Learn about awe and well-being research, and wake up to the wonder around you, through a “15 Minute Mindfulness” event on YouTube from Mason’s Fall for the Book Festival. The event features Whitney Hopler, our center’s communications manager and author of the spiritual well-being book Wake Up to Wonder.
During the event, Whitney discusses research on awe (wonder) and well-being, and leads a series of mindfulness activities designed to help you encounter wonder through your visual and auditory senses.
Wonder is all around us, yet we often miss out on experiencing it because we’re focusing only on surviving rather than thriving. When we’re caught up in the stress of our daily lives, it’s easy to neglect pursuing wonder. But regular experiences of wonder are vital to our well-being. Wake Up to Wonder shows practical steps we can all take to start enjoying more wonder in our lives.
Research shows that wonder can enlarge our perspective. In the midst of the bad news that’s causing us stress right now — from the ongoing pandemic to the struggle for racial justice — we can still discover and celebrate good news by pursuing wonder. Wonder prevents our lives from shrinking down to the level of our stress. It enlarges our perspective, so we can see beyond our circumstances to hope.