A state of wonder - #252

There exists a certain state of being we can access — a state of wonder. Curiosity without looking for an answer. Like a child seeing a frog for the first time — truly seeing it with a full body immersion that we tell ourselves is unique to experiencing things for the first time, or a unique state of the child's consciousness, so malleable and primed to receive novelty.

It seems to me that we can cultivate and practice the state of wonder, the ability to be openly curious without looking for an answer also as grown-ups. It's the time you get out of the train station in Bangkok for the first time, you turn around, and you experience everything that's going on — all the trucks with workers sitting on the back, the motorbikes honking, the novel smell that permeates the entire road. It's the open curiosity of following the full breath from its arising in the nostrils all the way down to the diaphragm.

The same applies to opening up to and experiencing emotions fully. According to some Eastern philosophies, emotions sometimes get stuck within us when we don't allow them to fully pass through, resisting instead of opening up to them. They arise and evaporate through the whole body naturally as they are. When we resist and fight the voices in the head and emotional states, they create stuckness, blockages in the natural flow of the whole being.

As Joe Hudson often states, emotions are merely a sensation in the body if you allow them to be without resistance. Temporary sensations that arise and pass away akin to any other state we experience throughout our days.

So, a sense of wonder is a fundamental portal through the full human experience. It implies a humble posture toward all things within and without oneself. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, except being in constant gentle, lighthearted, open observation of what's going on. Like a lion at rest. Always observant, vigilant, quiet, humble, and ready to act with full conviction when necessary.

Practically, I notice you can facilitate a state of wonder and connected observation by scanning the whole body and relaxing each part. Especially the face, the shoulders, the hips, which accumulate lots of stuckness and tension in many of us. Melting down into the earth beneath, while capable of getting up in motion effortlessly at any time because of the ever-present connection with the floor beneath.

One way to allow such a state can be via a meditation practice where you follow the breath through its full cycle (nostrils, throat, chest, ribs, abdominal cavity, diaphragm, and back up slowly and fully), slow, always returning to it as the focus of attention. A slow breathing pattern fosters parasympathetic activation—a state of calmness and rest that is required for wonder and for getting back to the natural state of a human.