More Than Human World
The Science Of Awe
Dear Ones,
Hello, sorehearts. Thank you for your generous attention to these letters. Thank you for receiving the stories of my heart. Life is such a mixed affair. What an inflection point we face!
“Powerful” hospital humans still work on bottom lines. I work on front ones. Our paths rarely cross.
My revelation dust finally settles. Stars circle above my head as I come to. I get over the shock of how sapiens normalize violence. All kinds of violence. Structural and systemic violence is ubiquitous. Aftershocks remain.
Why did we split the atom? Perhaps we stirred something sinister up.
I feel like a pez candy dispenser in an insatiable society.
It is hard to stomach the violence of the world, isn’t it?
It is even harder to reconcile how we continue to build and endorse toxic industries: petroleum industry, food industry, pharma industry, tobacco/alcohol industry, tech/social media industry, healthcare industry…
I prefer the more than human world over the human world. Yes, I prefer birds and flowers. I have never met a violent flower, have you?
Did you know baby birds babble as they undergo stages of vocal learning? How precious is that? Birdsongs deactivate human nervous systems. Nature offers free and calming elixirs.
WORDS: SWORDS OR SALVES
When you are full of love, it confuses people who are full of sh*t.
I was delighted to receive gifts of hate speech on substack recently. As if anyone needs extra doses of violence these days. I certainly do not. The best way to end something is to starve it, right? Who taught them to be so cruel? Byeeeee, hiding and hating humans filled with vitriol. Cruelty loses the platform of my attention.
Hurt people hurt people. Sick brains perform sick acts.
I mean with all the great reception I have been receiving lately, I probably should leave the U.S. (and I might frankly).
Is there a place devoid of cruelty (aside from nature of course)? I have some ideas due to my highest education of world travel. Please message me if you happen to know more on this juicy topic.
I jest. I already know that the way out is in and that wherever you go there you are. Wherever you go, there violent and sick humans are (though arguably more in some places compared to others).
So….I retreat to writing. To nature. To writing about nature. I prefer the nonviolence of my irises and poppies.
**NESSA TIP:** The words above activated my nervous system and possibly yours too. Observe reactions to such word weaponry and let it pass. Observe don’t absorb (easier said than done but possible). Be curious about this variety of brain sickness. They are clearly very ill and suffer deeply. I am unsure if this is curable or not. I assume they are sad, fearful, lonely humans on the other side of the screen. The next step is cultivating compassion and this requires deep practice apparently.
Inquiries and curiosity led me back to Ocean Vuong, a beautiful and poignant writer. He shares:
I am writing because they told me to never start a sentence with because. But I wasn’t trying to make a sentence – I was trying to break free. Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.
Do you remember the happiest day of your life? What about the saddest? Do you ever wonder if sadness and happiness can be combined, to make a deep purple feeling, not good, not bad, but remarkable simply because you didn’t have to live on one side or the other?
Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence – but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.
Ocean Vuong points to the violence of our language in this poem:
WHAT’S AWE GOT TO DO WITH IT? (curtsey to Tina Turner)
Prescription (Rx) for hatred: Awe
This planet is fertile territory for awe. If my stubborn neurons can readily find it, then yours can too. Trust me, I am a soon to be ex-doctor. We can find awe in the ordinary. You don’t have to go far to go on an “Awe-Walk.”
Sharon Salzberg describes it as “the absence of self-preoccupation.” Dacher Keltner, an author and scientist at UC Berkeley, defines awe as the “feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world.”
THE SCIENCE OF AWE. Keltner’s research reveals that awe:
decreases cytokines which are chemical messengers that elicit inflammatory responses (Inflammation contributes to stress and disease)
activates our parasympathetic nervous system (Rest and digest is opposite of fight or flight)
shares a lot of the same neurophysiology of deep contemplation techniques (Yay mindfulness)
shares a link with altruism (Amazing)
helps us be more open to unknowns (Without fear)
quiets negative self-talk by deactivating part of the cortex involved in how we perceive ourselves. (It is wild that our default mode is negative self-talk)
activates specific areas of the brain, including the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula, which are involved in emotion regulation and self-awareness (Genius)
triggers release of oxytocin, the “love” hormone that promotes trust and bonding. (Awe = love)
May All Beings Find Peace.
Nessa (born at 333 ppm)
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EVIDENCE OF AWE via Week In Photos:
For me it is birds, these magical wonderful beings. I read an article long ago how parrots were used to help military vets heal, where pharmacological treatments were not successful.
"Because of freedom." I loved that. It resonated. I write to the wind, my accomplice. It whispers my secrets to whoever is receptive to them.