In this episode, Victoria discusses the concept of awe and its effects on our well-being with writer Rumi Tsuchihashi. Together, they explore the way awe provides an essential human experience of being in the presence of something vast that transcends our understanding of the world. Rumi shares a simple practice for cultivating awe, by noticing and photographing something awe-inspiring for seven days, as a way to cultivate awe in everyday life. She shares some of her writing, which emphasizes the importance of being open to new experiences and finding beauty in the small moments. Rumi also brings insights from the way her grandparents experienced daily awe and wonder, as well as the benefits of vocalizing and sharing these experiences with others. The two encourage listeners to seek out awe in their own lives and to embrace the beauty and wonder that surrounds them. Thank you to Rumi Tsuchihashi at rumitsuchihashi.com. Visit her website or find the beautiful writing you here in this episode on Amazon.com. And thank you to Aldar Kedem for the tunes...Ocean in Motion. You can find The Naked Librarian's Guide to Your First Colonoscopy here. Thank you to our sponsor Mission Flow — marketing and automation for businesses on a mission. Read the transcript below: Speaker 1 (00:00:00): Have you ever wondered why you feel compelled to say words like Wow or awesome? Turns out these everyday words help us describe big, emotional and sensory experiences known as wonder and awe. Now, science is just now starting to really understand the effects of awe on our wellbeing, and there's a lot to learn. If you want more peace and calm, even happiness in your life, this conversation is meant for you. (00:00:36): There's so many things you can do for your health and wellbeing, yoga, walking, meditation, stretching, running, gardening, strength training, buying organic, a beach vacation. But what if I told you there's a simple practice that helps you feel more present and alive, more connected to the world, and all living things decreases. Stress increases happiness and fills you with the kind of love that brings you to happy tears. And you can do it anytime and any place, whether you're alone or with someone else, it's 100% free. And maybe the very best part requires no conscious effort. In fact, all you have to do is show up. What is this amazing, miraculous, wonderful thing I'm talking about? Sometimes we call it awe, and sometimes we call it wonder. The two experiences seem to exist on a continuum and understanding awe and its effects on our wellbeing is something science is just now starting to understand. (00:01:32): In Brene Brown's fabulous Atlas of the Heart and encyclopedia of emotions and experiences she uses researchers, oic, Weiner, and Johannes Wagman's helpful explanation of the difference between awe and wonder. Wonder inspires the wish to understand and awe inspires the wish to let shine, to acknowledge, and to unite. Hi, I'm Victoria Payne, a health and happiness nerd, and the creator and your host of the Naked Librarian. If you're new here, welcome. I am so glad you're here. You've picked a fantastic episode for your first naked librarian experience. In this episode, I'm going to bring in another definition of awe according to Docker Kelner, a psychologist and awe researcher, you're going to hear it again later in the episode, and that's intentional. This is one of those definitions that's worth writing down. Kelner says, awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world. (00:02:31): And one of the coolest things about awe is according to keltner, awe can also come in the form of perceived vastness. Let that sink in. This is something we're going to be talking about and exploring in this episode. Now, here's some facts to know about awe. It calms your nervous system by activating your vagus nerve. It does to your brain something very similar to prayer, meditation, and pilgrimage. It deactivates, what's your default network, which is the place we do a lot of our overthinking, negative thoughts and old stories. It helps us understand our place and our connection to the world. Time in nature, movement, meditation even. And this is going to be a whole other episode, psychedelics in courage. Awe, some people are more wired to experience awe, which psychologists believe is a trait because they're more curious and comfortable with the unknown and with what language cannot describe. (00:03:28): But, and this is fabulous news, you can cultivate more on your life by being open to new experiences. And as you'll see in this episode, I believe that writing about our lives helps us experience more wonder and awe because we get to do a double take. We get to conjure up a forgotten moment and ask it to show us why we've remembered it after all these years. In other words, we get to look at our own lives with awe. That's why to better understand awe and how we can cultivate more of it in our lives. I've invited the beautiful writer, Rumi Su chichi, onto the podcast. Rumi's Work showcases the wonder and awe and the ordinary. And her books of tiny essays revealed the magic inside of the little memories and experiences, sometimes known only to us. Rumi is the author of, I Want to Remember This, recognizing Tiny Moments that Make Up a Life. (00:04:21): And I want this for you, mothering What Matters most. She's also the author of Where our Palms Touch and essay that was featured in the modern lump column of the New York Times. I know no better way to talk about awe than to talk to a writer who by birth or by practice captures life in the style of a written photograph. So come with me on this delightful journey and discover why Rumi and I think wa the combination of awe and wonder, just maybe the word of 2024, learn how awe invites us to make experiences. Our teachers in contrast to books or thoughts, hear the story of my own awe experience, which included more than jaw drops and flowing tears. But one more surprising and slightly embarrassing sensation. Learn rumi's, simple practice for exiting gloom and experiencing more awe in just seven days. Think of it as mental weight loss. If you want more peace, calm, joy, wonder, nature, goodness, connection, smiles, energy, reverence and magic in your life. Come a little closer, I've got just the conversation for you. (00:05:39): I am so excited for our conversation today. I've been thinking about this topic for weeks and because I am also really nerdy, I spent the last week specifically reading more about the science of awe and wonder, and I feel like, I don't know, maybe it's age and stage of life, but right now, this is something that I have have my awe glasses on and I'm paying more attention to it. So welcome to the conversation today. I feel like your work specifically peaks at the bits of awe and wonder and our everyday lives. And I'm really curious, is that something that's always been a part of how you've seen the world or did you surprise yourself in terms of what you ended up writing about? Speaker 2 (00:06:54): That's a good question. So the short answer is yes, but I didn't know it. I didn't know. I was looking at the world through the lens of awe and wonder seeking until I read Mary Oliver quote from her poem. Sometimes that goes, instructions for living a life, pay attention, be astonished, tell about it. As soon as I read that my life made sense that, oh, this is what I've been trying to do, didn't all the struggle of what am I supposed to be doing with my life and what is my purpose? And not that I've answered those questions all the way yet, but see reading that like, oh, this is what I've been doing. I've been paying attention, I've been astonished, and I've been trying to tell about it in a world that maybe loves the word wow, but also trivializes it after a while, there's a, okay, now let's get back to work. Speaker 1 (00:08:13): I can relate to that. I feel like I'm definitely guilty. I think earlier you said something accidentally, but I think we might need to make it something. I think you said wa Speaker 2 (00:08:24): Wa I know. Speaker 1 (00:08:27): And I thought, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Rumi, we could start a campaign. There could be T-shirts. More wa, Speaker 2 (00:08:41): More wa. I have never said that, and I think maybe that's what I've been trying to say all my life. Mor, Speaker 1 (00:08:51): I'm with you, Mor bring the, I can just imagine all kinds of great slogans that could be created. I think it's really cool how you connected hearing this has happened to me before too. You hear someone's words, in this case, wonderful Mary Oliver, and you realize, oh, that's it. And it helped you make sense of your life. And I think that's something that's really cool about awe in general is that sometimes instead of helping you make sense of your life, it just blows the doors off and makes you go, okay, not everything's going to make sense. So my job is to marvel and to see it. And I think something that I've been coming back to more is the feeling of I don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss my life because I am going, wow, okay, back to work. And I think that's one of the beautiful things about writing, and it's really great to talk to a writer about this because I feel like this is one of the luxuries that we get as writers is we see something and then we get to recreate it if we really photograph it in language. (00:10:35): And I think of your work that way, and you have these written photographs, sometimes these images that we get to see. And I wanted, before we get too far along, I found a definition of awe from Docker Kelner, and he is a psychologist at University of California Berkeley. You and I were talking about him before we started, and he's done so much research on awe. He has a book, awe, the New Science of Everyday Wonder and how it Can
