BITESIZE | Do This Every Day to Feel Less Stress, More Joy and Boost Your Physical & Mental Wellbeing | Dr Dacher Keltner #591
Dr. Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology, discusses how experiencing just five minutes of awe can significantly improve physical and mental well-being by reducing inflammation, stress, and pain. He highlights "collective effervescence" and in-person social connections as powerful ways to access awe and combat self-focus and loneliness.
Deep Dive Analysis
9 Topic Outline
Benefits of Awe for Mental and Physical Health
Understanding Collective Effervescence and its Origins
The Importance of In-Person Collective Experiences
Awe as an Easy Practice for Everyday Life
The 'Awe Walk' Study and its Findings
Awe as an Antidote to Self-Focus and Individualism
Defining Awe and its Transformative Power
The Eight Paths to Experiencing Awe
Individual Differences in Finding Awe
3 Key Concepts
Awe
Awe is an emotion experienced in the presence of something vast that transcends one's current understanding of the world. It can reduce inflammation, activate vagal tone, decrease amygdala activity, improve clear thinking, and reduce physical pain and stress.
Collective Effervescence
A term coined by Emile Durkheim, collective effervescence describes a feeling of shared consciousness and unity that arises when people synchronize their movements and attention. It manifests in activities like church rituals, cheering at sports games, dancing, or participating in group activities, creating an electric feeling of being united.
Eight Wonders of Awe
These are the eight common pathways through which humans across cultures experience awe, extending beyond just nature or spirituality. They include moral beauty (kindness, courage), nature, collective movement, music, visual design, spirituality, epiphanies (big ideas), and reflecting on life and death.
7 Questions Answered
Experiencing awe can reduce inflammation, improve immune and cardiovascular systems, activate vagal tone, decrease amygdala activity, enhance clear and creative thinking, reduce stress, and lessen physical pain, especially for older adults.
Collective effervescence is a feeling of shared consciousness and unity that arises when people synchronize their movements and attention, such as during church rituals, cheering at sports games, dancing, or participating in group activities like yoga or farmer's markets.
In-person collective activities, like group yoga classes or game nights, are crucial because they foster a 'collective mind' and allow individuals to experience awe by connecting with others and things outside themselves, counteracting the negative effects of self-focus and loneliness.
No, awe is easy to find and can be practiced in short, everyday moments, such as taking a few minutes during lunch to sit in a garden, going for a walk with colleagues, or sharing 'awe stories'.
An awe walk involves going to a slightly mysterious place and intentionally observing both small details and vast elements of the environment. A study showed that individuals 75 years and older who did awe walks once a week for eight weeks experienced less distress and more awe.
Beyond nature, people can experience awe through eight 'wonders': moral beauty (kindness, courage), collective movement, music, visual design, spirituality, epiphanies (big ideas), and reflecting on life and death.
No, humans vary remarkably in what evokes awe for them; some find it in busy cities, others in quiet nature, some in classical music, others in punk rock, highlighting the unique and universal ways people connect with awe.
11 Actionable Insights
1. Seek Awe Daily
Actively seek out experiences of awe for at least five minutes daily, as it can reduce inflammation, improve cardiovascular health, lower stress, enhance clear thinking, and decrease physical pain, acting as an antidote to modern problems.
2. Use Awe to Transcend Self
Actively seek awe experiences to shift focus away from individualistic, ego-driven existence and narcissistic traits, connecting you to something much greater than yourself and reminding you of your place in a larger system.
3. Prioritize In-Person Group Activities
To combat loneliness and find community, prioritize attending in-person classes or groups for your hobbies and passions (e.g., yoga, dance) at least once a week, even if you also practice online, as collective activity provides a unique sense of connection and awe.
4. Engage in Collective Movement
Participate in activities involving synchronized or collective movement, shared attention, and emotion, such as dancing, cheering at sports events, or singing in a choir, to experience awe, a sense of unity, and deeper meaning.
5. Practice Weekly Awe Walks
Once a week, take an ‘awe walk’ in a slightly mysterious place, intentionally observing both small details (e.g., a rock) and vast elements (e.g., the environment), to reduce distress and increase feelings of awe.
6. Integrate Short Awe Moments
Integrate small, 3-5 minute awe-inducing activities into your daily routine, such as sitting in a garden during lunch, taking a walk with colleagues, or sharing awe stories, to easily access the benefits of awe even when busy.
7. Combat Distress with Connection & Nature
If you or someone you know is in distress, find social connections, get outdoors, and seek ways to find meaning or reflect on life, as these actions are recommended based on happiness science.
8. Reflect on Your Place in Awe
When you experience awe, ask yourself, “What am I part of here?” to realize your connection to something larger, such as fellow humans, an ecosystem, or culture, and to find comfort in your relative smallness within a grander system.
9. Train to See Everyday Awe
Actively train yourself to recognize awe in everyday interactions and surroundings, understanding that it is present daily if you cultivate the perception to see it.
10. Discover Your Awe Pathways
Reflect on past experiences where you felt goosebumps or teared up (e.g., listening to music, being in nature, or observing moral beauty) to identify your unique pathways to awe, as these experiences vary greatly among individuals but universally bring benefits.
11. Embrace Everyday Awe
Do not perceive awe as sublime or hard to find; instead, actively seek and embrace everyday awe and wonder, as it is readily accessible and easy to experience.
5 Key Quotes
Awe helps your immune system, reducing inflammation, helps your cardiovascular system, activates vagal tone, reduces activation in the amygdala, a threat-related region in the brain, helps you think more clearly and more creatively, makes you feel like you have less stress in life.
Dr. Dacher Keltner
You can pray by yourself, but there's something about praying with people who are praying with you together.
Malcolm Clemens Young (quoted by Dr. Dacher Keltner)
Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.
Dr. Dacher Keltner
I'm just a small thing that actually is okay. That's actually true, but I'm part of something really large, like fellow humans, you know, an ecosystem or something about culture.
Dr. Dacher Keltner
Awe sounds sublime and ineffable or hard to find. It's very easy to find. There's everyday awe and wonder. Just go get it.
Dr. Dacher Keltner
1 Protocols
Awe Walk
Dr. Dacher Keltner- Go to someplace that's a little mysterious.
- Look at small things (e.g., a rock).
- Look at vast things (e.g., your whole studio).
- Do this once a week.
- Continue for eight weeks.