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Slice #4: Architecting Awe
17 Plays7 months ago
The host is joined by acupuncturist and dancer, Iris for a captivating conversation on how societal structures often overlook awe, and the ways we can reclaim it in our everyday lives. From minimalist living to the simple act of appreciating a mundane object like a mug, Iris shares her personal journey of cultivating presence and deep appreciation. They also discuss the role of digital environments and how curating our physical spaces can help us prioritize wonder.
You can find Iris here at https://www.soundviewacupuncture.com/
Would love to hear from you! garrett@oyamaslp.com
Support the pod: buymeacoffee.com/goyama
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction & Listener Feedback
00:00:22
Speaker
what's up fellow humans and welcome back to a little slice of awe and wonder a cozy podcast about my two favorite emotions so i'm trying out some different podcast links and i'd really appreciate any feedback about which people prefer you know do you enjoy kind of meandering long form or a shorter more targeted conversation.
Guest Introduction: Iris the Acupuncturist
00:00:42
Speaker
So this week and I spoke with my good friend Iris, an acupuncturist, a dancer, and just an overall wonderful human being. And even though I'm just going to share a snippet of our conversation this week, and we still cover a lot of ground and some practical ways to cultivate awe in your life, both
00:01:02
Speaker
internally and externally, sort of in spite of living in this world that's not always conducive to to finding awe and wonder.
Mindful Awe: Research Insights
00:01:10
Speaker
So even though many people think of awe as something mysterious and maybe impossible to cultivate, awe research really suggests that we have more power to find it than we think.
00:01:22
Speaker
So our researcher, Dacher Keltner, notes that simply being on the lookout for awe can help us experience it. So in a 2022 study, they took 60 participants on weekly 15-minute outdoor walks for eight weeks. But even though each group took the walk, one was asked to tune into awe specifically during the walk.
00:01:41
Speaker
And they found that simply disposing their attention in this way, in fact, led to greater awe during the walks. So the awe group reported not only greater awe, but greater joy and pro-social positive emotions. And they they even displayed increasing smile intensity over the study. So on top of that, outside of the walk context, the awe group also reported, you know, greater decreases in stress over time.
00:02:04
Speaker
So really, how hopeful, how awesome, that just being attuned to awe in this way, just, you know, having someone tell you, hey, look out for awe in this walk, can really, it can transform a mundane, boring walk through some trees into an arboreal cathedral, full of spectacular displays of light, colors, shapes, sounds and smells.
Perception & Focus: Scientific Parallels
00:02:25
Speaker
Our culture very broadly hasn't metabolized this idea yet, that what we attend to actually changes what we see in a very literal sense. So this would be something like the observer effect in quantum physics or the the Rosenthal effect in social science. And I won't dive too far into the rabbit hole, but keep this in mind as Iris talks about her experience drawing a commonplace mug. And so without further ado, please welcome Iris to the podcast.
Accessing Awe: Inner Control & Challenges
00:03:00
Speaker
part of wonder to me feels like this beautiful, vast field that says everything's going to be okay because you're really tiny, right? And and there's the question of why don't we access this all the time if it's such such a tasty feeling? And then the reality of, we haven't built realities that conjure this feeling so much, like what you were talking about earlier around being able to build a system that inspires wonder. That's not the world that we live in on the day to day. But there's so much in our inner world that we can, you know, control is a big word, but more actively participate in. I don't know, there seems in this moment, in this little wondrous pocket of time, it seems like a nice belief to think there's no reason not to be able to
00:03:57
Speaker
prioritize, wonder more massively, moment to moment, than, you know, societally we have.
Spaces of Awe: Emotional Design Impact
00:04:08
Speaker
There's such a cool point that the way that society is built and our lives are built are, you know, they haven't been architected with awe in mind. Yes. They're like built under different principles. Like, you know, you could build a house with a, with certain design principles in mind. Like you want to like, uh, yes. Right. Yeah. One person described interior design to me as everything you look at should be an altar. to something, you know, and some type of gift to your experience. When you turn your head to look at that wall or at your bedroom or at, you know, the bathroom, it should be some type of visual shrine gift offering. It should be an offering. That's cool. I love that. Yeah. We entered into a living space, a workspace or something that was built with like the, this space is an offering of awe, which I feel like a lot of,
00:05:04
Speaker
spiritual spaces do. Nature just kind of is that, you know? Yeah, I think temples at their best are are like that, you know, churches, things like that.
Daily Awe Practices: Tips & Techniques
00:05:15
Speaker
And I think that's also a cool point, just a practical point for people is that I think this came from a meditation once that I did was like, to bow to something every hour, to set a little timer every hour, and whatever you're looking at, just try to find the awesomeness of whatever it is that you're you're looking at, really paying attention in a deep way. And you can find, you know, the awesomeness of really anything. I mean, some things are way more likely to elicit that feeling, you know, looking at like a blank wall versus like a stained glass window. Can you start with something easy? Yeah. Yeah. But you know, if you can't find it in your room or wherever you're sitting, just look outside and see if you can find a tree.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah, that'd be a fun like challenge for a week to pose with friends, to say, come back in a week after every hour. I started this little photo album in my iPhone roll. It's called the Burning Bush Moments. Biblical? Yeah, I guess, I guess, yeah. It feels like you're miraculous, what you're looking at. Looking back, they're like terrible photos. But at the time when I saw certain things that just made me feel that sense of wonder, I would commemorate that moment. And I would try to sit, you know, sit in it before I took a picture of it. But now at least I have this little um gallery of stuff I can look back on and just sort of bring myself back to those moments. And um yeah, yeah, I think that's a cool, it's a cool practice. Yeah. Have a little art collection. A little art collection. ah Recently, I've gotten a lot of help from
00:07:01
Speaker
a vaguely more minimalist mindset around the objects that I own. And I'm kind of shocked by how well it's serving me right now. And it has a little bit to do with what you're talking about. At least that's how it feels to me with making this lovely collection of things that conjures an experience that you'd love to feel way more of the time.
00:07:26
Speaker
and what if the objects that we surrounded ourselves with were much more highly curated to conjure those feelings that we love, you know? And so getting rid of all the rest of the noise and creating at least one space where you get to love what you love without distraction, you know? and I love that, yeah. Yeah, now i I basically don't have any furniture, you know? I have this big, lovely shag rug that is so soft.
00:07:55
Speaker
ah It really ties the room together. It does. It is the room. um But on one side, I have you know a small bookshelf with a bunch of pictures of family and friends. And then on the other side, I have just a bunch of stickers in my little like sticker album that I can make photo albums with. and i just love looking at that, you know? so and And then my bedroom just gets to be like a candle and a little singing bowl. And then the books that I have are just books for when I see them. I'm like, oh, yeah, remember that book? Yeah, remember that book, you know, and the yeah none of the other ones that yeah, it's just
00:08:38
Speaker
I'm really grateful for you know all of the influencers who have filled internet with resources on minimalism to help me right right for for what it for the potential of upping my awe intake on a daily basis.
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know, you say what you want about Marie Kondo, but like her little Tokimeku idea, like sparking joy. Yeah. I think it's really cool, you know, that the objects that you have around you should be the ones that when you see them, you get a little jolt of, oh, awesome. I'm so glad that this is here. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. and that adding in what you were saying earlier, that seeing your objects can be a practice of joy or wonder, that you can posture yourself internally to to practice, being able to conjure that feeling more, and you can make it a little easier for yourself surrounding yourself with stuff that stokes that feeling for you.
Attention & Awe: Digital Distractions
00:09:40
Speaker
Like those are, those are wonderful things. Yeah. You've been like, you know, cause we spend so much time in digital environments. I would, you know, not recommend spending all your time in digital environments, but the fact that we do spend, we have to spend, you know, at least a portion of them on email or whatever it is. I found that just changing my iPhone wallpaper and my desktop background, like totally changes my day in a weird way.
00:10:07
Speaker
That's great. It's no wonder that they have these awe-inspiring, even if you just go to the Apple regular desktop wallpapers that they have set for you. They're really amazing. Wow, those photos are crazy. I mean, you remember from the dawn of computers, right? In Windows XP, when they the typical screen was like this grassy hill with a blue sky behind it.
00:10:32
Speaker
and Oh yeah. and it but yo You remember the screen savers with going through the the stars? That was my favorite. Oh yeah, the stars were squares. That was probably my first foray into art right there. Oh yeah, I think you can still choose that if you'd like. And and my screen saver is still, it's the one that's like hyper psychedelic, you know, with these spinning, colorful, kaleidoscope things, patterns. Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:00
Speaker
and It's amazing screen savers. There's one with like a maze that you had to go through. I remember. I remember that. Yeah. And there was also like a pipe that would, you know, the pipe, let's yeah. Turn at different right angles. and free just sort yeah yeah Gen Z has no idea what we're talking about. but I don't know. Maybe they do. Maybe it'll come back.
00:11:23
Speaker
I saw a funny meme of some mom who forced her kids to watch the AOL startup screen or the dial up modem startup screen yeah for like 15 minutes before they can use the internet. It's like amazing. Do you remember how patient we were?
00:11:43
Speaker
Used to be. yeah And another barrier, getting back getting back to the barriers, I think one of them is being constantly inundated with information and trivia in a way. um You know, some of it's funny and it's fun. um But having access to constant entertainment, it cuts us off from the things that require more attention.
00:12:12
Speaker
And what I mean by that is that, you know, a TikTok video will come out and grab you and it'll be like, watch me, you know? Whereas a tree, it you know, you kind of pass by it and you don't think about it, you know, flowers or whatever, even. um But when you stop and you look at it, there is much more depth in one of those two, not the TikTok video. And so in arts like that too, when you go to a museum, you get out what you put in. So the attention you give to something really affects what you gain from that experience and the depth of the experience and how it might change you. you know Yeah.
00:12:52
Speaker
That reminds me of last year I was doing a training for hakomi therapy, which is a type of somatic therapy specialty. And there was a lot of attention placed on quality of presence. So how to cultivate a quality of presence that's loving. And that that's, you know, 90% of the therapeutic benefit of any psychological healing experience in terms of what's been reported from clients on what they gain from an experience with a therapist. And during that time, I also took a painting class for fun. And there was this one three hour session where we were supposed to look at a mug and just paint it.
00:13:37
Speaker
the whole time. And at first, the idea of that sounded so boring to me, and it was after work, and I was tired, and it was in the winter, so it was dark. I just felt like this frail underground flower that was like, I wanted to paint something amazing, you know, like, let's learn how to paint clouds, like wondrous things. And then,
00:13:54
Speaker
you know two hours into the class, I was fucking in love with this mug. I was like deeply entranced by it, like the way that the light glinted off of it. And it was like an ugly mug that I would never want to own. you know but But in that moment, and even still remembering that, it was... Gorgeous and that may be more than any kind of zoom training session on how to cultivate a quality of presence I mean it was this not to shit on this experience It was a beautiful amazing experience doing the Hakomi training, but this moment with the mug was Transformational, you know, I entered that experience being a grumpy little hog and I exited it being like one of those little
00:14:42
Speaker
cartoon pigs with wings. That's just a label. was Just like, who knew? You know? Incredible. Which is just to say like, yes, there are these stimuli that can be so vacant of life. Very literally, they can be dead things that we're watching that that are built by some algorithm to purely distract us and in a similar way to to very harmful drugs. But there's also, yeah, there's also our internal
00:15:15
Speaker
quality of presence, you know, and that they speak
AI's Impact on Awe & Attention
00:15:18
Speaker
to each other. If we engage more with AI, if we engage more with things that simulate life, but aren't life itself, how will that change our internal experience of life and our internal posture? I have no idea, you know, but it's like a sexy question right now. Yeah, you know, and we're really gonna have to be careful to not overlook that. And to remember how much you know There's a paradox here, which is that awe and wonder shows us how we are so small and part of this large system, but also how much power we have yeah over you know this incredible experience. It's a form of magic to turn this ordinary mug into something precious and vibrant.
00:16:04
Speaker
you know And to fall in love with it and to fall in love with all aspects of your life requires that really keen sense of attention, but it's possible. So thanks for opening up that possibility.
Conclusion & Gratitude to Iris
00:16:18
Speaker
And I feel like that's a, maybe a, a good practice for people who are interested. Yeah. go painter mug for three hours um'm um'm gonna Yeah. I want to find one of my mugs and just draw it. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Really though. you know Well, Iris, it was so amazing catching up with you. You're awesome. And you inspire awe and wonder in me. And so really happy to to chat with you. Thanks, Scooter. This has been so great. Thank you.