Awe Catcher

I listened to Kelly Corrigan's podcast the first week of January (you can listen in here) and she shared about an article from the New York Times she read about the power of awe.

Here are a few quotes from the podcast: 

• Being an 'awe-catcher' is pretty transformative...
• You can go from a really crap zone to something totally different with a walk where you are training your eye to be wowed by something....
• There's something about considering the vastness that can take us into this kind of elevated state. 
• What Keltner is saying in The New York Times article is that awe is totally critical to wellbeing. It's as important as love. The health benefits are totally proven- calming down your nervous system and triggering the release of oxytocin which is the hormone that has been interpreted by us as love." 
• "It also has psychological benefits. Many of us have a critical voice in our head telling us we are not smart, beautiful, or rich enough. Awe seems to quiet this negative self-talk- by deactivating the default mode network- the part of the cortex involved in how we perceive ourselves." (from Keltner's article on awe) 
• Sharon Salzberg (a mindfulness teacher) sees awe and wonder as a vehicle "to quiet our inner critic." She believes that awe is the "absence of self-preoccupation." 

Below are some moments of awe that Jason captured from one of his bike rides last week.