How often do you hear the word “awesome” being used?
It’s become a word many people use on a daily basis
Here’s your coffee – Awesome, thanks!
But if we stop and think for a moment, what does that word actually mean?
“Awesome” means something is daunting, or inspiring of awe.
And it’s the idea of feeling awe that I want to talk about today.
Awe is the feeling of seeing or experiencing something so enormous and breathtaking that it blows your mind a little.
If you’ve ever been to Snowdonia and been stunned by the mountains there
Or seen the Highlands of Scotland
Or the majesty of the Lake District
You’ll know what awe feels like.
That moment where your breath is taken away by it all
It can be a bit like someone’s restarted your brain
The feeling of awe is actually good for our mental health
Being faced with something so amazing, so enormous, so awesome… can actually deactivate the default mode network in the brain.
The default mode network is what activates when the brain is at rest and not actively involved in doing something
It’s what handles our introspection and self-reflection
And if our mental health is not great, that can be down to our default mode network being overactive and causing us to ruminate
That feeling of awe can act as a jolt to bring us out of that.
So obviously we should all go for a hike in the Lake District, right?
The Lake District is beautiful, and definitely great for inspiring awe – but for those of us who can’t get there, there are other options.
The feeling of awe is more of a state of mind.
If you stop and really look at the world around you, you can find things to inspire awe.
When you stop and really pay attention, anything in nature is fairly awe-inspiring
Did you know that most trees have their leaves arranged in the fibonacci sequence, a pattern of numbers where each is the sum of the previous two.
At the moment, lots of rivers are flooded, and stopping to look at the sheer force of nature, and how it’s able to overwhelm human-made structures, can be awe-inspiring.
Like with most things, the more you look for awe-inspiring things, the more you will find them.
And the better it can help you to feel!