Hi dear friends it's Eve here. Welcome to Radio Headspace. Thank you so much for joining

me on this brand new Wednesday. When was the last time you were in awe of something?

Were you allowed your imagination to run wild and truly enjoyed being immersed in the wonder

of what you were experiencing? I asked this question as I was really reminded of the importance

of this quite recently. I was watching the show prehistoric planet and as its title suggests

it's about life on Earth with dinosaurs 66 million years ago. And when I sat down to watch

the first episode I was a little bit distracted. I was going over events from the day and fussing

about things I hadn't done. But when I saw the first dinosaur displayed on the screen

he got my attention not only were the special effects mind-blowing but I was completely struck

by this moment of total awe and wonderment. These gigantic creatures have so far dwarfed

our existence on Earth. We've been around a mere fraction of the time that they were, a drop in the ocean.

Now don't worry I am not about to quit being a meditation teacher to take up paleontology

but this reminded me of what it felt like to experience a moment of awe and amazement.

I was doing some research on awe, this powerful emotion that has the potential to expand our mind

and our perspective. And I came across this definition by Dacca Keltner who is a psychologist

at the Greater Good Science Centre UC Berkeley. He says that awe is a feeling of being in the presence

of vast things that you don't necessarily understand or when you encounter vast mysteries in life.

Interestingly he also says that awe is not just about the big things in life. We can experience

awe in many different and small ways like witnessing a flower bloom or seeing someone help

our stranger who's in difficulty. And it got me thinking about the fact that we miss so many

moments in life that are awe inspiring, moments that fuel our creativity but even prompt us to look

at our own existence. And I think back to moments in my life when I've experienced awe and there is

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