01 Feb How the Experience of Awe Can Improve Your Well-Being
What can we do to create more health and happiness, more success and wellbeing?
Well, lots of things.
We can foster hope and optimism, take care of our physical health, build positive relationships and practice gratitude.
You probably know all this but do you know about awe? And the relationship between awe and happiness? If not, read on …
via Psychology Today by Dan Mager
KEY POINTS
- Awe is typically associated with deep feelings of wonder and astonishment, but we can also find it in everyday experiences.
- Research demonstrates that awe-inducing experiences have important mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual benefits.
- A sense of awe can be intentionally cultivated and strengthened by paying attention to what is around you and practicing mindfulness.
Dan Mager
In recent years, the term “awesome” has become overused and commonplace in popular culture—frequently as a hyperbolic adjective to describe a really enjoyable/pleasurable experience. As a result, its meaning and scope have been downsized.
Awe can mean many things, but we know it when we truly feel it. It is a sense of being in the presence of something vast that transcends our understanding of the world. Being in the midst of a grove of ancient giant Redwoods, glimpsing the surreal images of deep space transmitted from the James Webb telescope, bearing witness to the majesty of the massive granite rock formations and towering waterfalls in Yosemite Valley, being present for the miracle that is childbirth, or reveling in a passionate live performance by your favorite musician/band (in my case, the Grateful Dead or more currently, Dead & Company) are all experiences that can elicit the emotion of awe.
Awe is typically associated with deep feelings of wonder, astonishment, and sometimes being overwhelmed. Often beyond words, awe often occurs when we experience something that compels intense, focused, present-centered attention and expands or shifts our perspective. In this way, awe can help right-size the individual self and its concerns, decrease entitlement, and increase ethical decision-making, generosity, and prosocial behavior.
Like contentment, love, and joy, awe is essential to our mental-emotional well-being … keep reading the full & original article HERE