Cueing the Sacred, how do we invite Awe, Jan 17,

[Lisa Walford]

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Friday January 17, 1:30 - 3:30 

Did you know that the word derives from the archaic meaning of dread and an emotional state of terror, or something to be feared? In the twelfth century, there were many things to fear; things that we now have rational explanations for. We also have the derivatives of awesome and awful. Just as we evolve individually over a lifetime, words can assume the context and content of their era. 

As the Age of Reason (think Galileo, Isaac Newton, Voltaire, and later the Declaration of Independence) initiated a dialog that gave options other then the hierarchy of the Church, people looked to the world around them with new freedoms to interpret and experience things for themselves. 

   

When we are in the presence of something that feels larger then ourselves, something significant, something that enlivens us, awe is perhaps the first word that tries to give meaning to what cannot be named. It is a feeling, a Sacred feeling. The neurobiology of the feeling state is a rush of the good-feel dopamine to the brain. Awesome, right? Like mirror neurons, when in that feeling state, we are organically uplifted!

I think that we can practice creating the internal space, physical and emotional, that is ready for a visit from Awe, an encounter with a depth of experience that is an intrinsic part of existence. Listen deeply, be tender, open, receptive.. 

My dear friend and colleague Ashley Rideaux and I will invite you into this place through an asana practice and discussion. I hope you can join us!