Are you ready for some football?! Yes… yes I most certainly am. I love this time of year. Football is back… fall weather is around the corner… the big holidays are coming up… the vibes behind these walls feel good and I like that. I was sitting in the TV room on Thursday night… anxiously waiting for kick off of the opening game of the season between the Eagles and Cowboys when I looked around the room and couldn’t help but smile. The room was packed with guys… all collectively giddy with anticipation… talking smack to one another about this team or that… which player is going to have more yards… who is going to score the first touch down… and so on. As I have discussed before… the comradery that football season elicits between the guys in here is something special to witness. And my new TV room set up has amplified that comradery in a pleasantly surprising fashion. The room has multiple windows that lead out into the unit so not only do we have the guys in the room watching the game but we also have guys outside the room… in the “standing section” (if you will)… able to be a part of the action… it legit has sports bar vibes and I’m fully here for it.
So… I’m sitting in my spot… at the front table with direct access to the “sports TV”… soaking in all of the brotherly love taking place moments before the action begins when I take a look to my right and the noise of the room slowly begins to dissipate. Due to my new TV room being on the second floor… when you look out the window… your line of sight clears the fencing so that you have an unobstructed view of the ocean and the shipping yard across the channel. It is magnificent. As I focus out over the water… the sun now in the west… my gaze to the east… I am getting that gorgeous end of the afternoon… beginning of sunset… evening color spectrum feel. I notice myself getting lost in the view and an overwhelming sense of calm and satisfaction washes over me. I have the feeling of seeing the view and somehow being a part of the view… as if I have never looked out that window at that particular time prior to this moment… it was fresh and new and incredible… and I was frozen in this blissful cloud of gratitude. And as I sat there…looking out that window that I have looked out countless times but never like I was looking out of it ‘this time’… I was struck by a part of a book that I had read that talks about the feeling of ‘awe’.
There was a guy named Dachel Keltner that ran an experiment in the early 2000’s on the emotion of ‘awe’. And one of the aspects of his experiment was to have NYU students take a slow walk outside and the only stipulation was that they must not take out their phones the entire time they were on… what he called… their “awe walk”. The results of this walk were astoundingly positive. Students reported being overwhelmed with how beautiful a park that they had walked through every single day but never took the time to appreciate… was without the distraction of their phone. One student stated that… “it felt as if the experience of beauty and awe made me more generous and drawn into the present. The petty concerns of the past suddenly felt dull and to worry about the future felt unnecessary because of how secure and calm I felt.” Dachel states that “awe” improves well being by shifting our neurophysiology… literally changing our brain patterns. It diminishes our focus on self… increases our pro-social relationality… provides greater social integration and heightens our sense of meaning. I was struck by how in that moment of looking out the window… in that beige concrete box of a prison TV room… I was transported to a place of beauty. The power of the mind and perspective… it is incredible.
So… as Fall begins and you find yourself at The Hollywood Bowl… wonderfully awe-struck by your surroundings… simply enjoying the incredible beauty of such an amazing environment prior to a concert starting (Lookin’ at you Mom). Or walking with your kids down a tree lined street at sunset on a Wednesday afternoon… or sitting on your porch drinking coffee… or waiting for kick off in a boisterous TV room in Federal Prison… try to be in that moment…feelin’ it… livin’ it. Because there is magic out there… we just have to put our phones down… drown out the noise and recognize the beauty that is all around us.
Stay Healthy. Stay Active. Chase The ‘Awe’.