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8 ‘Wonders of Life’ That Can Help You Experience More Everyday Awe
There are many things we know we need to get regularly to maintain our mental and physical health: 2,000 calories or so of nutritious food a day, 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, seven to eight hours or so of sleep, and regular social contact.
But according to new neuroscience research, there is one key ingredient to healthy functioning you are probably not getting enough of — awe.
Awe is basically a wonder drug.
Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, defines awe as “an emotion, a brief experience we have in response to vast and mysterious things we don’t understand.” It’s that shiver you get looking at an eclipse or contemplating some of history’s greatest thinkers and heroes.
Most of us have experienced this fleeting zing of curiosity and wonder and enjoyed it as a pleasant dusting of emotion spicing up the everyday. But science says awe is much more than sprinkles on the sundae of life. It’s more like a vitamin that we need to get regularly to maintain our mental health.
Awe, studies show, breaks us out of the constricting confines of our usual thought patterns. It makes the world seem big…
