Awe

Awe.

According to American professor and writer, Dacher Keltner, awe is the emotion we feel when we encounter something that blows our minds, astonishes us, causes tears, even goosebumps, and our whole being is saying, "Whoa!"

When we experience awe, we come face to face with the realization that we are a part of something much greater, much bigger than ourselves.

Awe puts a little water on the fire that is our ego. It moves us from self-centered narcissism and helps us get a glimpse of our part in a greater story.

Keltner, who wrote the book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life, describes the benefits of awe for our lives and the 8 arenas where we often experience awe. As I listened to him interviewed on a podcast yesterday, I thought about how travel is ripe with opportunities to encounter and experience awe.

Often in travel, we encounter many of these 8 common awe-evoking experiences:

1. Moral Beauty: When we are awe-struck by a person's courage, extravagant hospitality, extreme generosity, perseverance, sacrifice, etc. Other people spark awe and inspiration as we watch them live wholeheartedly. We often meet people in our travels who have are living in ways that produce awe in us.

2. Collective Effervescence: The electricity and rush we feel when we're sharing something in community. Encountering awesome wonders, overcoming challenges, enjoying new experiences together in community creates its own sense of awe as we travel.

3. Nature: There's almost nothing that produces more awe than nature. The vastness of the ocean and the sky, the magnificence of the mountains, the rushing flow of a waterfall, the dancing colors of the Northern Lights. Travel takes us to some of the most awe-filled sights around this planet.

I won't mention all 8 awe prompts here, but I wonder, how is your sense of awe these days? What brings you to awe? It is a true and good reminder that we can experience awe and wonder in the everyday things in our ordinary days and lives. However, if your awe tank is unusually low, if you discover yourself living a fairly myopic life presently, then 2023 might also be a good year to travel this great big beautiful world for an awe-some perspective.

(photo cred: Laura Hoy, Switzerland, June 2022)