Practicing Wonder in a Threat-Focused World

"It is surely a strange moment to talk about... wonder. The world feels brittle. Dread has become a background thrum, and many of us find ourselves locked into a hypervigilant, doom-scrolling search for the next latent OMG headline or video. Beyond an "I wonder what the hell will happen next?" ruminative loop, openness to awe is mostly sidelined, displaced by a mode of awareness exquisitely well-suited for survival but less so for a mindful, open experience."

"No formal clinical definition of wonder is agreed upon, though most of us recognize the state without much struggle. The usual clichés quickly present themselves: mountaintops, first kisses (and, later, orgasms), psychedelics, cathedral ceilings. These familiar examples are evocative, but also a little misleading. They frame wonder as an infrequent reward, reserved for special states, rather than as an attentional stance-a way of meeting experience that can be trained and accessed in both our ordinary and extraordinary moments."

Wonder functions as a trainable attentional stance rather than a rare peak emotion, accessible in ordinary and extraordinary moments. Modern conditions of dread, hypervigilance, and doom-scrolling narrow attention toward threat and habituation, reducing openness to awe. Wonder restores reciprocity with self, others, and the world by functioning as a form of contact. Mindfulness practices cultivate wonder through deliberate attention training that interrupts habituation and threat-driven attention. Familiar examples like mountaintops or psychedelics evoke wonder but can mislead by framing it as an infrequent reward. Regular practice can make wonder an accessible orientation rather than something to wait for.

Read at Psychology Today