The Science Behind Awe

Awe is more than a good feeling. It’s what you feel when you encounter something so vast or extraordinary that it shifts your perspective. It can come from: shared moments, breathtaking nature and deep connection, to name just a few. Research has identified two qualities to awe: vastness and a desire to accommodate. Essentially, an experience that is bigger or more complex than our existing mental state can easily contain. Our brains have to make room for it. And that process is part of what makes awe so interesting. It changes the way you see your life. Most of us spend a lot of time inside a very familiar frame of reference: our routines, our responsibilities, our problems, our plans, the “voice” in our head. Awe interrupts that. It removes attention from “me” to “everything around me”…and that’s the point. To step outside your everyday perspective and to make room for more purpose and possibility. When you zoom out, you can see what’s working and what you’re grateful for. You can reconnect to what actually matters.

Sources: Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17(2), 297–314.