In our fast-paced world and busy lives, it can be easy to forget the importance of taking a moment to pause, to gain perspective on the bigger picture. How do we build a practice of regularly getting out of the daily mental grind, the to-do lists, the mundanity? Awe – that profound sense of wonderment or amazement – can have tangible effects on your mental well-being and on our ability to remember how meaningful it is to be here, alive and present today.
You Know the Feeling
Awe is the feeling you get when you experience something vast, powerful or breathtaking – it’s wonderment, surprise even that what you are witnessing or experiencing even exists. We often think of the spectacular when we think of times this emotion has been evoked – i.e., standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon – but it can also be evoked in simple, everyday experiences and interactions. With a bit of mindfulness and attention, we can learn to tap into this emotion more regularly. Awe often helps us find perspective outside of just ourselves, it allows us to connect to something larger than ourselves, something beyond our full understanding, evoking a sense of wonder and humility. Research in recent years into this powerful emotion reveals that it does more than just make us feel good in the moment. Awe has been linked to several key psychological and physical benefits.
1. Awe reduces stress and anxiety
One of the most significant benefits of awe is it’s ability to help us reduce stress and anxiety. Studies have shown that experiencing awe can promote relaxation and calm by lowering levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. When you experience awe, your mind shifts from a place of worry or self-focus to a broader perspective; it helps us take a step back and gain perspective on our challenges. This shift in our focus can reduce rumination – the repetitive thinking that often fuels anxiety.
2. Awe encourages gratitude and positive emotions
Awe and gratitude go hand in hand; when our perspective elevates, when we can see beyond ourselves, we feel thankful for the beauty, mystery, or kindness we’ve witnessed. This contributes to improved mental health by increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative ones. Practicing gratitude has been shown to improve mood, enhance social connections, and increase life satisfaction.
3. Awe enhances mental resilience
Awe helps us cope with difficult situations more effectively. When we experience awe, it reminds us that the world is vast and full of possibilities, helping us to achieve greater emotional openness and increased tolerance for uncertainty. Feeling awe reminds us of a sense of the other – it encourages our sense of embeddedness in our communities, our bond to a higher power, to the world around us, making it easier to put our struggles into perspective and realize that we are not alone. This sense of connectedness can reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness, both common in mental health struggles. Studies have shown that awe can promote pro-social behavior, making us more likely to help others and engage in acts of kindness.
4. Awe boosts creativity and problem-solving
Awe isn’t just a passive experience – it actively engages our minds and enhances creativity, shifting our thinking from the mundane to the extraordinary and encouraging us to look at things from new perspectives, to approach challenges with innovative solutions. In therapy, cultivating awe is used as a tool for clients to access creative solutions for personal struggles and to feel more empowered in their healing journey.
Why I had to write about this today
I’ve been thinking about awe and how it affects mental health for some time. It is one of those things, as is building meaning (which I wrote about here), that has truly moved the needle for my mental health when I am personally struggling with something. Awe had been a topic on mind for the past couple of days when I had this experience yesterday morning. I was up in the mountain roads above Malibu when I turned a corner and saw this image. It looked like a painting, the velvety clouds completely obscuring the sea below. It was stunning and left me in complete awe.
Just a couple of minutes later, my phone dinged, announcing an incoming email from my dad, who himself is no stranger to the power of awe. My dad frequently sends my family early morning photos from his drive into his office, or from an early morning bike ride. He said in his email, “Good morning all, sunrise was beautiful this morning – I felt so grateful I wanted to share it!” Within mere moments of each other, my dad and I had pulled off the side of each of our respective roads on two different sides of Los Angeles, and snapped our awe-inspired pictures of the morning sky to be shared with our family. And we both felt the same emotional reaction to the beauty we took in when we just stopped for a moment to notice it.
How do we cultivate more of this feel-good feeling?
Mindfulness, mindfulness, mindfulness!
We cannot reap the benefits of anything we’re not mindful of. Cultivating awe and gratitude is an ongoing, active endeavor. Start off by just setting an intention, developing a practice of noticing things. On walks, intentionally look around your familiar neighborhood and remember what it was like to see this neighborhood for the first time – what were the things that drew you to it, what did you notice about it or appreciate about it? Each morning you wake up, identify 3 things that feel like a miracle in your life. Even setting a reminder on your phone 3 times a day for a check in and to take notice of your surroundings and the circumstances of your day to help you get in the groove of this type of thinking can help. There are now a ton of apps that can help us improve our mindfulness and attention to the present moment.
Mental redirections
As an interning therapist, one of the populations that I worked with was at risk teens. I ran relapse prevention groups and had to come up with exercises twice a week that would catch the interest of about 15-20 teens. I shared with them the exercise of the Mental Removal of Blessings – a mental redirection or exercise we can all do to really reflect on the things we are grateful for in our lives and to imagine what life would be like if those blessings suddenly vanished. Reminding ourselves that life is fleeting, that little is guaranteed in life, and that loss and heartbreak are a part of life helps us remember the things we need to remain grateful for. Mentally subtracting one of your blessings in your imagination is a way of overcoming habituation – our mind’s tendency to take things for granted because we become habituated to, or used to them. By shifting the frame of mind from the actual presence of something good we’ve received to the imagined absence of said thing, we grow to appreciate it more. (And I am happy to report – the teens got invested in that conversation.)
Other quick mental redirections that can pack a big punch – remembering that we are, at all times, sitting on a big rock that is spinning through space. OR: many people who could have lived, because the realities of human fertility being what they are, never will live – and yet, here we are, living right now in this moment. How do mental redirections like this color our perceptions, inform our decisions and reactions, or help us cope with hardships? Given this life we miraculously have, how are we going to choose to live it?
Spending time in nature
My son and I have been doing the 1000 hours outside challenge (a challenge posed by Ginny Yurich of the 1000 Hours Outside podcast which is just that – to spend 1000 hours outside in a year. It ends up being just about 3 hours a day outside, but if you fall behind, of course it means spending more than that to catch up. Here are some things that I’ve noticed in being more intentional about getting outside over the past year: my thinking slows down, I ruminate less, I find more joy and gratitude for the present moment, and I’m able to practice the mental redirections that help me elicit the feeling of awe. Nature does so much for our mental health, and if you aren’t getting enough of it, I encourage you to try to change that. Listening to Ginny’s podcast has been incredibly motivating for me as well to clock in those outside hours. She highlights several guests that discuss the benefits of being outside for little minds as well. And talk about timing - it just so happens that as I'm wrapping up this post, the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast has a new episode today with author of "Awestuck: How Embracing Wonder Can Make You Happier, Healthier and More Connected", Jonah Paquette.
Seeking out meaningful experiences
Let's attend to our mental health on a regular basis, much like we’re encouraged to do for our physical health. Reach out to the people you love or miss, pursue that thing for your career that brings you joy, connect with your higher power, spend time in the splendor and solace of nature – and see how your mental health improves.
Want to learn more about how therapy can help you utilize healthier perspectives and more fully enjoy your life? Get started here.
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