Episode 110: A Little More Wonder, a Little Less Wi-Fi

You will pass a hundred small wonders today, give or take. Most of them get intercepted somewhere between your eyes and your attention, usually by a screen about the size of your hand. This summer can be different.

In this episode of Your Next, Best Step, you will discover why the ordinary moments of summer hold more than you think, how a fifteen-minute practice studied in people your age changed their everyday mood and worry, and a gentle way to meet God in the parts of your day you have been walking right past.

Scripture: Psalm 8:3-4 (NIV)

Research note: References the “awe walk” research from Virginia Sturm, Dacher Keltner, and colleagues, published in the journal Emotion (2020).

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Transcript

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Welcome to your next best step. I'm Coach Janet J. It's the first of July, an ordinary midweek morning, and summer is already handing you small things all day long. The color of the sky at the end of the day, the smell of someone's grill down the street, a grandchild laughing about absolutely nothing. Today is about catching a few more of those. You will pass a hundred small wonders today, give or take. You will probably notice a handful. The rest will get intercepted somewhere between your eyes and your attention, usually by a screen about the size of your hand. There is a 15-minute practice that researchers tested on people in exactly your season of life, and the change it produced surprised even them. Here's the kind of moment I mean. A few evenings ago, I was out walking Santino. And if you have a dog, you know the walk runs on his clock. He had his nose buried in something important, and I happened to look up at the sky, and that sky was this ridiculous color. It was pink going into gold, the kind of thing you would pay money to see on a postcard. And my very first instinct, before I even took in how beautiful it was, was to reach for my phone and take a picture, to capture it and keep moving. I caught myself mid-reach and made myself stand there under it for a few seconds instead. Santino, for the record, did not notice the sky at all. He was already on to the next blade of grass. And I wondered how many of those skies had I walked right under this year with my attention somewhere else? There's a line in Psalm 8 that has been doing this very thing for 3,000 years. David writes When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them? Human beings that you care for them. Notice what comes first. He looks up, he considers, he lets himself be small under a sky that he did not make. And out of that smallness comes one of the most reassuring questions in all of Scripture. If God hung all of that and still keeps you in mind, then you are held. The looking came first. The wonder opened the door. This is where science meets that sky. Researchers at the University of California, Virginia Sturm, and Dr. Kettner among them ran a study published in 2020 in the journal Emotion with 52 healthy older adults. For eight weeks, everyone took one 15-minute walk a week. One group walked as usual, the other group received one small instruction before they headed out. Notice the vastness of things. Look for the unexpected. Find something unfamiliar inside the familiar. That was the whole intervention. By the end, the awe walk group reported more joy and compassion in their daily lives and less distress. And there is a detail I love. The researchers had everyone take selfies along the way. And over the weeks, the awe walkers gradually let the landscape fill more of the frame and themselves take up less of it. Their attention turned outward. The world got bigger, and the worry got smaller. And the part I keep coming back to is where they did it. Nobody in that study went anywhere special. They walked the same blocks they always walked. What changed was simple. They went looking. That is good news on a regular day like today because a lot of us aren't going anywhere special either. The sky over your own driveway counts. The light through your own kitchen window counts. You only have to look up before the phone looks first. Look at how one's small habit reaches all four pillars. Mentally, turning your attention outward gives your tired, decision-soaked brain a rest from itself. Emotionally, awe tends to soften comparison and lift your mood. Physically, most of this happens outside, moving in real daylight. And spiritually, this is the heart of it. Wonder is one of the oldest doorways to God. Every sky you stop to truly see is a small act of considering his heavens. So here is your next best step, and it costs you almost nothing. Once a day this week, go looking for one thing worth wondering at. And if a walk is hard right now, this works just as well from a chair at the window, the front porch, the back step, anywhere you can see a piece of sky. One thing, really look at it. Let yourself feel a little small under it. And if it comes naturally, say a quick thank you to the one who made it. That's the whole practice. So remember this summer is handing you wonder all day long, and your attention is the thing that decides whether you receive it. The research says looking for it on purpose lifts your mood and settles your worry. Psalm 8 says the looking up is where being held begins. One thing a day. That is all. On Friday, I have an episode about the kind of freedom you are actually craving this summer, and it's probably not a cleared calendar. I think it will land right where you need it heading into the holiday weekend. If this show is helping you, follow or subscribe wherever you are listening or watching. So the next one finds you without you having to think about it. I will see you Friday. Take your next best step.