Finding Awe in the Ordinary

Video Transcript

Research suggests experiencing awe can make us happier and healthier.

But how can we find awe in our everyday lives?

Iraq War veteran and outdoors educator Stacy Bare tried these steps.

Step 1

When you’re outside, look around for nature and look around for beautiful moments.

Step 2

Take the time to stop and take a photo.

Step 3

And if you can write about it what you’re thinking about in that moment or why, that’s beautiful.

I wrote that, “I never would have done this hike, pre-kid. It was the longest, most grueling 0.8 miles ever. But the reward was sweet. Wilder felt on top of the world and surprised she could hike this far and this high.”

My wife and I never would’ve been like, let’s go do the 0.8 mile trail. You know, where I was like, you want to do 5 miles or 20 miles or what are we going to do? And that’s how we used to be. And now here we are like 0.8 miles, can we do it?

We were lucky we made it all the way to this amazing waterfall. MacKenzie and I thought that waterfall was so cool. And Wilder found this really cool leaf right there. And she looked at the waterfall for all of two seconds and then wanted us all to spend a few minutes staring at this crazy leaf.

And that’s a constant reminder, I think living with a toddler, that the destination is the journey.

A reminder that you don’t have to do these big, huge adventures to find nature and to find awe and to find healing.

What this really did was force me to recognize how beautiful the world is everywhere we go, even if it’s just driving down a four-lane road in the middle of Los Angeles, right.

Like find the beauty, see the beauty.

It strips us away to our basic humanity.

And that’s what’s driven a lot of my work is wanting people to feel human and how good that can be.