422 Experience Awe
The natural world is one of few places in the world where we can truly feel at peace. Whether it be to get away from the hustle and bustle of life, or even just to get away from all the screens and pollution, we can find a moment to center ourselves and find genuine awe in the world.
In today’s episode Sarah Elkins and Thomas Reed discuss the importance of the natural world, finding awe, how we talk to ourselves, as well as finding our own courage to seek the paths that call to us.
422 Experience Awe
The natural world is one of few places in the world where we can truly feel at peace. Whether it be to get away from the hustle and bustle of life, or even just to get away from all the screens and pollution, we can find a moment to center ourselves and find genuine awe in the world.
In today’s episode Sarah Elkins and Thomas Reed discuss the importance of the natural world, finding awe, how we talk to ourselves, as well as finding our own courage to seek the paths that call to us.
Highlights
How we interact with the natural world around us.
The importance of positive Self Talk.
Beauty of the natural world and its importance to the human psyche.
Where is the one place you can go to that turns off the chatter in your head?
Quotes
“I don’t know if it was a choice or it was just being me.”
“Use me as your inspiration, that you don’t need inspiration.”
Dear Listeners it is now your turn,
What will you do to experience awe? I am going to give you one chore, one piece of homework, one suggestion at the end of this episode, is to find an opportunity to experience awe. That could be watching your child do something for the first time, and have them be very proud of themselves. I can tell you I had many of those experiences while my boys were growing up and they had a realization as basic as finding their own thumb when they were infants. There’s a sense of awe when you watch other people experience awe or when you experience that sense of awe about another person, like this Chinese woman from a small village that decided to go experience what she did. Experience Awe, go hug a tree, go stand in front of a man made bridge that is inspiring for its unlikeliness, for the fact that somebody had to create that, watch that daffodil start to bloom and realize you didn’t have to do a thing to it to make it show up in all it’s full color. Find awe, remember it, and consider that desire to find awe, your connection to the natural world and your humanity.
And, as always, thank you for listening.
About Thomas
I studied photography at Rutgers University as a Geography student. Major influences have been Ansel Adams, Edgar Payne, and the Hudson River School.
Zen sensibilities profoundly influence my compositions, as I am a student of Japanese martial arts and aesthetics (chado). Black and white is my genre
My work is centered on the experience of awe at the sight of a landscape, and I hope it leads to the consideration that nature itself is divine, sacred, and that stewardship, as opposed to the dominant utilitarian view, is the only sane attitude.
Be sure to check out Thomas’s Facebook, his Photos, LinkedIn, and Instagram! As well as Peak Wellness, his website Tom Reed, and his books at Tom Reed Books!
About Sarah
"Uncovering the right stories for the right audiences so executives, leaders, public speakers, and job seekers can clearly and actively demonstrate their character, values, and vision."
In my work with coaching clients, I guide people to improve their communication using storytelling as the foundation of our work together. What I’ve realized over years of coaching and podcasting is that the majority of people don’t realize the impact of the stories they share - on their internal messages, and on the people they’re sharing them with.
My work with leaders and people who aspire to be leaders follows a similar path to the interviews on my podcast, uncovering pivotal moments in their lives and learning how to share them to connect more authentically with others, to make their presentations and speaking more engaging, to reveal patterns that have kept them stuck or moved them forward, and to improve their relationships at work and at home.
The audiobook, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is now available!
Included with your purchase are two bonus tracks, songs recorded by Sarah's band, Spare Change, in her living room in Montana.
Be sure to check out the Storytelling For Professionals Course as well to make sure you nail that next interview!
Help Appears When You Least Expect It
He was driving a new, fancy car, living in a beautiful apartment, wearing expensive clothes, and living a life he considered pretty luxurious. So why was he sinking?
Stories of Friendship and Angels in Disguise
When he was struggling in a job that a was a terrible fit, Robert Downs suddenly developed a craving for a burrito - in a city more than 8 hours drive away. He arrived in the city where he had lived before, connected with a couple of friends, ate a burrito, and then drove back.
It took time for him to process the why behind his spontaneous craving, and a few other examples of that kind of behavior, for him to realize he was sinking. He was driving a new, fancy car, living in a beautiful apartment, wearing expensive clothes, and living a life he considered pretty luxurious. So why was he sinking?
Many of us have a skewed version of what we consider success in our lives, especially early in our careers. We seek out happiness based on that skewed version of what success looks like, and when it falls short of making us happy, we think something is wrong with us.
When he finally decided to truly follow his heart - and his familial roots in creativity and art, help appeared. Is it always easy? No, of course not. But when you know you’re doing what you were meant to do, the right people fall into your path to keep you company. And when you have the opportunity to give back into that system of support and encouragement, you take it.
I know you want to learn more about Robert Downs and his life as a photographer. My favorite way of keeping up with this guy and his adventures is his always-insightful blog posts.
You can also follow him on Instagram, and visit his website.
From his website:
ROBERT DOWNS
For many an artist, creativity is in the genes. For photographer Robert Downs that creativity springs from both sides of parental well. His mother was a graphic artist and father was a photojournalist for more than forty years with the Atlanta Journal and Constitutionwhich is where they met.
“I used to beg my father to take me to work with him on the weekends,” Robert remembers. “My job would be to carry all the staff photographer’s cameras to the football field and pick up film at half-time. My reward was I got to use a camera and dump my film in with the rest of the guys. Whether it was or cruel joke, or just fate, my shots started showing up in the paper. I was 13 when I scored the front page of the sports section. It was then I knew that I wanted to be a photographer.”
Over the past 10 years, Robert Downs has sustained that dreammaking a living combining art and commerce with clients ranging from the Los Angeles Times and Sony Pictures to Kaman Music, SKB, Audix Microphones and Gibson Guitars. His work has been featured extensively on covers and editorial spreads for for Drum! and Traps magazines, plus a host of the world’s top drum companies such as Pearl, Gretsch, Tama, Bosphorus and Zildjian. He’s also photographed some of the top musicians and bands on the charts including Incubus, Stone Temple Pilots, Deftones, Tommy Lee, Public Enemy, Hatebreed, Cult, Linkin Park, and many more.