How Awe Transforms Us

by Fran Withrow 03.2023

“Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don’t understand.” So Dacher Keltner explains in his thoughtful book, “Awe,” which looks deeply at this emotion through the lens of science and shares how becoming aware of awe can change your life for the better. 

Keltner and colleagues gathered stories of awe from people in twenty-six countries to find common denominators about our experiences with awe. He found that people consistently feel awe around moral beauty (courage, kindness, and strength). Nature, not surprisingly, also inspires awe, as well as does music, visual design, and life and death. Participants also found awe in epiphanies, those sudden insights that transform one’s thinking in an instant.

Awe can lead to spiritual awakening (inside or outside of traditional religions). It can slow us down, make us pause, allow us to realize just how amazing this life and this world (and the universe) are. Awe can make us more grateful, more caring, more content, and more curious. 

The personal stories about people’s experiences of awe that pepper the book show how awe can transport us out of our ego and into connection with something bigger than ourselves. Becoming aware of how minuscule we are in comparison to the vastness of the Grand Canyon, for instance, leads to a “small self.” This “small self” allows us to collaborate with others, to experience humility, and to see that we are part of a community. Finding those connections helps us turn away from our perceived loneliness and isolation, so prevalent in today’s society, and turns us toward gratitude, compassion, and empathy. 

Keltner says that today it’s easy to turn a blind eye to everyday awe. We are more disconnected from others and more disconnected from nature. Thousands of years ago, indigenous people noticed awe every day.  How can we reclaim that sense of wonder and inter-relatedness?

One way is to go for a walk. Studies show that being in nature is a great way to experience awe. That hawk in the air, the way branches of a tree spread across the sky, the song of a bluebird; all can lead to this sense of astonishment and amazement. Awe reminds us that we are all united, which leads to greater happiness in daily life. Dancing, especially in groups, gathering together at a concert or a game, watching a waterfall or trickling stream, witnessing the beginning or the end of life: all these inspire awe and are reminders that this world of ours is full of mysteries beyond our understanding.

If you are searching for a way to experience more peace, joy, and connection, this beautiful book will show you how, by looking for awe every day, even moment to moment. Being aware of awe can be a gift not only to yourself, but also to the world. Take a deep breath. Look around you for those enigmatic glimpses of wonder and amazement. 

And may you be filled with awe by what you discover.