I want to talk to you a little today about awe,
The emotion of awe.
And I want to recommend and teach you how to have an awe practice.
A lot of us are familiar with gratitude practice,
And gratitude,
Or noticing something that we're grateful for,
Has been researched and found to increase happiness.
And that makes sense,
Because if we're noticing something that we're grateful for,
We are automatically directing our attention to something that makes us happy.
Awe is just as powerful or more.
Awe leads instantly to mindfulness.
When we notice something with awe,
We are connected to the present moment in an intense way.
For instance,
If I look at the succulent plant in my window,
It's this beautiful,
Rather large plant with branches that have become tree-like and these succulent,
Small,
Green leaves everywhere.
And it grows from this pot that is suspended in mid-air on the ledge outside my window.
That is awesome.
That is wondrous.
So connecting to the awe of that plant growing from that little pot outside my window instantly connects me to the present moment and noticing that plant.
Awe is an altered state of consciousness.
It takes us out of ourselves.
It takes us to connectedness with something beyond ourselves.
It's also beyond our regular way of understanding things.
So usually I can just look at that plant and go,
Huh,
Plant.
Even if it's pretty and I like it,
It's just plant.
To stop and go,
Wow,
That plant is growing out of this square foot of earth in a pot suspended from the ground.
That is taking myself outside my regular way of understanding things.
Interestingly,
Most positive emotions,
When we feel them,
We smile.
Awe has its own very specific facial characteristics.
The jaw drops and the eyebrows raise and there's a gasp,
An intake of breath sometimes with awe.
And awe has been found to increase wellbeing.
It's been found to decrease inflammation markers in the body.
Inflammation markers are connected to many chronic illnesses.
So awe may even be improving our health.
So here's how to practice awe.
Allow yourself to feel intense wonder at something that you're experiencing right now or something that you can notice through your senses right now.
So I gave an example of the plant outside my window,
But it can even be the fact of seeing,
You know,
That it's awesome that I see colors and shapes and that at every moment I'm surrounded by beauty.
There's always something beautiful that I can look at.
So that's a way to practice awe.
Or another example is to notice and be awed by the fact that breathing works,
That we take in air from this room and it fills our lungs and nourishes our entire bodies.
That is awe.
Now the Hebrew word baruch,
Which I'll explain in a moment,
Is an awe practice in one word.
Every baruch is the most common word in Jewish prayer.
It's the first word of almost every blessing.
And this includes blessings that we say during formal prayers,
But also blessings that we say throughout the day on food or different actions that we do throughout the day.
So we think of baruch usually as meaning blessed.
Baruch atah Hashem,
Blessed are you God that created this apple or that has commanded me to do this and this.
But actually the word baruch has a deeper and,
In my opinion,
Much more beautiful and awesome meaning.
Baruch comes from the word berek,
Which means knee,
That part of your body that's,
You know,
In the middle of your leg,
The knee.
And it's also connected to the Hebrew phrase that is used for the word to kneel.
L'chroah berek means to kneel.
So baruch is connected to bowing and kneeling with awe.
Baruch means awesome.
Awesome are you God that has created this piece of fruit or that has commanded me to do such and such.
So when you say,
If you say Jewish blessings or brachot in your day to day practice,
Say the word baruch with attention.
And you can use this practice in a religious way or in a more universal way.
So religiously,
You can say,
When you can have in mind,
When you say the word baruch that God has created everything in this moment,
That God has created this piece of food that I'm going to eat,
Or God has created the truth that the blessing is about.
God's presence is in every aspect of this moment.
And that is awesome.
You can also use the word baruch in a more universal way.
Just saying the word baruch and bring your attention to the immense wonder of this moment through your senses.
So we talked about,
For instance,
What you see.
There is a yellow plastic cup opposite me right now.
It's upside down.
It's ready for my next therapy client.
And the light is hitting the side of it in just a really beautiful way.
It's not a particularly beautiful cup.
It's my way of doing my bit for the environment by not having disposable cups.
But the light is hitting the side of it in this beautiful way.
And there's little stripes in the plastic so the light is really bright and then faded,
Really bright and then faded for this strip of light.
And that is awesome.
I can be awed right now by the fact that just the regular light on this partly cloudy day hitting this very regular,
Ordinary yellow plastic cup is creating this beauty across the room from me and that I can see it and appreciate it.
Thanks for listening.
