An Invitation to Awe

Do you know awe, gratitude's lesser known cousin?

Gratitude has been written about a lot: it reduces depression, anxiety, and stress, while improving sleep, relationships, and heart health. All so good! And, you can find recorded gratitude meditations - as well as non-meditation (!) ideas for gratitude practice - on the blog.

Awe hasn’t gotten the same publicity yet. But I think it will. 

Awe has been the subject of a lot of research in the past few years and it's been found to have similar mental health benefits to gratitude, PLUS the overarching benefit of helping us move out of our isolating focus on ourselves and into a sense of connection to the world. Awe lets us know we’re a part of something larger.

Scientists think that awe may have evolved as an emotion because it helped our “ancestors survive in the face of uncertain environments that demanded group cooperation.” That sort of connection and resilience sounds pretty good today, too. 

I also know that regardless of “proven benefits,” I love the feeling of awe – of being in the presence of something vast, beautiful, transcendent. 

If awe also sound appealing to you, I’d love to have you join Ella Crandall and me for an Earth Day Celebration on Sunday, 4/19, at the Wainwright House to savor connection and wonder together - an afternoon spent in a beautiful place, slowing down, connecting with yourself and community, and remembering what it feels like to belong to the natural world.

You’ll leave with a plant of your own, along with a few things that are less tangible, but just as real: a sense of place and belonging, inspiration, and maybe even awe. 

I’d love for you to be there.  We’ll make space for connection and wonder —

reminding us that we’re each a beautiful part of something much larger.

Experience wonder together → Reserve your spot

(Use code EARTHDAY at checkout for $20 off through March 12.)