There's a hill on West Colfax I drive over almost every day. I come out of my neighborhood and reach the top. Applewood opens up below me in gold and red. It catches my breath every time.
Then I turn onto Youngfield. The street is lined with trees on fire with color. My kids and I say it together, every single time: "Woooooow."
I've spent this whole month driving and walking around Denver with my jaw dropped and my eyes wide. And I've started to wonder. Is this feeling a practice?
Wonder is the ground of yoga
About 1,200 years ago, the sage Vasugupta wrote down the Shiva Sutras in Kashmir. Sutra 1.12 says it in three words: vismayo yoga bhumikah. Wonder is the ground of yoga.
Vismaya means wonder or amazement. Bhumika means the ground you stand on, or the stages of a path. So wonder is where yoga starts. It is the floor under every other step.
I love this. So much of our practice feels like work. We align, we hold, we breathe through the hard pose. This sutra asks for something softer. Look up. Notice. Let yourself be amazed.
Awe makes the ego smaller
Scientists study this too. In 2020, researchers at UC San Francisco asked 52 older adults to take a 15-minute walk once a week for eight weeks. Half of them were told to look for awe. The other half just walked.
The awe walkers felt more joy and less distress. They felt more gratitude and compassion in daily life. And their selfies changed. Week by week, they took up less of the frame. The trees and sky took up more. The study's title says it best: "Big smile, small self."
That phrase stopped me. In my book, Dancing with Our Selves, I call my ego Brandi. Awe gives her a rest. Under a row of golden trees, I feel small. Small feels like relief.
I felt it at the Denver Yoga Summit in September. Hundreds of us practiced together outside at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms, under open sky, with the foothills to the west. Small selves, one big sky.
Three ways to practice wonder this week
Take an awe walk. Give it 15 minutes. Keep your phone in your pocket. Find one thing bigger than you: a tree, the foothills, the sky at dusk. Stay with it for three slow breaths.
Say it out loud. My kids taught me this one. When something takes your breath, say "wow." Let your voice catch up with your eyes.
Bring it to your mat. In savasana, picture the most beautiful tree you saw this week. Breathe it in. Let it fill your chest.
Here's one more thing to notice. The gold in those leaves was there all summer. The green covered it up. Fall lets go of the green, and the color shows. That's yoga too.
Send me your fall
I asked on Instagram for your fall photos this week. They make me so happy. Please keep them coming.
So tell me: where did you say "wow" this week?