Experiencing awe helps us slow down and connect with the world around us. So how can we harness the power of this emotion? Host Dutcher Keltner leads us into an awe-inspiring, colorful meditation.
Scroll down to see the transcript for this episode.
Practice:
- Whether indoors or outdoors, find a space where you can stop for a moment and take in the scenery in front of you.
- Settle into a pattern of deep breathing and peace. Focus on how your inhalation and exhalation patterns relax your body and slow your heart rate.
- Next, turn your gaze to the space around you. Please accept the scenery in front of you as it is.
- You can shift your attention to the colors present in things around you, or step back and get a sense of the scene in a more holistic way.
- Notice the changes and differences in the various colors in your field of vision.
- What emotions do colors evoke in you?
- Then gently close your eyes, then open them and notice how you feel.
Today’s guest:
Dacher Keltner is the host of the Greater Good Science Center’s award-winning podcast “The Science of Happiness” and co-instructor of GGSC’s popular online course of the same name. He is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
More stories like this:
How awe connects us
https://tinyurl.com/bdhy4sj5
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Happiness Break: Respect for Others, with Dutcher
https://tinyurl.com/3ptwh66j
Dutcher Keltner feels the awe of nature everywhere he goes
https://tinyurl.com/4r7rjaxf
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Transcript of the episode:
Dutcher Keltner Welcome to Happiness Break. Here, we’ll take a short break from your day and try out practices that help foster connection, compassion, resilience, and more.
I’m Dutcher Keltner. This week, I’m going to focus on a sentiment that is near and dear to my heart. It’s the awe you feel when you’re faced with something vast that challenges your understanding of the world.
As you may know, my research over the past decade has shown that even when we are in awe ourselves, these brief moments of awe can make us feel a sense of self-awareness. I’ve found that it makes me feel more humble, less stressed, more connected to other people, and kinder. Awe brings out the better angels in us.
We can practice cultivating awe through all of our senses. Today we’re going to focus on vision. And more specifically, a reverence for color.
Please find a space, indoors or outdoors, where you can stop for a moment and take in the scenery in front of you. Maybe you step outside your front door and look at the leaves around you, the color of the clouds, the sky. Or, you might want to stay indoors wherever you are and look for something that catches your eye with an alluring color pattern. Wherever is comfortable for you.
Next, settle into a deep breathing pattern. Focus on how the inhale-and-exhale pattern relaxes your body, slows your heart rate, and brings a little ease to your breathing.
Next, turn your gaze to the space around you. Accept the scenery in front of you as it is.
You may shift your attention to specific details of things, such as the color or surface of the table, or the tree if you are outdoors.
You can also take a step back and understand the gestalt or sense of the whole scene at once in a more holistic way.
Now start noticing the colors in everything you see. If it’s outdoors, it might be the brown of the earth, green, grass, lots of green, the blue of the sky, the white and gray of the clouds. Concrete gray and brown.
Notice the many colors. If you’re indoors, pay attention to the colors of things around you. wall color, floor color. carpets and rugs. Probably an object on the table. Notice the subtle shades of color, the tints of color you are currently looking at.
Notice the changes and differences in the various colors in your field of vision.
Experiment to see if each color has texture. The temperature that you can feel in your body. Emotions and thoughts that colors evoke.
Let your mind wander and see if the colors take you to different memories.
What emotions do colors evoke in you?
Accept those feelings and see if you can notice them in your body. When you breathe into the area of color, the sensations in your body seem to change.
Then gently close your eyes, then open them and notice how you feel.
Take a few more deep breaths and carry that feeling with you day and night.
thank you.
