Depression is a state in which a person is flattened mentally, emotionally, and physically. A depressed person feels de-energized, weak, incapable, tired, pessimistic, even hopeless. A depressed person can’t concentrate and has trouble with basic bodily functions like appetite, eating, sleeping, showering, and dressing. The depressed person is indifferent to work and social obligations. The only thing that is appealing is staying in bed.
Awe is a state in which a person is inspired, uplifted, and lit up like a Christmas tree. It is an expansive state that takes us out of our petty concerns, worries, and obsessions. Awe creates an instant, powerful, and pleasurable connection to something outside of us that we find remarkable. The stimulus for awe can be seeing the Grand Canyon, the peaks of ice-covered mountains, a redwood tree, a gorgeous sunset over the ocean or an eagle catching a fish at peak speed. It can be seeing your toddler take her first steps. It can happen when you look at a stained-glass window in a church or synagogue with colored light streaming through. It can be the ecstasy you feel in a group gathered for a religious service, a symphony, or a heavy metal rock concert. Awe can arise from getting a hot pizza straight from a wood burning pizza oven that looks, smells, and tastes beyond one’s wildest dreams.
Awe is a psycho-spiritual-physical state in which one’s whole nervous system is buzzing and humming and you feel a sense of wonder, transcendence, and meaning all at once. To experience awe, you do not have to travel to places like the Grand Canyon. All you need do is tap into the spiritual energy and natural beauty that surrounds us at every moment but which we blind ourselves to in the nose-to-the-grindstone struggle for survival. It boils down to receptivity. You can’t fall in love unless you make yourself vulnerable. You can’t experience awe in the present moment unless you make yourself receptive.
You can do this through a practice of releasing monkey chatter in your brain and allowing your 5 physical senses plus your psycho-spiritual senses to take over. Natural, slow, deep breathing combined with softening your gaze helps the process. Identifying with a child capable of wonder helps. The child has no filters that drain wonder from experience. The child does not overlay perceptions with ideas about how to manipulate, use, and profit. The child does not rush to evaluate, criticize, and express disappointment. The child simply takes in and feels. Squishing her feet into wet sand, making a snow angel, or rolling around in grass on a sunny day are experienced as joyous moments.
Awe enlivens us and puffs us up from the flattened state of depression. I highly recommend the cultivation and experience of awe as a remedy for it. And by the way, if you do want the perfect pizza go to the original Frank Pepe’s pizza place in Wooster Square in New Haven, CT. Try the sausage and the white clam pizzas with beer on tap for the ultimate experience.
