Should I Do Things that Scare Me?

We have all heard the word, “awesome” used in casual conversation. Maybe you use it all the time or you are sick of hearing other people use it. Whatever your thoughts on the word, have you ever stopped to think about what it actually means?

In Hebrew the word for Awe, yirah ירא, also means fear. In Hebrew when two words have a shared meaning or a root, it is often worth paying attention!

• What does knowing that yirah means fear and awe add to your understanding? What, if anything, does fear have to do with awe?

Abraham Joshua Heshel is one of the major modern thought leader rabbis about awe. He wanted people to live with radical amazement, seeing every moment as the awe-inspiring gift it is. We are going to look at quote from his book, God in Search of Man.

In the research on awe, Dr. Keltner says to pay attention to moments of Whoas, Chills and Tears as some biological signs that one is experiencing awe. He lays out 8 categories of finding awe which we are going to explore together over the next 30 minutes through a scavenger hunt! You will be working with your small group to explore as many Dr. Keltner’s categories of awe as you have time for. Let your feelings guide you as to when it is time to move onto the next. Quality is more important than quantity in this experience.

Note to facilitator: Before you start the activity, decide on a time and place the groups should reconvene.

1. MORAL BEAUTY: How the kindness, courage, and resilience of others inspires awe

• Interview someone about a time they were the recipient of kindness, a time they had to act with courage, and/or a time they had to overcome something really difficult.
• As you listen, consider what stands out to you and what inspires you?

2. COLLECTIVE EFFERVESCENCE: How moving in Unison Stirs the Awe of Ritual, Sport, Dance, Religion, and Public Life

• Organize a group of at least 3 people to do something together in unison (e.g. dancing, singing, reciting a poem, skipping or something else.) Try to find people for whom this is outside of their comfort zone. Assign someone to take a video of this happening.
• Afterwards, interview everyone involved about what it felt to do that? What was fun or inspiring about it? What was scary about it?

3. WILD AWE: How nature becomes spiritual and heals body and mind

• Take a picture of your group in the most natural awe inspiring place you see. Try and venture a little further than your comfort zone while staying safe (e.g. find a very high vista, stand at the edge of a waterfall, go slightly off the beaten path). Stand utterly still there for 1 minute and take in the scenery.

4. MUSICAL AWE: How musical awe embraces us in community

Either

• Record yourselves collectively singing a song that inspires awe for your group.
• Record a person in your group playing an instrument.
• Find a video of music that inspires awe for your group and listen to it together.

5. SACRED GEOMETRIES: How our awe for visual design helps us understand the wonders and horrors of life

• Take a picture of art or geometric patterns that wow you.
• Share a piece of art that inspires you.
• Find something in the natural world that has a repeating pattern - like a plant, an insect, a seashell. How does it make you feel to closely observe that pattern?

6. THE FUNDAMENTAL “IT”: How spiritual life grows out of awe

• Find a person who will share a story of how their spirituality grew after they had an experience of awe.

7. LIFE AND DEATH: How connecting to our mortality makes us feel alive

• Find a person to share a story of a life or death moment in which they felt awe.
• As you listen, consider how it feels to hear this story.

8. EPIPHANY: We are part of systems larger than ourselves

• Find a person to share how they believe they are part of a larger than self system and what awe moment helped them come to that belief.

Welcome back! I would love to hear at least one highlight from each group about what they experienced.