Have you been awestruck lately?

The Biological Advantage of Being Awestruck - by @JasonSilva from Jason Silva on Vimeo.

This video tells us about why it's good for us to be awestruck- it gives us a sense of wonder and adds meaning into life. The world can seem so broken one moment when you are caught in the midst of everything, feeling like there's no end in sight. And yet, when you gaze up into the night sky, pondering at the distant stars that stand, immobile, blinking silently, a sense of calm washes over you and you feel that somehow things will turn out alright. Not now maybe, but you have faith that it will, and that's enough.

Things and moments that make us awestruck expand our consciousness, and connects us deeper with everything around us. It's as if something miraculous is happening, and we're simply observers gazing upon our own existence.

I distinctly remember an experience I had in middle school. It was sometime during the middle of science class, and I was sitting by the window, zoning out into the sky. Of course, when I look out most of the time, I'm still aware that yes, I'm just looking out the window, I'm still sitting in a desk, my feet rested on the ground, my back touching chair, my hands propped on the surface of the table, the teacher talking in the background, classmates passing notes to one another....all those senses are still intact. But this time was different.

I must of have entered some kind of weird trance/daydream event where all of a sudden, I felt at first that I was sucked out into space and all the familiar surroundings disappeared (there were no longer classmates next to me, the ground beneath my feet were gone, the entire classroom dissolved) and it was just me (getting smaller and smaller) and empty space (stretching farther and farther). It was both frightening and awe-inspiring. I remember having these feelings and thoughts flood into me that I've never experienced in my life. In one breath, I experienced how SMALL and insignificant I was compared to the entire Universe. The size of the scale overwhelmed me, literally. I became so small that I felt "nothingness," non-existence. The second thing came to me as a thought as a result of this feeling: it is completely unbelievable, a miracle, that we all EXIST. Just EXISTENCE itself is so strange, wonderful, and against all probabilities. In a SPACE previously of emptiness, devoid of anything...for Non-emptiness to come along is mindblowing. Why wasn't there just nothing, emptiness for all of eternity. If there is existence, there must be non-existence, and the chance of non-existence should be much much MUCH greater than existence, since non-existence requires no energy, no..nothing. Why, HOW do we even exist? This question bore down on me, but before I had a chance to explore it some more, to grab ahold of it, I returned to my current reality. The teacher's voice came back and the windows had screens across them once more, and I look into my classmate's bored expressions which impatiently eyed the clock. But for many minutes afterwards when the emotions slowly left me, I was speechless, and like a fading dream, I could not grasp it as hard as I tried.

I have perhaps pondered the meaning of existence abstractly, but I've never felt it so VISCERALLY throughout my entire body and mind. That little experience shifted my perspective on life, and I was infused with the deepest awe for all that was life, and even non-life, but for things just existing at all. And my own ability to ponder my existence. How strange, and beautiful. I felt like I would go crazy thinking about it now, but I knew that I experienced some "truth". We are a miracle, and no accident. There is something much greater in life to explore, and I was dead set on discovering what it was.

As I got older, I became more and more aware of the world, and noticed things in front of me that I previously could not see. Although we all live on the same planet, many people don't really live "here" but rather some place in their heads. I became more prone to seeing beauty in all sorts of places, and my breath would be caught by the scent of flowers while walking past a corner in the city, the gorgeous fluffy clouds in the sky, the comforting, meditative chirp of cicadas during the summer, the sun setting across a river on a run, the warm breeze that tickles and runs up my skin, the blinding sparkling snow crunching underneath my boot, a cup of warm chocolate against my hand on a rainy afternoon, the trees, the grass, the leaves, the veins....water. How smooth and velvety it was to touch. How powerful it was rushing down a waterfall. How I thirsted for it after ingesting salty foods. How cool, refreshing it was to bathe in. I was just enraptured by it all, anything that was not created by man, and anything that was beautifully created by man to exist in harmony with nature.

Although I still have not found my answer, I'm as passionate as I ever was, and I look forward each and every day to experiencing the magnificence that can be found anywhere.

What has made you awestruck?