Why We Need Awe and 8 Ways to Find It

Have you ever gazed up in wonder toward the height of a giant tree? Or felt small at the center of a vast cathedral? Have you read a line of poetry or prose that seemed to join you, across time and space, with the author? Experiences like these can shift us into a different relationship with the world around us and our place in it. They can prompt feelings of openness, calm, and curiosity. We can be similarly stirred by the tenderness imbued by a sculpture, the syncopation in a favorite piece of music, or witnessing the kindness, generosity, or courage of others. Experiences like these can sweep our attention outward toward our interconnectedness. Each of these occasions offers an opportunity to experience awe.

Awe has been described throughout history from varied perspectives by artists, scientists, mystics, and religious figures. Recently, attention to the science of awe has increased, revealing awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends our current understanding of the world” (Keltner, 2023). We feel awe when we are amazed at things outside of ourselves. When we feel awe, we are rapt, curious, open minded, and humbled. If we think about how we experience awe in the body, we might recall wide-eyed breathlessness, having chills, or even crying or whispering, "Whoa.”

We might think of awe as associated with rare, peak experiences, but actually, it's available to us much more often than we may realize. This is great news because its benefits for our well-being are extraordinary. In fact, evidence suggests we may have a biological need for certain types of awe.

The Healing Power of Awe

In our daily lives, we are often organized around our personal goals, such as succeeding in our careers, eating healthy food, or sticking to our exercise routine. We think of ourselves as independent and operating distinctly from others. We rely on our own agency to move us toward achieving what we set out to accomplish. When our attention stays too firmly fixed in this self-focused mode, we can become vulnerable to self-criticism, rumination, anxiety, and depression (Twenge, 2017). Awe can offer a salve. When we experience awe, we transcend self-criticism, rigidity, and fear of the unknown. Awe improves our mood, our health, and our sense of well being. Here's how:

Awe expands our sense of connection with others. Awe helps us locate ourselves within a larger context in connection with (and not necessarily more important than) other living things, ecosystems, or processes among which we coexist. This perspective heightens our awareness to the ways in which we are supported by those systems; for example, the processes, infrastructures, and experts who help bring us water and food.

Awe inspires generosity. One study found that people who experienced awe (via images of nature) were more likely to volunteer their time and effort to others. (Zhang, 2014). The science of awe has also found that the physical sensation of chills or goosebumps often prompted by awe are associated with a sense of being connected with others in our community (Keltner, 2023).

Awe promotes creativity and critical thinking. Experiencing awe expands and energizes our thinking. When we experience awe, we experience wonder. People who find more awe (and wonder) are more open to new ideas, seeking new knowledge of what is unknown, and what is hard to describe (Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006). It's probably no surprise that awe inspires creativity. Turns out, the creative benefits of awe extend beyond the artist's domain; it can inspire creative problem-solving and design in many arenas including science and business (Donghwy & Youn 2018).

Because awe energizes our thinking and helps us consider ourselves and other mysteries within larger contexts, it can enable us to identify and understand the complex systems in which phenomena occur. This leads to more rigorous ways of thinking about and interacting with those systems. One study found that college students were better able to distinguish between a valid and invalid argument (e.g., one which was grounded in scientific evidence) after experiencing awe via remembering an expansive view (Griskevicius, Shiota, & Neufeld, 2010).

Awe calms us down. Several studies have examined the impact of awe on our bodies. Findings show that awe decreases blood pressure, cortisol, and inflammation, and soothes the fight-or-flight reaction of our central nervous systems (Keltner, 2023).

Where to Find Awe in Daily Life

In his book, Awe: The new science of every day wonder and how it can transform your life, Dacher Keltner describes the research that led to the identification of eight categories of experience that set the stage for awe: the eight wonders. Encouragingly, he and his colleagues found that people experience awe via these eight wonders as many as two to three times each week.

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To cultivate awe in your week, consider which of these eight wonders are already available in your daily life and which you might be interested to seek and experience more.

1. Moral beauty. We can feel awe when we observe other people engage in acts of courage or kindness. Moral beauty also describes the experience of seeing someone overcome obstacles, or watching people with rare talents.
2. Collective effervescence. This occurs when a gathering of people is attending to the same thing, moving together, and converging on similar emotional experience. Think attending a concert, dancing in a crowd, or attending or playing in a basketball game.
3. Nature. When we are outside, we can find awe in the sights, sounds, and smells of nature.
4. Music. Both making music and listening to music attune us to what is happening outside of ourselves and connect us with others and a broader expanse of time and place.
5. Visual design. This includes visual art, movies, geometric patterns, even the elegance and complexity of machines.
6. Spirituality and religion. As personally defined by each of us, this might include connection with the Divine, or experiences that transcend our self or understanding.
7. Life and death. We can experience awe when we witness or are connected to birth and death.
8. Epiphany. This includes the experience of uniting facts, beliefs, values, intuitions, and images into a new system of understanding.