112 - Awe is the Love Language of the Nervous System
I once heard from a teacher that awe might be one of the first reflexes we have as babies: eyes wide, breath held in wonder, taking in the world for the very first time.
I haven't found a study to prove it, but it feels true—the impulse to point, to name, to exclaim, “Look at that! And that over there!” The small hand tugging toward something marvelous, seemingly ordinary, yet entirely new.
Where trauma narrows our world, awe expands it. It brings our breath into the back body, our perspective into wholeness.
Awe is an invitation to pause and ask: is there anything ordinary that for a moment I could honor as extraordinary?
In this episode, I share a personal story where I embraced awe and how it changed my perspective on everyday life.
Episode Transcript:
Sarah Tacy [00:00:06]:
Hello, welcome. I'm Sarah Tacy and this is Threshold Moments, a podcast where guests and I share stories about the process of updating into truer versions of ourselves. The path is unknown and the pull feels real. Together we share our grief, laughter, love and life saving tools. Join us.
Hello, welcome to Threshold Moments. Today is a mini-musing, and it's all about awe. Awe being the love language of the nervous system. Awe being a way that widens our perspective, that often changes our breath pattern, that comes with a sense of safety. And it's an invitation to step out of your daily routine and find an environment that is just slightly different. And if that's not possible, then it's an invitation to pause and look around and say, is there anything ordinary that for a moment I could honor as extraordinary? My story is one of really getting to step out of that. This is a 12-minute mini-musing, so I won't do much more of an introduction than just to say this is an invitation for awe.
[2:05] I'm attempting to do this while going on a walk, And it seems really appropriate to talk about awe while being out in the woods and, With the leaves changing colors and the sun coming through the trees and the breeze, the ocean not that far away. And these little moments that just allow me to exhale. Because, of course, right next to that are the school drop-offs and a variety of challenges and things to get done.
[3:53] And the reason why I'm tuning in, and I can almost question myself even right in the moment, it's like, does awe have to be something you step away for? But what I will say is that this past weekend, my husband and I, who have both been very focused on different goals at work and in life, and of course parenting decided to take some time together and go to New York and we went to one of the best restaurants in the world and we went to a Broadway show and when we got to New York we were at the hotel by 9 a.m so we had hours before we could check in so we walked to Central Park and we're just like do we want to go right do we want to go left let's go right let's go left let's go this way. And we found ourselves in a variety of environments. One is, I think what's called the mall, where it's a broad walking area down the center with trees on either side and artists and musicians. And it leads to a pond and there are dogs running around and you can still see some of the skyscrapers, and you can see these big rock formations, and.
[4:14] There are also these amazing trees that just feel like, how is this in the middle of a city? And finding myself just saying, wow, Steve, look at that tree. It looks like a deciduous, but it's an evergreen. Or holy smokes, you know, we're on a bridge overlooking this pond and saw these five turtles. And then you look up and look just a little further and you see all of these skyscrapers. And it's just these two environments. you don't generally see together.
[4:46] And the more we walked, the further away we got from the city line, and we found ourselves in some really back path areas where there are no sounds of cars, no sight of other people, a little waterfall, some streams. And again, just again, like, wait, how are we in the middle of the city? This is amazing. This is beautiful. It feels like we're deep in the forest and oh my god there's a black squirrel I didn't know squirrels could be black I thought they were all gray and just thing after thing it kept having me go whoa oh my gosh whoa ah and also this element of like I don't really know my way around the park so when you know something really well it can let your guards down quite a bit which can be nice but being in a new place does heighten our awareness and has us orient more of like, where are we? Where are we going? I wonder what's over there. And it can be really exciting to the system if you feel safe enough to also not know. And, you know, he got back to the hotel room and just also like, whoa, so much time when you're not also with children who have a lot of needs, emotional and otherwise.
[6:15] So there was this thing of like, wow, we keep being really early to everything. And then going to dinner and every single bite that came out, like the texture, the taste, the layers were mind-boggling. And I don't drink in general, just because I find I'd rather have water or sparkling water. And they started us with a glass of champagne, which I didn't think that I liked champagne. And I was like, wow, these flavors, this taste, like everything was different. Even their peppermint tea at the end that came out with the leaves in it, fresh leaves from their very specific farm. I was like, I didn't know peppermint tea could taste this good. And everything in the dessert, each bite of each different dessert that they brought out was like, oh, this is the best dessert I've ever had. No, this isn't the best dessert I've ever had. And then we went to Hadestown, which I so highly recommend. And each actor, I was just, whoa, oh my gosh, their voice, their movements. And even the background actors who are singing and dancing, I was just watching the way they were moving. I'm like, oh my gosh, they get to do this every day. And being a body geek, I am just like looking at the way that their bodies are spiraling and arching and contracting and the sounds that they're making and imagining like how healthy this is for their system.
[7:43] And so just thing after thing, I was just in awe. And I heard from a primal reflex teacher that awe is one of our first reflexes that we have as a baby. Like, whoa, look at that. Wow, look what's over there, right? And it kind of extends ourselves beyond ourselves. I tried to look this up to find this information. Was it true? And I could not find any factual studies to back this up. But I would love to just try this on to see how it feels for you, because it feels accurate to me that when we look at babies, we just see their eyes wide open, taking in the world.
[8:27] And for me, when I think about nervous systems, I think about awe being a love language to our body. It is saying, this is exciting, this is new and it's safe and it broadens our perspective and what does trauma do trauma narrows our perspective it narrows our choices when we're deciding what to do it gives us often a sense of rock and hard place i must i can't either or an awe is just like wow look all there is more than I ever thought there was, I didn't even know this existed. And so it expands us and it broadens us and it calms the nervous system. It changes our breath. I find it widens my breath, which means if you were to put your hands on your ribs, that the breath can sometimes go more horizontal and into the back body, which is again, a sense of safety. And so what am I saying here? Why would I do a podcast on this?
[9:42] If you have the opportunity and you could all say like, you know, like walking through Central Park doesn't necessarily like I could walk in nature and get the same thing. That's what I'm doing right now. So whatever the financial situation, I wonder, is there something that you could do any time in the next month or two in which you step out of your normal daily routine and put yourself in an environment that's safe and full of things that you're not used to? Or I find that the beauty of nature is that she's both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. And that for me, she's always awe-inspiring. So a sunset never gets old. Going to the beach and looking at the ocean never gets old. Watching a fire crackle never gets old. Listening to the wind and feeling it against my skin never gets old. And so while completely different environments—.
[11:12] Every now and then can be really great for our systems. So can nature. And so it becomes a practice, of course, if we're in our daily routine, to find awe. And it can take a little bit of effort, like, oh, I love, you know, somebody once said, like, I'm blessed, too. When he's like getting up for the 10th time at night for his kids, that he reminds himself, I'm blessed to be able to get up, to be able to meet my kids at this time, as opposed to I have to, or even I get to.
[12:52] So sometimes in our daily life, it can take extra effort to find awe, which is why stepping into environments that have a little bit of novelty in them can be so great for our systems. I said in an Instagram post, maybe this is your time to pause, look up at the sky, find something that is awe-inspiring to you, or maybe this is the universe's sign to say, book that trip you are unsure about. But yeah, you tune into you, and I'm just going to put this here with my joy, with my heart, with my gratitude for this 36 hours of stepping away. And I will say that when I came back to be with my kids, who was just like really loved to like be with us and then want us even when they're in conflict, it was like, oh, I'm so happy to be back with you. And yeah so that's it that's my threshold moments mini musing on the beauty of awe and how I believe it is.
[13:07] The love language for your nervous system. And most of the time, when it comes through authentically, it is without effort. Every now and then, we may have to draw it forward. I wonder, I wonder what could surprise and delight me, what could put me in a state of awe. So for now, let's take a deep inhale and a full exhale. With great gratitude for the moments that take our breath away, in which we feel safe enough to absorb the beauty, the width, and the feeling that the world is so much bigger than us. Those moments where we feel grateful to be included in it, where the little ordinary things can be seen as extraordinary. The color of a leaf, the setting of a sun, the feel of the breeze. Surprise and delight me, even as I honor the hard moments during the day, the ones that really tug on me. May I honor it all.
Sarah Tacy [00:14:41]:
Thank you for tuning in. It's been such a pleasure.If you're looking for added support, I'm offering a program that's totally free called 21 Days of Untapped Support. It's pretty awesome. It's very easy. It's very helpful. You can find it at sarahtacy.com and if you love this episode, please subscribe. And like, apparently it's wildly useful, so we could just explore what happens when you scroll down to the bottom. Subscribe rate, maybe say a thing or two. If you're not feeling it, don't do it. It's totally fine. I look forward to gathering with you again. Thank you so much.