Awe - Cultivating Positive Emotions for Optimal Performances: Part 2
The P in PERMAformance Design: Part 2 Awe
Designing "Awe" for Optimal Performances
A previous reading on performance design included activities to develop a personal practice for experiencing gratitude as a precursor to designing gratitude into musical performances. Another personal practice to develop before applying to music performance is experiencing awe.
Awe is an emotion with similar benefits as gratitude, and is described in part by having a sense of wonder, amazement, or fascination, and can involve physiological changes such as goosebumps, chills, and changes in heart rate. Experiencing awe has also been associated with thinking more clearly, improving physical health, and deepening social relationships, all of which can reduce anxiety and contribute to a higher performance level.
Practicing gratitude exercises and experiencing awe both can also increase well-being and contribute positively to the broader issue of managing music performance anxiety. Dedicating time each day for experiencing gratitude and awe costs nothing, takes only a few minutes, can be fun, and has the potential to dramatically change one's perspective on how they experience life, including improving music practice and performance. However, our human nature is such that developing new habits is difficult, and change, even when for the positive such as in a more joyful life, is a struggle for most.
Consider this as motivation. Most musicians will not open this article. Of the ones who do, only some will read this far. From that group very few will try these exercises, fewer will begin a regular practice for experiencing gratitude and awe, and of those, only the rare soul will continue for the 60-ish days that it takes to develop a new habit.
If you can make the commitment to spending a few minutes each day with gratitude and awe, you have the potential to rise quickly above the average and ordinary. You will have more to communicate when you are musical, in performance and auditions, and others will notice the difference.
Activities for Seeking Experiences of Awe
Music, nature, people, art, religion, and one's own accomplishments are all potential for inducing "awe" experiences. Music performance design is an opportunity to plan experiences of awe into a music performance, however, without an individual practice of experiencing and knowing awe, one can't fully communicate awe in performance design.
I am drawn to the water, so I seek experiences of awe around lakes. What are you drawn to? Probably music, but what else can you fill yourself up with to bring to your musical practice? Nature? Mountains? Art? Architecture? Gardens? A recent study suggests a common source of awe is moral beauty, where people take on acts that help others including acts of courage and goodness of intention and action. Try doing something for someone today (out of the ordinary) and experience the awe of moral beauty.
Seek out Novelty and Challenge for Awe
We sail on Lake Michigan, but like most, we tend to fall into the same, comfortable routines. Repeating a trip that we have previously taken feels safe, but does not have the same effect as the first time we experience a destination. We purposefully set goals each year to go to places we haven’t been yet, to see and experience things that are new. Without setting these goals, we might settle into doing things that feel familiar and comfortable, because going into new ports by sailboat and traveling further distances can be challenging and even scary. But the awe is in seeing new places, and also in meeting the challenges with reaching new destinations.
It is human nature to think that the grass is greener on the other side, and maybe you aren’t close to Lake Michigan so you tell yourself that you don’t have the opportunity to find awe. (The everyone else has every opportunity, and you have none syndrome.) My first remembered experience of awe is from when I was 5, growing up in Iowa. On a drive with my Dad to the music store in Des Moines I noticed the intensity of the blue sky with perfectly placed clouds. It felt as if I was a small subject in a grand painting, of which in awe experiences relates to our perception of vastness. In Georgia the best sky view near where I live is from the Costco parking lot. Awe is everywhere that you want to find it, but at the same time it is also worth reaching a bit to seek out awe in new environments.
Find New Perspectives - A View From Above
Rise above what is familiar to gain a broader perspective. On a typical drive where we followed a previously experienced routine, we noticed the sign for the Arcadia Lookout. “Let’s go!” are the words that changed the trip that day from a forgettable one to a memorable one. We climbed 210 stairs with two dogs up 80 feet for a transformational view of Lake Michigan. What sign have you passed multiple times that holds the potential for an awe experience?
My husband introduced me to cycling for experiencing awe. There is a trail near me in Michigan where I have always turned left and headed north for seven years. It wasn’t until last year when I decided to turn right and discovered an entirely new experience of bridges, creeks, hobby farms, wild berries, sculptures, and a back entrance to the library all within a ride of a couple miles. Why did it take me 7 years to turn right instead of left, and what path is calling to you, waiting for you to turn right instead of left?
The High Trestle Trail Bridge is near where I was born in the middle of Iowa and is 130 ft tall. I always said that I would get there eventually, but didn’t, and now I am not in Iowa anymore. What experience is easily within your reach, and all that you need to do is just say “Let’s go!”?
A friend took a picture of Lake Michigan while piloting a plane over the Great Lake. He thought how awesome it would be to be sailing on a boat there on the water.
At the same time I was taking pictures from the bow of a sailboat sailing on Lake Michigan. I was looking up thinking how awesome it would be to fly over Lake Michigan. The two extreme perspectives occurring at the same time reconnected two friends (both musicians and former band directors) through a shared awe experience. Human connectedness is also a source of awe. Who in your life is calling out for you to reach out and reconnect?
Find New Perspectives - A View Up Close
Noticing nature has been found to be related to well-being and connectedness. This activity can take as little as a few minutes and requires no planning or travel. When we are distracted it may seem that there is nothing in front of you to see. As you calm your mind and begin to “notice,” a different world may appear before you and help you gain a new perspective. Open a door, or look out a window. What do you see if you allow yourself to notice?
Find New Perspectives - Take A “Noticing” Walk
A “noticing” walk is a meditative type of walk to focus on what is around you while letting go of distracting thoughts. Similarly, an “awe” walk involves purposely seeking out experiences of “awe.” At first you may notice large objects such as buildings, trees and water. As your mind shifts you begin to notice and appreciate the more hidden subtleties. Physical vastness and novelty contribute to a sense of awe, and contribute to our sense of connectedness. As you become more practiced with this activity, consider what big pictures and subtleties you are missing as you go through a typically distracted day with information coming at you from many directions. Experiment with spending time in your regular day viewing from within, just as you might approach a “noticing” or “awe” walk.
Find New Perspectives - Not That Way, Look Over Here
A friend took me for a drive in his little red 1973 Triumph sports car up to the top of a well-known Lake Michigan lookout area. On arrival I grabbed my camera and headed towards the expected lake view. My friend said to me, “Not that way, look over here.”
When I turned the other way, I saw a view of a town that I did not recognize, even though I had visited here regularly for years. The new perspective made me feel not only as though I was looking at a place that I had never seen before, but one that I was interested in getting to know better. The different perspective opened my eyes to new possibilities in a familiar place. How might you seek an awe experience for broadening your perspective of a familiar place? Would looking in a different direction be helpful?
Find New Perspectives - A View At Night
I was sitting with friends chatting one night, exhausted after cleaning boats all day, when my friend said to me, “Look at that view.” He described the light and the reflection, and then I saw it. I ran and grabbed my camera. We were both sitting in the same place, but it took him pointing out to me what was right in front of me. Until we learn to open ourselves up to see what is right in front of us, we are not fully able to guide our audiences to experience our performances openly and fully. In order to create performances authentically for experiencing awe, we first must learn to experience awe for ourselves.
Practice seeing things differently. Do something at night that you usually do during the day, and do something during the day that you usually do at night. If you perform on a stage, spend time practicing from the audience seat in the back corner. Have lunch on the top of your work building, or sit in on a class from a different area of study. Practice in an unusual, and public place. Take a different route home. But mostly, take time to notice.
What does this have to do with music performance?
“You” are the difference. If you are giving another Mozart Concerto performance, you are what brings uniqueness, interest, and relevance to the experience. If covering a Beatles tune at a summer music festival, or jamming with a combo at a local venue, or playing a ukulele solo for your friends, it is your willingness to reveal a little of who you are for people to connect with that creates the musical experience.
In audition and solo competitions the musical content is often the same, and you are the only unique factor. At a time when it seems like all possible music combinations have been composed, it is you who brings possibility and interest to melody, chord progression, and rhythm. In performance design, your choices based on your experiences are what create the audience experience.
To bring a sense of awe to your audience, first build your own personal library of awe experiences to enrich the you that you present to others.
Weekly Challenge!
Challenge yourself to a Let’s Go! event this week such as going somewhere new, or taking a noticing walk to see a familiar place in a new way. Describe any positive experiences in the comments so that as a community you can grow through shared experiences.
Guided awe activity recordings will be uploaded soon.
Once again, an amazing article and perspective. Most mornings I start my day with a cup of coffee on a screened in porch, looking out over the mostly natural backyard. I love the solitude, the peacefulness as I notice so many different things of nature within Cobb County suburbia. Even though it’s the same backyard each day, it is uniquely different when you take pause to notice. Changing cloud cover alters the lighting. The wildlife (plenty if you just sit and notice) busily going about their existence in different and interesting ways.
I had not considered bringing this sense of awe that I get to experience every morning into my musical practice. This article is giving me plenty to consider and I’m sure much more will be revealed.