Friends,
Welcome to my 27th newsletter, this one dealing with experiencing the positive emotion of AWE. My purpose is to enable you to experience even more of this life enhancing emotion.
I realize my quarterly letters have gotten a bit longer. I guess I have a lot to share on the chosen topics. Rather than apologize or cut them down in length, I have added a summary statement at the beginning to enable you to decide if you wish to invest the time to read the remainder of the letter, in this case 8 minutes.
SUMMARY
Awe is an amazing emotion. It is one of the top 10 most frequently experienced positive emotions. All positive emotions expand our minds, open us to new experiences, enable us to have better relationships, bring several health benefits including lower blood pressure and reducing inflammation levels. … positive emotions enhance our lives and act as an antidote to what seems at times a challenging and troubling world. Awe is a particularly powerful positive emotion in providing these benefits and it can be easily and frequently experienced. What follows provides an overview of the study of emotions, the role of positive emotions in enabling people to flourish, a definition of awe and eight identified sources of awe, two of which we cover in more detail.
THE STUDY OF EMOTIONS
Before the 21st century we knew little about emotions. Emotions, especially positive emotions, were not considered a very valuable or valid field of study. Psychology was stuck in the framework of the “cognitive revolution,” begun in the 1950’s that saw most every human action as dictated by rational thinking devoid of emotion. This changed with the positive psychology movement in the late 1990’s. There have been immense benefits from this expansion of the science of psychology leading to a much better understanding of how emotions are formed, how they affect our decisions and our wellbeing. One of the last positive emotions to gain respect was awe.
FLOURISHING AND POSITIVE EMOTIONS
Put simply flourishing is the experience of life going well. It is both feeling good and doing good. Flourishing demonstrates good mental health, and its achievement is the foundation for successful living. I think you can pretty much capture what leads to flourishing with the letters PERMASOR. Here are the qualities of those who flourish:
- Positive Emotions: They experience more positive emotions.
- Engaged: They are interesting because they are interested and engaged in life.
- Relationships: They have healthy enduring relationships.
- Meaning: They think their lives have meaning and value.
- Achievement: They set and achieve key life goals.
- Self-Esteem: They feel worthy of happiness and capable of meeting life challenges.
- Optimism: They are hopeful/positive about the future and their role in it.
- Resilience: They consistently and quickly bounce back from setbacks.
Today we are dealing only with the first of these qualities, positive emotions, and only with one of the top 10 most experienced positive emotions – awe. Here are 10 most frequently experienced positive emotions: Joy, Gratitude, Serenity, Hope, Interest, Pride, AWE, Amusement, Inspiration and, the biggie … Love.
It is easy to see why experiencing more of these positive emotions leads to better living. All emotions, both negative and positive, play an important role in our lives, but most of us experience far more negative emotions (such as fear, anger, jealousy, sadness, remorse, etc.) than we need or than are productive. Negative emotions are what psychologists call “sticky,” meaning we hang on to them long after they have served their purpose. And hanging on to negative emotions after they have served their purpose is called “dirty pain.”
Experiencing more positive emotions not only make us feel better, but positive emotions also lead to better relationships, more creativity, more energy, greater resilience, a stronger immune system, etc. There are good reasons to experience more positive emotions and awe is no exception. Perhaps in future letters I will get into other positive emotions, but for today, let’s just deal with AWE.
WHAT IS AWE
Positive psychologists define awe as follows: “The feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” Awe is about our relation to the mysteries of life. Awe reveals that our current knowledge is inadequate to understand what we are experiencing, so we go in search of understanding. As such it opens our minds to new forms of understanding.
THE SOURCES OF AWE
Positive psychologists have identified 8 sources of awe:
- Moral Beauty,
- Nature,
- Music,
- Collective Effervescence,
- Virtual Design,
- Spiritual/Religious,
- Stories about Life & Death, and
- Epiphanies.
Today I want to deal with only the first two – moral beauty and nature
MORAL BEAUTY AS A SOURCE OF AWE
A few years ago, I was flying from Columbus to Baltimore. As I exited the plane, there was a couple in their mid to late 50’s who were accompanied by their daughter, probably in her mid 30’s who was severely mentally and physically handicapped. They spoke to her in a kind loving tone as they helped her into a specially designed chair. I surmised that they had devoted those 30+ years to enabling her to live as well as they/she could. As I walked by, I touched the man’s shoulder and said, “bless you.” I can best describe the feeling I had at that moment as “awe.” Awe that these two people had the moral courage to devote their lives to this special person.
Witnessing profound acts of kindness or courage can lead to us having an overwhelming feeling of benevolence. Psychologists call this emotion “elevation.” It seems the first person to write about this emotion was Thomas Jefferson. In a letter written nearly 250 years ago Jefferson describes the effect of observing what he calls “moral beauty.”
“When any act of charity or kindness is presented to our sight or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts also. This can elevate our bodies and minds, our chest and hearts.”
This sounds like positive psychology’s definition of “elevation”: “A warm, uplifting feeling that we experience when we see unexpected acts of kindness, courage or compassion. It makes us want to help others, to become better people.”
Experiencing awe in the form of moral beauty not only makes us feel good, it compels us to perform acts of kindness and compassion ourselves.
NATURE AS A SOURCE OF AWE
Nearly 40 years ago I was taking part in a business retreat in Stowe, Vermont. I went for a long walk late in the evening and when I returned to my room I wrote this.
It has snowed this day. The snow gently fell from the gray sky for much of the day onto land already turned white by previous snows. Only the dark green of the spruce and pine and hemlock poked through the gray and white world. The snow made no sound as it fell, yet it seemed to fill all my senses – filling me with a sense of belonging … a feeling that I was as much a part of the panorama as the snow, the trees and the massive mountains which surrounded me … a feeling of peace with oneself and the surrounding world. As if my worth was measured by no more than merely being here. Nothing judged, nothing appraised or needing explanation, but simply accepted as it is.
There is serenity in nature. I believe it is at the core of all of us. It is there from our ancestors from a thousand or ten thousand years back when life and this world were not separate but were one … where the struggles of life were not against the challenges man created, but rather seeking to adjust to what God created for all living creatures. To touch that core in us is to reach into the center of our being – of all being. To touch it brings a sense of fulfillment, of rest, of joy, of strength, a feeling that one has seen something of immense beauty and great understanding.
May God grant me the health to continue to touch this source of joy and the wisdom to value it again and again as I have today on this bitterly cold day in January at the foot of Mount Mansfield.
From the journal of DAS, January 13, 1986
In retrospect, I realize what I was feeling that evening was awe and each time I read that journal entry, I feel it again. Nature is an incredible source of awe. We have a deep biological need to connect with nature, to be part of the natural world that surrounds us. Here is how Dacher Keltner captures it in his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life: “It is hard to imagine a single thing you can do that is better for your body and mind than finding awe outdoors. Doing so leads to reduced likelihood of cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, depression, anxiety and cancer.”
It doesn’t have to be profoundly different surroundings than those we find every day. When I have breakfast in the morning, I look out on our backyard with hydrangeas and our gazebo with the morning sunshine lighting it all. I find it incredibly calming. You can find awe in a flower, a blue sky, the clouds, the wind in the trees, the rabbits devouring your garden, the rain or snow that falls. Awe in nature is there for most all of us to appreciate if we but take the time to appreciate it.
I have only covered two of the eight sources of awe identified by psychologists. If this is of interest to you, the other six are covered in Dacher Keltner’s book referenced above.
I hope this has been of interest. Any input or responses are appreciated.
Be well … better yet thrive.
–Douglas. A. Smith
All previous 26 newsletters are available on my website http://whitepinemountain.com/blog/
“There is so much magic in life, in these colors, in these shapes, in this drop of shining light in the gigantic dark universe. Yes, our planet is a prodigious miracle, a unique happening in billions of years of evolution, in eons of light-years of space. We will never cherish it enough. We will never be grateful enough. This miracle should be the object of constant joy, love and admiration. We should stand in awe before the mysterious forces that brought it into being. ”
– Robert Muller, Assistant to the Secretary General of the U.N.
and author of Most of All They Taught Me Happiness
From the bookshelf!
Books I am reading and highly recommend.