How To Inspire Awe Through Nature In Everyday Life

In our previous blog post, we talked about the awe-inspiring science of nature and how the adventurous activities of a wilderness therapy program can provide life changing experiences. Awe is a science of life, filling us with wonder and amazement which changes the way we are able to relate to the world. The more in awe we are, the less stressed we are, the more satisfied with life we are, and the more our well-being improves. For young adults, adolescents, and adults seeking wilderness therapy programs in Utah as a means for recovery, the promise of challenging adventure, as well as healing therapy, set among the breathtaking backdrop of Utah’s natural settings, is exciting.  

Spending months in the wilderness, learning to self-sustain, and accomplishing feats you never thought you could changes you from the inside out. Awe becomes more than something you experience, but a way that you live. Once you let nature change you, you are changed for good. However, practicing awe in everyday life after leaving the wilderness and returning home can become a bit of a challenge in itself. Without the all-consuming presence of the wild like we can find in nearly every corner of Utah, we might start to fall for the false belief that awe only exists in certain settings.

If awe inspired by nature teaches us anything, it is that we can be awe-stricken by any kind of nature anywhere. Even in urban or suburban settings, if we can find a tree, a patch of grass, a strip of sky, a bush, a bird, or an insect, we can be inspired by nature. Life is thriving around us at any given moment, from the sun in the sky, to the rain that falls from the clouds, from the grass in our backyards, to the wind that invisibly moves across our faces. All we have to do is take a deep breath, raise our awareness, and look through the same eyes we learned to look through in the wilderness. Nature is everywhere.

There is a trick to finding awe through nature at home that we don’t talk about often enough. The awe of human nature is equally as inspiring as the awe of wild plant or animal nature. We are, at our core, wild animals, and our existence is manufactured by nature itself. If we can look into the eyes of our loved ones, our friends, and strangers on the street and realize the gift we have in being alive, as a wild human, on a wild planet.

RedCliff Ascent is a therapeutic wilderness program, nestled between two mountain ranges in the high desert of Enterprise, UT. We focus on adolescents ages 13-17 who are struggling with various challenges from anxiety and depression, to school abandonment and the need to reconnect with their family. With over 25 years of experience, RedCliff uses a relational model and narrative therapy to drive an outcome and an evidence-based approach. RedCliff Recovery offers an experience like no other through a proven, 12-step, adventure-based wilderness program. For more information, call us today: 801-921-8488