Awe & Wonder

In today's session with Katherine May you are rediscovering the feeling of awe and wonder; the act of feeling enchanted. Awe and wonder are very powerful emotions, which came so easily to most of us when we were young. They pull us back into the present moment and remind us of the things we value the most. They also help to connect us back into our communities and families in positive ways, encouraging us to share the things we love and to exchange knowledge and understanding. We hope this session with Katherine helps to expand your mind and shift your perspective.

Transcript

Welcome to day 10 of Establish a Positive Mindset,

A challenge here on Insight Timer crafted to help you break free from negative thought patterns,

Overcome self-limiting beliefs and embrace a mindset of abundance and possibility.

Let's jump in to today's session.

Finding Enchantment with Catherine May.

Introduction.

Hello and welcome to Finding Enchantment,

A challenge here on Insight Timer to help you to reconnect with your sense of awe and wonder and to learn how to find them wherever you are.

My name is Catherine May and in this session I'll be talking to you about the soft power of resting your attention on your innate sense of fascination and suggesting some ways to use the practice of enchantment to soothe and ground yourself.

And to enrich your relationship with the world around you.

The theory.

Why wonder makes you happy.

At this point in history,

So many of us feel afraid.

And that means that we're often distracted by our worried thoughts and by constantly checking news sites and social media to monitor the uncontrollable world around us.

One way to break this cycle is to re-engage with our sense of wonder.

This very powerful emotion,

Which came so easily to most of us when we were young,

Pulls us back into the present moment and reminds us of the things we value the most.

It also helps us to draw us back into our communities and families in positive ways,

Encouraging us to share the things we love and to exchange knowledge and understanding.

Researchers such as Datcha Keltner have shown us that experiencing awe can have long lasting effects on our happiness and general sense of contentment.

The impacts extend way beyond the moment when we encounter something vast,

Impressive and magnificent.

We take that experience back into our everyday lives.

One of the most important components of awe is the sense of being small when we realise what we truly are,

A small part of a vast universe.

We're relieved of the burden to be in control of everything all the time.

Instead,

We can see ourselves as part of the wider flow of life and matter and can realise how interconnected we are with the people,

Animals,

Plants and landscapes around us.

But awe is a complex emotion.

It can also invite us to think of how fragile life is and how brief our existence is in the great expanse of time.

Practising enchantment can help us to come to terms with these difficult thoughts,

Opening up a space in which to sit with them and explore them.

It's not negative to address these facts of life.

Instead,

It's the fundamental work of existence and we can trust ourselves to make meaning around them if we give ourselves the time and patience that we need to create this beautiful,

Gentle space in which to do the hard work of existence.

We do not need to look far.

The magic of the world is all around us if we learn where and how to look for it.

We tend to believe that awe exists far outside the everyday.

It's something that we must travel across the world to find and which we might only encounter once or twice in a lifetime.

But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Scattered all around us are signposts that point us to deep time,

The scale of the planet and the profound intelligence of nature.

The trick is learning how to follow these signs to find your own very personal sense of fascination.

The exercises in the next section will show you how.

Some practical exercises.

A sense of enchantment is deeply personal.

I can't give it directly to you.

Instead,

I'd like to offer a few exercises for looking more deeply at the world around you and for learning how to dive deep into your attention,

Making connections that are meaningful to you.

This means tuning into your intuition,

Which can be hard.

Many of us have been suppressing our intuition for years,

Perhaps decades,

Perhaps because we felt ashamed of the things we loved or perhaps because other people taught us to override our true feelings and to replace them with the priorities that felt external to us.

If when you look at these suggestions,

Your whole body cries out,

I don't know what I want.

Don't worry,

It's quite normal to feel this way.

I promise you that it's possible to coax your intuition back into life.

Take it slowly and be patient with yourself.

Keep returning to the practice.

At first,

The signals might be faint,

But follow them and cherish what you feel.

You are learning what you love all over again.

Tend to it like a seedling and it will grow.

Step outside.

Try this first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

All you need to do is to step outside for a few moments or open the window if that's going to be impossible.

Pause and notice what you sense.

How does the air smell today?

What color is the sky?

Can you see the stars or the moon?

If so,

Notice the phase of the moon or any constellations you can spot.

What's the temperature like today?

How does it make your skin feel?

What can you hear?

What's happening in the natural world around you?

Perhaps new plants are broken through the ground or the trees are covered in blossom or have grown new leaves.

These are just some suggestions.

You can spend as long as you like.

A few seconds or a few minutes.

Just check in.

See what you notice.

Make a pause in your day while you're there.

Notice anything you don't know.

Can you name the plants you see?

Not sure what that particularly bright star might be?

Can't recognize the song of that bird?

Go and find out.

Deepen your knowledge of your own landscape and bond with it more closely.

The next time you return to this practice,

You'll bring something with you.

Hold a stone.

Have you ever picked up a pebble when you're walking on a beach or by a river?

Or maybe you have a fossil that you bought or gathered.

Maybe you sometimes dig a garden and find stones.

However you find it,

Hold a stone for a while.

Let it rest in your palm and feel its weight.

Notice its shape,

Its smoothness or its jagged edges,

Its crystals or crevices or breaks.

Stones connect us to deep time.

The oldest stones on the planet are nearly four billion years old.

Pretty much any stone you can touch will be millions of years old.

Rest with this stone for a while.

The stone knows how to stay still.

Just breathe and hold it.

Feel it getting warmer in your hand.

Don't force any feelings.

Just make a connection gently without any obligations.

You don't have to feel wow.

You don't have to feel small.

Just rest your attention on it and feel the contact between you and the stone.

Compared to you,

The stone is unfathomably old.

Compared to the stone,

You are impossibly young.

But once the stone was as new as you are,

It might take a long time to process such a simple idea.

But you have time.

When you're ready,

Place the stone down carefully.

Find it a home.

Maybe you want to return to it another day and connect again.

Maybe you want to pick it up every day.

You make the decision.

Go barefoot.

Find a safe place to walk outside.

Perhaps somewhere grassy or sandy.

Perhaps on concrete.

And take off your shoes.

Spend some time connecting the soles of your feet with the ground.

Lift your toes and place them back down again.

Spreading them out so you feel stable.

Lift your heels and stretch upwards.

Then ease gently down again.

Feel where you place your weight and find your balance.

Imagine yourself growing roots down into the ground.

Now,

Take a gentle walk.

Go slowly,

Noticing the different sensory inputs to usual.

You might feel cautious or self-conscious and that's OK.

Just notice how you feel.

Walking barefoot is different to walking with shoes on.

You have to take more care.

But you also receive a lot of feedback from the ground.

Sink your attention down into your feet.

Walk slowly until you feel ready to stop.

It's not exercise.

It might be a short walk at first.

But perhaps you'll feel more confident to take a longer walk in the future.

Before you put your shoes on,

Can you leave a footprint somewhere for someone else to find?

You can also try this exercise indoors if you prefer.

The most important thing is to pay attention to the sensations you feel.

It doesn't matter where you are.

A reflection.

After you spent some time trying out these activities,

Spend some time journaling or reflecting on them.

Remember,

There are no right answers here.

This is about engaging with your personal sense of enchantment.

What felt exciting and beautiful?

What felt dull,

Uninteresting,

Even disgusting?

What felt safe and comforting?

Did anything feel unsafe to you?

Did embarrassment rise up for you in any of these exercises?

Write about anything that felt silly or exposing.

Finally,

Write about your curiosity for the future.

What would you like to try again?

What would you like to repeat on a regular basis?

And can you book that into your calendar or engage a friend to join you so that the habit sticks?

What would you like to try for the first time?

Perhaps you'd like to share your experiences or your ideas for further practice in the discussion forum.

I wish you many years of rest,

Fascination,

Wonder and reflection in your journey to come.

Go gently.

Allow yourself to make mistakes.

Allow yourself to dislike some things that other people love and to be entranced by things that other people find insignificant.

After all,

As I say in enchantment,

The magic is of your own conjuring.

Thank you.

Reviews

I already have your wonderful book, both of them actually. It was wonderful to hear your voice here and have you explaining a lot of what I have found in the book. Thank you for this. I have a particular deep connection to stones having gathered them from beaches on Cape Cod for many years . This is a lovely reminder to sit with them more than I already do. xo

So happy to have stumbled upon this today! Thank you, Katherine May 💚

Thanks for this precious meditation and your soft voice guiding me through theses thoughts and healing practices. I will return to it again and again as this lesson soothes me 🙏🧚🏼🙏💕

What wonderful reminders

This is truly stunning, I love this meditation so much. With gratitude 💗🦋🌿🌤️

Thank you so much! It is cold,wet, and cloudy this morning. My work was less than the best today and I had made myself quite miserable. I opened the app on lunch break and searched awe, no idea why that term, this was the first entry on the results. I am so happy it was. Thank you again.

So enchanting ✨
Thank you deeply for this amazing moment 🙏

Thank you so much for making this inclusive for those of us who are housebound 🙏

This really connected with me thank you 🙏

Super detailed! Loved allll of the advice, thank you!!

Beautiful 💜🙏
I love to go into the garden and listen to the birds singing, really feel connected to the plants trees, flowers...

Fascinating to realise working on awe again can bring more peace and calm into our lives. Thank you for bringing this idea back into my life 🤗🌊🙏🏽🫶💚🐚🐦💖

That was brilliant thank you 🙏

Totally and completely an angel, a blessing, a gift in life. I am every grateful for this gift.

✨LOVED this!!!!! 🥰💚✨ I wish it maybe had some nature sound or light background music as I tend to absorb teachings more with those, but I’ll definitely be returning to this one for SURE! 😄🙏🏻

So So Beautiful Thank you Katherin I hope you do more tracks just Wonderful

That was wonderful, thank you.
It's time to do some conjuring 🌞

I enjoy your suggestions.

Wonderful! Thank you!