The Awe Project
In our world we have many things working against us when it comes to feeling happiness. We are constantly told to do, see, and buy more. As if what we have is not enough. I have found that a good way to lower stress and improve my health is to push back against that idea by focusing on my vagus nerve ore “soul nerve.”
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body and it touches many organs on its winding path from the brain to the large intestine. This is where the “gut-brain” connection comes into physical reality. If this nerve is activated then we have the feeling of “Fight or Flight”. And when it is calm we are able to “Rest and Digest.”
There are many ways to calm your “soul nerve” and many of them are part of our most profound experiences. Moving together as a group as in Tai Chi or Qi Gong class has been shown to help everyone’s heart rate and cortisol levels come into alignment after a class. This is probably why generations of people have loved to participate in communal or religious rituals like dancing and singing in groups.
Witnessing Someone Overcoming Adversity
Another way to experience a burst of happiness is to witness kindness, compassion, caring or someone overcoming adversity. This is where I got the idea for The Awe Project. We have a difficult time physically getting together since Covid, but people still long for the benefits of communal activities. And since my friend Dr Taylor Taylor has been having such a hard time with his health I thought, “well let’s all come together over this amazing person overcoming immense adversity and benefit everyone’s “soul nerve” daily.
The Awe Project
And The Awe Project was born. If you look at this research (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29016167/ ) done by Dacher Keltner and other scientists he writes about how this tendency is hard-wired into us. We need this, evolutionarily speaking, and we can purposefully help ourselves feel this feeling of community, safety and security by pursuing certain situations.
Join Us
So I encourage you to join me on our Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as going to the GoFundMe ( https://gofund.me/5957ad50e ) that I set up for him. This is one of the ways to experience awe, witnessing someone overcoming adversity. And just like one seventh of the week is devoted to the sabbath, or being in touch with your spiritual beliefs, if you can take one seventh of your hour and devote it to thinking of this amazing person overcoming his incredible health challenge we can all get into the slipstream of happiness together.
You can keep up to date with our Facebook and Instagram feeds as Dr Taylor overcomes his health challenges and gets his life back on track.
