Experiencing Awe

I think the best way to conceptualize awe is that it's the feeling we get when we're in the presence of something bigger than ourselves that challenges our understanding about the world around us or even of ourselves. A shorthand could even be that it's the moments in life that make us go "wow!"

The slightly fuller definition of awe is that it's comprised of two separate yet interconnected ingredients: vastness and transcendence. Vastness can speak to things we encounter in the physical realm (perceptually vast experiences, like gazing up at the night sky, or looking up at an impossibly tall skyscraper). But vastness can also refer to things in the realm of ideas or knowledge, which would be known as conceptual vastness (like learning mind-blowing new topics, or witnessing an act of profound courage). The second ingredient of awe is the notion of transcendence, or as it's sometimes called accommodation. This means that the experience forces us to re-evaluate what we thought we knew, to adjust our mental structures, and to reconsider our assumptions. In this sense, moments of awe can be transformative and deeply profound.

For a nice overview of awe, its benefits, and some ideas for practice, I highly recommend checking out the Greater Good Science Center's page here: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/awe/definition

This is a great question, and most of the research I've encountered suggests that there's a bidirectional relationship between the experience of awe and curiosity. In other words, moments of awe and wonder spark within us feelings of curiosity, and indeed several studies have shown that awe leads to increases in curiosity. But conversely, the more curious we are about the world around us, and the more we seek to understand things beyond our current comprehension, the more awe we will inevitably encounter along the way. So these two emotions are definitely intertwined and fuel one another.

In researching awe for my book "Awestruck," one of the most surprising things I learned was how the experience of awe can have profound effects on our mental and physical health. While the psychological effects have been a bit more researched (and include benefits like boosts to our mood, enhanced feelings of connection, greater compassion, increased curiosity, and more), there have also been some interesting findings related to our physical health as well.

Two of the most important findings in my opinion have been that awe appears to impact both stress levels within the body (including affecting stress hormones) as well as reducing markers of chronic inflammation throughout our body. The inflammation finding is particularly important, as chronic inflammation has been linked to a host of problems including Alzheimer's, depression, heart disease, stroke, and more. In a series of studies looking at the health benefits of various positive emotions, awe was found to be linked to greatest reduction in a marker of chronic inflammation known as interleukin-6. While there's a bit of a chicken and egg debate, it seems very likely that experiences of awe directly affect us even in terms of our body's inflammatory response.

For a nice overview of these studies, check out: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/feeling-awe-may-be-good-for-our-health/

It definitely has applications, though if a person is struggling with more severe mental health issues we wouldn't use it as a front-line defense. Nonetheless, there are now a wide range of mental health benefits that have been linked to the experience of awe, so it can definitely play a role when working through depression, anxiety, stress, and more.

In my book "Awestruck" I go into much greater detail on the various studies in this area, but overall experiences of awe have been shown to have positive effects in a wide range of areas. These include increased positive emotions, greater life satisfaction, increased generosity/compassion, heightened creativity, more curiosity, lower stress, and increased critical thinking, to name but a few examples. So for a person struggling with mental health issues seeking out moments of awe can be of great benefit in the context of other front line treatments.

This is a very astute observation, and I've definitely noticed the same thing in my clinical work as well. It would be a great topic to investigate empirically, but my suspicion is that many of the elements of post traumatic growth (PTG) link directly to the experience of awe, and thus individuals who are able to grow in this way following trauma do indeed develop a greater capacity for awe. In particular, Tedeschi and Calhoun have noted that ingredients of PTG include things like a greater appreciation for life, a deepening of relationships, and spiritual change.

Each of these domains (appreciation, interpersonal connection, and spirituality) represent parts of life where we can experience a great deal of awe and wonder. When we appreciate things more and have a deep sense of gratitude, we inevitably experience moments of awe as we come to see the good parts of life as gifts. When we have profound moments of connection and belonging, these moments too can often evoke a feeling of awe within us. And of course spiritual experiences and are are often intertwined.

For any readers less familiar with the fascinating concept of post traumatic growth, here's a nice overview: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma