Feeling Awe Full?
by Phylis Clay Sparks

When was the last time you were awestruck — perhaps by a double rainbow, an outrageously beautiful sunset or someone pointing a gun at you? Maybe you have been awed by someone’s accomplishments, by a newborn baby or by the unexpected and crushing announcement, “You’re fired!”  Any of these experiences can inspire a feeling of awe. Any given moment can be awe filled or downright awful. But awful moments are still awe full.

In today’s world, we seem to think we’re supposed to always be happy. In fact, we have the idea that bliss is what life is all about. But we all know that that isn’t true. There are bumps in life over which we have no control except through our perception of what’s happening, our response to what’s happening and our attitude about what’s happening.

Being in awe is experiencing an emotion that offers a new way to perceive the world at the best and at the worst of times. An important thing to realize is that we can’t always live in the la-la land of what we call happiness.

Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., author of Super Joy, The Heart’s Code and Awe, says, “Awe seems to exist within us not only because it can make us very happy; it also offers lessons and warnings about paying more attention to, and fully experiencing, all that life offers us—be it terrible or tremendous.”

Awe can energize us about the future or cause us to rediscover the beauty of the past. It is the emotion that causes us to contemplate both the bad and the good.

I’m going to take a risk and step out of the misunderstood message that we can have everything we want—that life can always be peachy—and suggest that life is not about trying to be perpetually happy. 

Even if we could be happy all the time, we would only be partially living, for how can we know what happiness is without knowing its opposite? Without facing the ever-looming reality of inevitable loss, how can we possibly be awed by those special moments shared with someone we love? We cannot comprehend the intensity of joy without knowing its opposite. We get to experience the pain of endings.  We get to experience the strength to let go, perhaps forgive, and move on.

We also get to notice the amazing beauty of life, the thrill of joy on happy occasions, the fulfillment of a job well done and the awesome honor of true friendship.

Even though this experience we call life is filled with a huge variety of challenge, choice and cheer, we can’t help but notice how things tend to work out in positive ways  that we least expect if we let go of trying to control and manipulate outcomes.

You may have seen the recent live interview with the Dahli Lama on Channel 5’s Today Show.  Ann Curry asked him how people can be happy in a world so fraught with drama and disaster and find happiness? 

He responded by pointing out that problems are temporary. He said that we human beings have a gentle nature and that we have power over problems. Major disasters, he said, are something different.  But most things that we become anxious about are all created by us and can be overcome by our own positive action and a sense of motivation.

Ann mentioned the disastrous earthquake in the Dahli Lama’s own country of Tibet, a place where he can never return. She pointed out how his life has been touched many times by sadness, and asked him how he suggests handling sadness.

He simply pointed out that tragedy happens. “You ask yourself what you can do, do it, then don’t worry,” he said, and he laughed. 

The Dahli Lama also asked Ann if she had noticed that when natural disasters happen in today’s world, people are awed into responding with help and compassion more than ever before. He said that the world is getting better, not worse, and pointed out that even though the news media focuses on negative things, there are more positive things happening than ever before; that the human spirit is coming forward more and more. And as it does, there will be more and more happiness and less and less pain.  I was so happy that I caught that interview.

An awe-filled life is about meeting the challenge of handling pain without amplifying it into suffering, and savoring pleasure without becoming a slave to pursuing more of it.  Let your life be awe full, not awful, no matter what’s happening.

If you take time to notice all the good things on earth that you may have failed to enjoy, you might be awestruck. Even when there seems to be a problem, in the midst of stress and strain, you can notice the good.

Let your perceptions and your imaginations open your mind to all that’s available in every moment, offering you creative opportunities to meet each challenge. Let the intensity of awe help reduce pain as well as free you from the relentless search for more happiness. Honor it all. Embrace it all. Don’t let the awful moments anchor you in unhappiness, but let the flow of life show you the contrast that is awesome, awe full and ripe with adventure.