When was the last time you felt truly amazed by something? While young children appear to be regularly awed by the world around them, adults are more likely to have a once-in-a-lifetime moment of awelessness because of the increased demands of adulthood. But a new and rapidly expanding body of evidence suggests that amazement is just as crucial for grownups.
Scientists explain awe as the emotion we feel when confronted by something exceptionally huge that forces us to reframe the world in a new light. The first blooms of spring, a wonderful work of art, a breathtaking landscape, an inspiring speech, or even a simple act of nature can all inspire feelings of awe in the viewer.
Awe requires a sense of humility, but not the type associated with embarrassment or self-doubt; rather, it entails a sense of community and an expansion of one’s perspective, like when a camera lens is zoomed out to display a broader and more inclusive scene. It’s easy to feel less overwhelmed by the mundane worries of daily life when viewed from this distance.
Awe: Read on!
The origins, effects, and cultivation of awe are all explored in depth in this white paper.
Awe, according to the literature, has several positive psychological effects, such as making one feel more grateful for one’s life, making one feel as if time has stopped, and making one more compelled to serve others. Possible health benefits include: Recent research has shown that those who regularly feel awe have reduced tissue levels of interleukin-6, a pro-inflammatory cytokine linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Interleukin-6 levels were anticipated to be lower in people who reported feeling astonishment than in those who reported feeling joy, contentment, or amusement. Awe may aid stress management by encouraging inquisitiveness and new experiences rather than withdrawal and isolation.
No one needs or wants to constantly be filled with wonder, but most of us could benefit from experiencing it more often. Researchers have identified various effective ways for boosting awe, many of which are collected on the Greater Good Science Center website Greater Good in Action (GGIA), which contains the top research-based activities for fostering happiness, kindness, connection, and resilience.
I will be focusing on four of GGIA’s most fundamental forms of wonderment/awe-inspiring:
1. Write about a personal experience of awe-inspiring.
What experiences in your life have most filled you with a sense of wonder and inspiration? A trek through the Grand Canyon? A visit to the pyramids of Egypt? Your child’s first steps?
The simple act of writing about awe can be quite powerful. The aim of the Wonder Narrative is to encourage readers to consider and write about their own experiences of awe. The emotions you felt at the time can be brought back by thinking about the event in great detail.
Assistant professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Melanie Rudd conducted a study in 2012 that indicated participants who completed this writing exercise felt more amazement, had less stress, and were more motivated to offer their time for a good cause (compared with those who wrote about an experience of happiness).
When the stresses of daily life start to get to be too much, this technique could be especially helpful. Recalling even a single moment of wonder from your past can be enough to shake off a blah mood and remind you that the world is full of wonder.
2. Walk in Wonderment
One of the best ways to experience wonder is through travel, but one can also find it in everyday life. The Awe Walk ritual consists of strolling to a spot that can fill one with wonder. It may be outside, on a path lined with trees, in the city, on top of a skyscraper, or inside, in a museum.
Both your destination and your frame of mind play a role in how much of an impact your Awe Walk has on you. More opportunities for wonder can be found when one looks at the world around them as if for the first time. The sound of a bird chirping or the hue of the sky could be interpreted in a way that gives them greater significance.
If you want to get the most out of your walk, it is best to leave your cell phone (and any other potential distractions) at home. You should also try to find places where the sights and sounds are unfamiliar to you.
But you can also include an Awe Walk into your regular routine; you can make an effort to discover new things along a familiar route. Inspiration can be found in the most unlikely places, such as the same views you pass every day. The bestselling novel The Girl on the Train was inspired by Paula Hawkins’ inquisitive observations of the world outside the train window during her daily journey.
One study, conducted in 2015 by then-UC Berkeley researcher Paul Piff, provides circumstantial support for the efficacy of the Awe Walk. The participants in this study were split into two groups: one looked at a building while the other looked up at a grove of tall eucalyptus trees for a full minute. Supporting the premise that awe encourages humility and concern for others, those who looked up at the trees reported greater sensations of wonder, were less likely to feel superior to others, and were more willing to help someone in need.
3. Listen to jaw-dropping music or see a breathtaking film
A sense of wonder is always available, even if you’re cooped up inside your apartment, thanks to the Internet and its never-ending supply of breathtaking photos and movies. One of them is used in the Awe Video exercise; it’s a compilation of breathtaking footage recorded in Yosemite. National Geographic is another fantastic source of awe-eliciting media, while YouTube hosts many recordings of fascinating lectures and performances.
If you have a collection of photos or videos from amazing places you’ve been, you could use those, or you could make it a point to record your next excursion on film (as long as doing so doesn’t get in the way of having fun).
Research reveals that the Awe Video exercise is an excellent way to generate awe in the moment. A second study was conducted in 2012 by Melanie Rudd, who had participants view a short movie showing people in city streets and parks interacting with enormous, visually overpowering visuals like waterfalls, whales, and astronauts. Participants who saw the awe-inspiring video also reported a larger sense of temporal freedom compared to those who watched the happy-inducing video.
4. Take in a mind-blowing tale
Words on paper can do the same. Reading an in-depth account of a person’s experience at the top of the Eiffel Tower is a common Awe Story exercise. As a result, the story is recounted from the second person perspective, which places the reader squarely in the action.
You can find awe-inspiring writing in many forms of literature and nonfiction, such as Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, as well as in your own writing (which is why it’s a good idea to keep a journal of your own awe-inspiring experiences as they happen).
Some potential advantages of reading about awe are illustrated by a third study conducted in 2012 and directed by Melanie Rudd. In this experiment, subjects were randomly assigned to read either a story about ascending the Eiffel Tower or a story about ascending an unnamed tower and viewing a plain landscape from above. Those who read the account of the Eiffel Tower’s construction had a larger sense of wonder, a greater preference for experiences over material items, a greater sensation of having more leisure, and a greater sense of life satisfaction (compared to those who read the neutral story). That notion of having more leisure was what made people more content with their lives.
Everything’s not always easy to locate the spark in life that makes it worthwhile. On those days, even a modest dosage of amazement can go a long way in boosting your spirits and revitalising your sense of purpose. Experiencing awe isn’t necessarily reassuring; in fact, it may be rather frightening; nonetheless, it is a potent method to break the routine and gain a fresh perspective. When striving to make your life “amazing,” we hope you’ll find the awe exercises here on Greater Good in Action to be a helpful jumping-off point.
Also for you: Top 5 Technologies that can change the Future