I’m lucky enough to be writing this on a boat with five wonderful people sailing the Grenadines in the Caribbean. It has gotten me to thinking about stillness and wonder, two of the most important states to achieve as humans. I am really struck by an overwhelming sense of awe at the sheer beauty of this place, but I realize that there is wonder everywhere if we find enough stillness to appreciate it.
I've practiced meditation for a while, training myself to find stillness in the moment- lingering in the suspension at the top of the breath and the emptying at the bottom. Interrupting the stress response in my body and the mental chatter that accompanies it. But each time I leave the comfort of my life filled with busyness, it’s an adjustment for me to surrender to the moment for days on end. But what emerges from surrendering to the extended-stay stillness is always a revelation to me.
Especially on a boat with everything and nothing to do, away from civilization with its constant connection and stimulation. No schedule to dictate or obligations to meet. Sounds glorious and it is, but I find myself reverting back to old patterns of productivity and feeling like I should be doing something. But once I settle in and surrender to the stillness, something magical arises. And that thing is a sense of wonder.
Wonder is defined as, "a heightened state of consciousness and emotion brought about by something singularly beautiful, remarkable or unexpected". And I am experiencing that in a multiplicity of ways so many times a day-- a school of silvery fish swimming in effortless synchronicity among us as we snorkel, spectacular sunsets, local people surprising us with their generous warmth, the sheer magnitude of the sea and sky.
Jesse Prinz, professor of philosophy and City University of New York says that "wonder might be humanity's most important emotion..that inspired our greatest achievements in science, art and religion". It is from a sense of wondrous curiosity that we are inspired to understand nature, outer space, the human body, the meaning of life. It's the what if that sparks our creativity.
The18th-century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, associated this quality of experience with a distinctive bodily feeling — ‘that staring, and sometimes that rolling of the eyes, that suspension of the breath, and that swelling of the heart’. We've all gasped at seeing the Rockies for the first time or learning a fact like there are 100 billion neurons in the human body!
I'm particularly struck by the fact that wonder is first felt in the body before we ever get to cognitively investigate the phenomenon because we cannot rely on past experience to comprehend it. But we don't always google it to obtain all of the facts about it. My instinct is to just bathe in the experience for as long as possible feeling that if I do, it will change me in some way, or trigger something in me that is bigger. That's the spiritual nature of wonder. Whether or not you believe in God with a capital "g", it is hard not to feel that there is some kind of divine order when you see a flower that is a perfect work of art or witness a performance or a vista that transports you to a place of transcendence. It just feels beyond.
But what about finding a sense of wonder even when we're not on vacation? Perhaps if we took the time, we could have wonder-ful days appreciating the miracle that is our children and architecture and technology and the poignancy of humanity rising up against all odds. Over and over again. I bet if we each stopped long enough to think, we could make quite a list of things that have or could inspire a sense of wonder in us. And when we do feel the marvel of wonder in our bodies, we are forever changed.
Since wonder has been the impetus for creating new innovations in science, art and industry, this is an emotion we should seek out and get comfortable with. It will spur us on in whatever our field or activity--- the curiosity to go beyond what came before, to know the unknowable, to conquer the greatest challenge.
As you Mind Your Body on this Wellness Wednesday, find something that takes your breath away, linger there and feel a sense of wonder.
"Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance. And there is only the dance."
T.S. Elliot
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