Nature is awesome – literally! In this piece I explore how we can create awe and meaning through coaching in general, and Nature Based Coaching in particular.
This will be the topic of my free webinar on 14 May, which takes place in International Coaching Week.
Awe and the small self
A while back, I was listening to Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner talk about meaning with cognitive psychologist Cody Kommers (1). They were exploring, in particular, the relationship between meaning and the emotion of awe. I was prompted by the conversation to reflect on places, and times in my life, where I experience awe, the sense of being in the presence of something ‘larger than oneself, something mysterious and hard to understand’ and which drives a deep and powerful emotional response. In short, awe makes ourselves small, and that’s a good thing.
I can list many pieces of music, or even specific moments within pieces of music, when a tone of voice, turn of phrase, or lifting melody creates awe. Linda Thompson’s voice, Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, the blurred distortion of My Bloody Valentine. I bet you can too. What transports you to an awesome musical place?
Many other experiences spark awe too. A cathedral perhaps, or a quiet rural chapel. Standing in the crowd at a football match when a goal is scored. Sitting in an art gallery with paintings or sculptures that inspire.
8 flavours of awe
Keltner describes 8 main ‘flavours’ of awe: nature, the moral beauty of others, collective movement, visual design, music, spirituality, big ideas, and encountering the beginning and end of life (2).
I love the awe that takes place in Nature, and find it often sparks a contemplation on what I find meaningful about it. One of my favourite examples is when I walk along the seafront where I live in winter, to see the starling murmuration (pictured recently at sunset).
The flock gathers through a collection of small scuds of inland birds from the north, or via larger groups that leave the old abandoned pier to the west and join in a low flight across the sea. As the flock – or flocks – move and morph across the sky, one can picture things in the shapes left behind.
One evening I saw, at different times, horses, diving dolphins, a banana slug, a mole hill, and – very clearly – a hedgehog rolling into a tight ball. These anthropomorphic forms are fleeting, and one’s perception, or meaning-making, seems to lag behind the visual experience. The birds swooped lower in the lulls between the wave sets, flickering the sea like static. They seem to merge into the roughness of the water, its little wavelets hard to separate from an individual bird. The avian sine wave tracked the water surface as it rose and shouldered near shore, before becoming waves that spilled onto the beach at the end of their journey.
For the joy of it
Scientists seem to be united in the view that there is no particular meaning to a murmuration that we can make out beyond enjoyment. The birds seem to do it just because they can. If it was predator avoidance I’m sure the birds would zoom straight into their roost, rather than risk being picked off in the talons of a peregrine falcon, as I have witnessed. I do love this idea that they flock for the joy of it, just as hundreds of people line the pier and the beach on these evenings in human flocks, chattering, pointing, transfixed.
Awe is a ‘destabilising mystery’. An experience of connecting our identity to ‘largeness’ in the world, where we can “witness our own limits transgressed” (Thoreau, H.D., 1854). Ecosystems, culture, music, mountains. An affective component of the cognitive process involved in meaning-making.
Awe in Nature Based Coaching
Awe can appear often in coaching. It is often easier to encounter when we are outdoors, in the presence of a landscape, tall tree, impressive sky or other natural feature that sparks wonder in our clients. At these moments we might enquire what new awareness is being offered. What sense our client might want to make of it. And what they might want to do with that new sense.
Often, too, we might find our client connecting this moment with awe with their values and purpose. What they are here to do, their calling, or their drive. The somatic, whole-body experience of awe can help our clients find a firm foundation for their action – so it isn’t just a cognitive ‘idea’, but a deep-seated response to the world, the mystery of it, and their desired place in it.
Being ‘for’ Nature
Awe, meaning-making and awareness are part of the nature connection cycle that is ‘for’ Nature. Along with compassion, meaning is more than just passively being outdoors. More, even, that sitting with the natural world as an equal, a friend (3).
Awe can spark pro-social and pro-environmental behaviour in our clients, so we aren’t just taking from Nature for our health and wellbeing, but finding ways to give back.
For those starlings, that might mean avoiding pesticides in the garden, leaving short as well as long grass, setting up nest boxes, and donating to environmental charities. It’s also about getting out there, inviting your friends, and finding a deeper relationship with yourself, your clients, and the world.
Book onto a free webinar
Here’s the link to book on the free webinar on the subject of ‘The Nature of Meaning’, taking place during International Coaching Week. Book using the link below.
References
- Meaning Lab Podcast, 24 January 2023. Awe is the emotional component of meaning, accessed 6 March 2024
- Mindful.org – The science of wonder
- Michael Cohen talks of finding a place alongside the natural world as ‘an equal’ or friend, in his book Reconnecting with Nature, 2007.