The Power of Awe

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Have you ever experienced something that left you feeling amazed and filled with wonder?  That feeling is called "awe" and not only can it spark curiosity, but it can also improve your health!  Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the director of the Greater Good Science Center.  In a recent Goodful on Buzzfeed article, he shared that awe activates our vagus nerve and “slows our heart rate, helps with digestion and opens up our bodies to things bigger than us.”  Experiencing awe helps to quiet down "self-representational processes" and focus more outwardly instead of inwardly.

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How can we experience more awe -- both for ourselves and for the young people in our lives?  Try an "awe walk!"  Keltner, who served as a scientific advisor on Pixar's "Inside Out" movie, says that finding awe and wonder on a walk (or anywhere else) can be as simple as "pausing and noticing the world around us — from something as seemingly small as a newly blossomed flower to something as big as a sunset stretched across the entire sky."  Try a new walk route with your young person.  What do you notice?  What do you wonder about?  An awe walk can be a great way to ignite curiosity!