Northern Lights left Ireland spellbound, but natural wonders lift us up all the time
Science tells us that finding moments of awe are good for our mental health, which is all the more reason to look up and out and remember that moments of wonder are always close. The acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul says that awe has been called a “reset button” for the human brain. But she points out that we can’t generate this feeling and its associated processes all on our own. To do that, we have to venture out into the world and find something bigger than ourselves in order to experience this kind of change.
To understand this fully means accepting an open invitation to go out into the world and look around. So many of our calamities and failures as humans come from forgetting that we, too, are part of nature – not separate from it. We have to remember that in the vastness of the natural world, our place is in it, not above it or removed from it.
With all the chaos of the world unfolding around us, so many of us are seeking out this beauty, looking for ways to share the extraordinary things we find. And even though we can’t unsee the images of desperation and awfulness that are beamed at us daily through social media, looking for the aweinspiring is like a natural antidote to cruelty.
The way so many of us embraced the magic and wonder of a recent natural phenomenon like the Northern Lights shows we are deeply longing to connect with something greater than ourselves, something that provides us with a heartstopping moment of wonder.
Like many places, the night sky of my homeplace in north Donegal was bathed in the pastelcoloured majesty of the Northern Lights. Forewarned about this special astronomical occurrence, many people set up camp chairs on local beaches or drove to beauty spots to witness one of nature’s most astounding sights.
The aurora borealis, more visible because of an extreme geomagnetic storm, looked like celestial beings draped in hues of purple, pink, green and blue dancing in the clear night sky.
Social media lit up with people sharing their photographs, marvelling at the sight and awed by the scale of the spectacle. At a time when the ugly ravages of the world are everpresent, this phenomenal event provided those who witnessed it with a sense of wonder at just how beautiful our planet can be.
I spend a lot of time looking skyward: for the birds, the moon and for a multitude of stars. Perhaps it is my way of avoiding what’s under my nose – the fragility of life and the brokenness of our planet.
A walk in the woods, a visit to the ocean, or a stroll over wet grass in the morning with bare feet and stopping to hear the birdsong are what tether me to hope. When the moorings of optimism are stretched to breaking point, these simple beautiful things are a balm in life’s churnedup tide.
In his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life, psychologist Dr Dacher Keltner describes awe as the “feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world”.
His research suggests it has tremendous health benefits that include calming down our nervous system and triggering the release of oxytocin, the “love” hormone that promotes trust and bonding. It is almost always nearby, he says.
According to Brendan Kelly, professor of psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, sometimes it takes an unusual event to alert us to beauty. But he says we rarely think how amazing it is that birds can fly because they are seen as the “usual beauty” of the world. However, he makes the point that if we had never seen a bird fly, the sight of it would be every bit as arresting as the aurora borealis.
“A sense of appreciation is undoubtedly good for mental health. It is essential for spiritual wellbeing, and is vital for appreciating our place in a spellbinding world. Most days, we need to cultivate this appreciation consciously, because most days we do not have an aurora borealis to catch our attention in a dramatic way,” said Prof Kelly.
“Even so, we benefit from the nourishment of everyday beauty if we cultivate a habit of appreciation. This means taking time to notice one thing each day: the feeling of the wind on our face, the majesty of a tree, or the subtlety of conversation with a friend who responds to what we say with almost unfathomable subtlety. Everyday miracles are still miracles.”
In the way we tend and nourish a garden, we have to make a habit of looking for what lifts us up. Often it’s right under our noses: the tides swelling under the full moon or dandelion seeds dancing in a light breeze. I have to wonder whether even the Northern Lights can match the dramatic feats of a little swallow in full flight. There is wonder in the everyday.