Chapter 7 - The Art of Immersion: How Micro-Moments Awaken Awe and Admiration
From the book, Living as a Cathedral of Awe
Living as a Cathedral of Awe Book
At the heart of every transformational experience,
beneath the words, beneath the actions, beneath even the conscious thought,
there is something deeper happening.
Immersion.
Not the kind of immersion that drowns you.
The kind that sets you free.
A moment where thinking and feeling, sensing and being, merge.
A moment where the weight of vigilance falls away.
A moment where separation dissolves — from self, from reality, from life itself — and what remains is oneness.
Not escape from reality —
but connection to reality, deeper and clearer than we usually dare to allow.
This is what happens at the peak of a transformational experience:
the sensory, emotional, mental, and even spiritual layers align,
and for a breath,
we simply are.
Whole.
Present.
Alive.
Belonging.
This is what I came to understand, slowly and intuitively, through my journey with THX — and especially through the Admiration Equation.
It’s not just 3 to 5 micro-moments of high utility that create admiration.
It’s 3 to 5 moments that create immersion:
Moments when what you see, hear, feel, sense, and think all affirm safety, goodness, wonder.
Moments when reality itself feels, for a heartbeat, complete and trustworthy.
Moments when awe and gratitude aren’t concepts, but visceral experiences — in the body, in the breath, in the soul.
Admiration isn't manufactured.
It is evoked — born naturally when immersion opens the heart.
It’s why a single act of kindness, unexpected and unearned, can lodge itself in memory for life.
It’s why a flawless performance, a breathtaking view, a profound act of integrity can move us to tears.
It’s why connection — real connection — feels holy, even when no words are spoken.
It’s why healing happens, not through persuasion, but through presence.
In these moments, reality doesn’t fall away.
Our defenses do.
The vigilance we learned to carry falls.
The fear of hidden rules falls.
The conditioning that told us to shrink or hide falls.
And what’s left is simply
being.
Being alive.
Being seen.
Being in awe.
Being grateful.
And here, in this sacred immersion,
something even deeper happens:
true gratitude is born.
Not the polite "thank you" taught by manners.
Not the transactional gratitude taught by obligation.
But a gratitude that rises from the soul like breath after being underwater.
It is the moment when a person realizes:
Their expectations weren’t just met — they were exceeded.
Their experience didn’t just satisfy — it transported them.
They didn’t just feel helped — they felt seen, cared for, loved.
This is not the ordinary experience most of us are given.
This is the rare, life-altering moment when the walls we built to protect ourselves —
the fortress of fear, the defenses of disappointment —
fall away.
And we are rendered vulnerable.
Moldable.
Transformable.
In this kind of gratitude,
we are not merely acknowledging a favor.
We are bearing witness to the miracle of being recognized.
We are feeling — maybe for the first time —
"I am not invisible.
I am not alone.
I am not too much.
I am not too broken.
I am loved as I am."
This is the gratitude that transforms lives.
This is the gratitude that elevates the human to the divine.
This is the gratitude I am meeting within myself now —
as I finally see myself with eyes of compassion, wonder, and truth.
True gratitude is not small.
It is an awakening.
It is the natural response to the sacred moment of immersion,
where life reveals its goodness in ways too big to fully hold,
and yet somehow, miraculously, we do.
When I first began teaching sales teams to hold the emotional state of their best day —
what I was really teaching them, even if I didn’t have the full language for it yet,
was how to hold the energy that creates immersion.
Not just to sell.
But to invite.
Invite someone into a moment where they feel:
Safe.
Seen.
Inspired.
Whole.
And in that immersion, the natural, effortless "yes" emerges —
because we are wired to say "yes" to life when we feel it fully.
This is the art behind the frameworks.
This is the soul behind the strategies.
Every Utility.
Every flourishing signal.
Every act of skill, goodness, awe, and gratitude.
They aren’t checklists.
They are portals.
They are ways of creating micro-moments that allow immersion —
and through immersion, admiration.
Through admiration, loyalty.
Through loyalty, transformation.
Through transformation, flourishing.
This is how we heal ourselves.
This is how we heal each other.
Not by overwhelming force.
Not by manipulating behavior.
Not by controlling outcomes.
But by creating moments so real, so grounded in truth and goodness,
that the soul recognizes itself —
and says,
"Yes. I am here. I am alive. I am safe. I am whole."
And if we can create enough of those moments —
string them together like beads on a thread of intention —
then fear doesn’t stand a chance.
Then cynicism doesn't stand a chance.
Then loneliness doesn’t stand a chance.
Because life, when lived through immersion and awe,
becomes its own answer.
And that, in the end,
is the deepest truth behind THX, behind my journey, behind everything that is emerging here.
Not perfection.
Not performance.
Not domination.
Presence.
Immersion.
Flourishing.
One micro-moment at a time.
Next: Chapter 8 - Fear or Awe: Two Ways to Meet the Bigness of Life
Reframing the choice: meeting life’s vastness with awe instead of shrinking away in fear.
