Many of us have heard the saying, "Embrace the suck." And really, it is a handy bit of mental fitness to engage in. As a student of Stoicism, I appreciate the idea of accepting what is and working forward.
However, embracing the AWE is a different thing entirely.
We live in a reality that is constantly slapping us with a surplus of, well, everything. Our poor brains are being assaulted with a myriad of choice, a plethora of options, a never-ending buffet of selections, it's all so overwhelming.
And on top of it, we are supposed to be, hustling. I get it, I love to work hard, but the thing is, we're supposed to rest on occasion, and with the amount of instant input ever-swirling all around us, it makes true rest achieving fleeting.
It's not really surprising that anxiety is at an all time high.
Which brings us to AWE. Have you ever just stopped, looked at something that slightly takes your breath away and just considered it, right there in the be.
So many mindfulness practices talk about being in the moment, being present, living in the now. There's an endless flow of practices to achieve that state too, but here lately, I have been leaning towards little micro-moments of AWE.
The little fleck of soil on my shoe, the smell of it, the billions of organisms in it, the ability for life to spring out of it, AWE!
Art, living beings, nature, the universe! All around us, right in this moment, AWE is happening, and we can dive right into it without any fancy breathwork, any thought sequences, any practices at all! (Not that those things are bad, but sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the THINGS that are good for me that are supposed to bring me peace).
Instead of being slapped by analysis paralysis I have been embracing the AWE here lately. Anytime I feel overwhelmed or just plain angsty, I pause, find something that slightly takes my breath, and really just consider it for just a bit. Like less than a minute. I really lean into the existential joy of being a small thing in a vast universe that has the privilege to experience unmitigated elated AWE!
And yes, I probably do sound a bit like a amused and somewhat addled fool, but you know what? Maybe those who pause to reflect on the joy that the things around them in the moment aren't really fools at all. Maybe they are the enlightened ones.
I mean, I might be just having an AWE-ha moment right now, but it's sure a lot of fun and I have to say, any anxiety that I might be feeling due to my perception of being crushed by it all evaporates when I dive into the AWE pool.
It's worth giving it a try anyway! AWE-on my friends!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's non-contemplative but still rather functional iPhone, the header and footer images were made in Canva.