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Make Room for Wonder

by

This is the time of year when it’s easy to envision wonder. The holiday season lets everyone lower their defenses.

  • The slack jawed two year old walking up to Santa in the Mall.
  • Waking up in the morning to a fresh blanket of snow and silence.
  • Videos of Hallelujah Chorus flash mobs.

It’s time to allow wonder to trespass into the rest of the year.

Being in a state of wonder leaves you vulnerable. It exposes you and makes you feel like a child, because children aren’t self-conscious. Children are experiencing everything for the first time, and they aren’t afraid to show their excitement.

Wonder puts the pause to our analytical, logical, data-driven minds.

We let ourselves feel wonder every once in a while, on special occasions:

  • The birth of a child
  • Visiting the Grand Canyon for the first time
  • Watching the Monarch butterflies migrate through Pacific Grove, CA

I’m proposing that we intentionally go to that innocent mind-space on a more regular basis.

Wonder-Generators for Your Daily Life – Some Ideas

Appreciate the wonder of space – remember when you wanted to be an astronaut as a kid? Did you know that NASA has some amazing social accounts you can follow? Feed your inner astronaut and subscribe to NASA’s Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/nasa/.

Dream about technological innovations – I’ve attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas many times over the years. It is one of the places where you can get hands-on with technology and inventions that are several years from reality. If you can’t be there in person, you can follow their Twitter feed to see some of the latest goodies: https://twitter.com/ces.

Add some scientific exploration to your diet – visit the Scientific American website and find out whether Michelangelo encoded messages in the Sistine Chapel. Add National Geographic’s photo of the day to your routine, and marvel at the beauty that surrounds all of us.

Weather inspires awe – many of us are amateur tornado chasers, or become glued to the Weather Channel when a hurricane approaches. One element of wonder is the idea that you are not necessarily in control of everything. Weather watching reminds us of our place in the natural order. I’m currently obsessed with the Dark Sky weather app, which includes an amazing global weather tool. In case you need to know the temperature in Antarctica.

OK, you’re up. Where do you go when you want to put yourself in a state of wonder?

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image via Flickr CC: Tom Hall