In last week’s newsletter, I mentioned that I would write more about tools and Technological Fitness. I’ll make good on that next week. This week we need to get spiritual. Are you down with that? Because whenever I present the five fitnesses of Open-Source Learning, I feel like I should slow down around Spiritual Fitness. I get worried that I should explain more, provide more context, and even offer preemptive reassurance so that my audience doesn’t immediately jump from the word “spiritual” to religion.

In my last few talks, the other four fitnesses were slam dunks:

Mental Fitness is easier to talk about than ever. More social systems have normalized openly discussing mental health. Mindfulness, empathy, and loneliness are familiar topics. Better yet, keynote audiences can test Open-Source Learning in real time and immediately improve their performance. Everyone loves the effects they experience after doing free, quick exercises to improve their focus, concentration, understanding, memory, and ability to navigate their emotional landscape.

Physical Fitness is inspiring. People dig it for lots of reasons, including: (a) everyone wants better energy, good overall health, and a hot reflection in the mirror; (b) it cuts right through the metric f*ckton of information out there about getting exercise, nutrition, and rest on a budget; and (c) for many people, the memory of P.E. class is still a lingering nightmare.

Civic Fitness answers every advice column letter ever written. Politics and institutions are shape-shifting in ways that affect our boundaries, relationships, and security at work and home. Plus we all need to manage our money and navigate our relationships in social systems on multiple levels.

Technological Fitness is what savvy, brilliant readers of this newsletter are still trying to develop every minute we waste scrolling on social media or reading another listicle about AI. The public internet is over 50 years old and we still don’t understand the digital waters in which we swim, do business, find love, and repost bullsh*t.

And now, back to the star of today’s show…

Spiritual Fitness. I am in a constant state of wonder. Once in a while I graduate to a sense of awe. Apart from making life more fun and interesting, I’ve always felt a little calmer and more curious when I stare up at the night sky or look out over the ocean, knowing that I am smaller than all but the tiniest fragments of the cosmos, and yet made from the same stuff as distant galaxies.

Often I’ve wondered (see what I did there?): Why should that be? Why didn’t standing at the base of Mount Everest or the edge of the Grand Canyon make me feel depressingly small and insignificant? And anyway, is thinking about all that weird?

It turns out that asking these sorts of questions is good for us.

Research indicates that awe can reduce stress by lowering inflammation and reducing activation of the sympathetic nervous system. It can also foster kind and helpful behavior, leading to more generosity, cooperation, and empathy.

The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley is raising awareness in the field. Center co-founder Dacher Keltner wrote Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life: “It is awe that sharpens our reasoning and orients us toward big ideas and new insights, that cools our immune system’s inflammation response and strengthens our bodies. It is awe that activates our inclination to share and create strong networks, to take actions that are good for the natural and social world around us. It is awe that transforms who we are.” 

But the Spiritual Fitness of Open-Source Learning takes us a step further, because the nature of all learning is to always take a step further. First, since we’re not doing this alone, we probably ought to take a step back and consider: Who gets to wonder? Not everyone has the freedom to ask questions, or the time and security to stare into space without being yelled at to get back to work. Not everyone has equitable access to awe – or if they do, it can be a negative sense of awe. In many hierarchical social systems, authoritarian forces show force to inspire awe as a function of fear to control behavior. 

Nevertheless, when we can cultivate it, a healthy sense of philosophy (love of wisdom) and mysticism (exploring states of consciousness that allow for increased connectivity) enhances our experience of everything. Science is more than the logic of math or proving hypotheses. Especially at the most advanced levels, interdisciplinarity and integration are more common than you might think, and often engage Spiritual Fitness.

Einstein revered Spinoza and wondered aloud about God and the unification of previously unmeasured forces of the universe. Schrödinger read deeply from Schopenhauer and the Upanishads, and mused about the connectedness of all minds in ways that create and share a sense of external reality. Carl Sagan smoked pot in the shower. 

Frank Wilczek may have articulated the concept most clearly. Wilczek has been a theoretical physicist for more than 50 years. He won the Nobel in 2004 for something I don’t pretend to understand involving nuclear energy. A few years ago he joined past recipients St. Teresa, Jane Goodall, the Dalai Lama, and Desmond Tutu when he won the Templeton Prize, which the Templeton Foundation says “Is given to those who use the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.” What kind of mind does this sort of work? The kind that sits in Wilczek’s comfy chair at his house in Massachusetts and says, “There are rainbows all over the place, once you start paying attention. My everyday life has been very much enhanced by occasionally reflecting on what’s going on under the hood.”  

In his most recent book, Fundamentals: Ten Keys To Reality, Wilczek wrote, “In studying how the world works, we are studying how God works, and thereby learning what God is. In that spirit we can interpret the search for knowledge as a form of worship, and our discoveries as revelations.”

If only homework were that awesome…

Whether you immerse yourself in the vastness of nature, or in the vastness of an idea, or even if you just take a moment to stare at something right in front of you (with eyes open or closed), developing your Spiritual Fitness can unlock and enrich your immediate experience. It’s the ultimate Augmented Reality. 

Have a nice day.

Open-Source Learning is yours. Free. Get the white paper here. Use what works and customize whatever you need, however you want. I’m here to help.

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What was the last thing you experienced that made you stop, drop your jaw, and say… “Whoa”? Drop me a line – I’m curious!

Curiosity is worth practicing. That’s how we get better at it. When it’s done particularly well, curiosity can be elevated to an art form. Curiosity makes life worth living. I am literally Curious AF. And now you can be too! Click HERE to unlock your free membership subscription. 

Here is a taste of what I’m reading, watching, and thinking about.

What I’m Watching– 

I used to love watching Late Night and Late Show With David Letterman. There was just something about the guy’s sense of humor and his ability to connect with regular people that I always enjoyed. But you never know what celebrities are really like. So I felt like I won in two ways this week. First, I got to watch David Letterman on a late night TV show, and he hasn’t lost his touch. He even remembered a New York City street conversation with the host from forever ago. But second, and even better, I got to learn about host Danny Cashman, who started a TV show in 1997 – when he was 19 years old – in Bangor, Maine and developed a loyal audience (even going head to head in his time slot with Saturday Night Live!) without network support or syndication. You can read the whole story and watch the video here: Watch David Letterman as a surprise guest for a retiring local talk show in Bangor, Maine. 

What I’m Reading – 

I did buy that copy of Determined by Robert Sapolsky last week and now I’m wrestling with the possibility that I had no choice in the matter, since the book is “about the science of why there is no free will and the science of how we might best live once we accept that.” (that quote is from p.10 of my copy, which is how far I read before I put the book down, and then picked it up again, and thought right at it, “Ha!” you didn’t see that coming, did you?” at which point I also thought, “Did I just do that because of my unique combination of training, experience, family/culture of origin, and DNA?” and also: “Was it really inevitable that I would pick this moment to argue with a paperback?”) 

Quote I’m pondering —

Free will is the ability to do gladly that which I must do.

– Carl Jung

Thank you for reading! This publication is a lovingly cultivated, hand-rolled, barrel-aged, ad-free, AI-free, 100% organic, anti-algorithm, zero calorie, high protein, completely reader-supported publication that is not paid to endorse any political party, world religion, sports team, product or service. Please help keep it going by buying my book, hiring me to speak, or becoming a paid subscriber, which will also entitle you to upcoming web events, free consultations, discounted merchandise, and generally being the coolest person your friends know:

Best,

Know someone who is also Curious AF? Please share this edition with them!

David Preston

Educator & Author

​https://davidpreston.net​

Latest book: ACADEMY OF ONE

Header image: Backyard sunflower. via David Preston