Awe and Wonder for a Younger You
Posted on 24th October 2024 at 09:53
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
- Corinthians 13:11
It is not that I am a religious person, but this quote is at the heart of what I share with people when I am helping them to change their lives and improve their health.
Research has shown that when we are in awe or wonder at something and we allow ourselves to feel these emotions it is good for us. It has been found that it helps to slow down the aging process and keep us young.
When did you last spend time out and about in nature and just look at the wonder that is around you?
As a child everything is exciting, amazing awe inspiring and fills us with wonder. As we grow up and become preoccupied with adult stuff, like work, going out, paying bills and so much more. We drift away from those “childish” things, and the damage begins to creep in.
I regularly encourage people on a Shinrin Yoku walk to view the world as a child would, squelching through the mud and listening to the sound. Kicking dry leaves in the air and watching them fall. Looking around at all that surrounds them, whatever the season or weather.
A top end racing car is designed and made for the purpose of getting around a racetrack as quick as it can and in most cases they do. They are in their natural environment, with a good driver and back up team, thus they perform at their best.
What happens if you took that high performance car of the racetrack and gave to a little old lady who uses it once a week to go shopping in. Travelling it on the roads in her area, filling it up with fuel from the petrol station and servicing it once a year.
Or gave it to a farmer for him to use on his farm, to carry feed out to his animals. The car would very quickly start having problems, not running as well and at some point, pack in.
I was lucky enough to have a working Springer Spaniel whose name was Bramble, she was my best friend, my constant companion and walking buddy for 15 years. She taught me so much about that childlike joy for life. When you are a Springer, everything is exciting, and even if you do it every day it is still as exciting today as it was yesterday, last week and last month. She would rush about, sniffing this and that, being attentive to every noise, always checking things out.
When I take people for a Shinrin Walk, or do mindfulness in my garden, I always encourage that childlike awe and wonder. It can be a newly opened flower, young buds or new leaves on a tree, a rainbow, the rain falling from leaf to leaf, snow in winter. There are so many things in nature to create awe and wonder in you if you get out there, switch your phone off, open your eyes and look around, you will be amazed at what you will see. Allow the feeling of awe and wonder to fill your whole body, and let your imagination run wild.
There is a large amount of research into the positive effects of living with a sense of awe and wonder. Nature offers the perfect place to develop that awe and wonder as every day it changes, buds today are flowers or leaves tomorrow. The Autumn when the leaves turn a riot of colour and then fall to the ground. The look of snow on the landscape or frost on a puddle.
Why not give yourself a treat, give yourself permission to return to a childlike state and discover the world out there, and learn to,
Tread Softly upon this Earth.
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