How to Have an AWE-some Life

How to Have an AWEsome Life

When was the last time you felt small? I don’t mean sick, or depressed, or insecure…I mean small!

I don’t know about you, but I invest a lot of time focusing on getting bigger - increasing my confidence, my skills, my influence - and the idea of feeling small didn't resonate with me. That was, until my oldest daughter, Megan, brought this concept to my attention a few years ago. She seems to intuitively understand the transformational emotion that scientists refer to as “awe.”

Essential characteristics of AWE:
vastness and accommodation

Emotion researchers describe awe as a state or experience brought on by a stimulus that has two essential characteristics: vastness and need for accommodation. An awe inspiring stimulus – whether it’s the birth of our first child, a meteor shower, or a breathtaking landscape – gives us a sense of vastness and makes us feel small in relation to it. And because the experience challenges our concept of our self and the world around us, we’re then forced to adjust our thinking to accommodate these new thoughts.

Translation: Awe-inducing experiences “blow our mind!”

We often associate awe with something we see, but there are awe inspiring stories that cause us to feel small and change how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Reading The Diary of Ann Frank in the 6th grade, was an awe-inspiring experience for me.

You’ll know AWE when you see it:

Awe is expressed in different ways than the other positive emotions. If you experience awe, you don’t just smile, you might raise your eyebrows, open your eyes wide, drop your jaw, and take a quick inhalation.

Benefits of AWE:

• Expands our perception of time
• Helps us think more clearly and more expansively
• Boosts our creativity
• Helps us feel a deeper connection to others and to nature
• Gives us hope and a greater appreciation for life
• Calms our mind and lowers our stress levels
• Boosts our well-being and sense of fulfillment

Basically, awe expands our hearts and our minds, and it’s why some emotion researchers say that awe-inspiring experiences “may be one of the fastest and most powerful methods of personal change and growth!” – Not bad for a three letter word!

Unfortunately, our daily schedules don’t include many awe inspiring events, and the ones that happen, we often overlook. So if we want to capture the physical, social, psychological, and spiritual benefits of this powerful change agent, we need to increase our ‘Awe-sum!’

This'll help you increase AWE in 4 minutes:

To help you increase your ‘awe-sum’ I’ve included this this video from Greater Good, UC Berkley. It just takes four minutes to watch and has the potential to trigger your awe switch so you can enjoy the many benefits of this transforming emotion. It’s only four minutes, so try to focus fully as you watch the video, and play it in widescreen to enhance the experience.