”
