The New Science of Awe & How It Improves Your Physical & Mental Wellbeing with Dr Dacher Keltner (re-release) #527

1. Shift Focus from Self to Awe

Actively seek out experiences of awe to counteract excessive self-focus, which is identified as a root cause of many modern health challenges, by shifting your attention outside of yourself.

2. Redefine Happiness as Meaning

Shift your understanding of happiness from individual pleasure to a quest for meaning and purpose in your life, especially given current global challenges.

3. Prioritize Meaning Over Materialism

Focus on finding meaning in life that transcends transactional values and money, as this pursuit is crucial for improving your overall life expectancy and well-being.

4. Cultivate Social Connections

Actively foster and maintain social connections and embed yourself in a community, as this significantly contributes to happiness and can add up to 10 years to your life expectancy.

5. Actively Cultivate Happiness

Make a conscious effort to cultivate happiness through various practices, as extensive research shows it can add approximately seven to eight years to your life expectancy.

6. Regularly Experience Awe for Health

Intentionally seek out moments of awe, even for just five minutes, to gain a suite of health benefits including reduced inflammation, activated vagal tone, lower stress, clearer thinking, increased creativity, and reduced physical pain (especially for older adults).

7. Perceive Everyday Awe

Recognize that awe is present in everyday life and interactions; train yourself to actively look for and perceive these moments of wonder.

8. Embrace Mystery and Uncertainty

Cultivate the ability to sit with and embrace uncertainty and mystery in life, rather than seeking precise definitions or complete control, as this is a fundamental aspect of wonder.

9. Explore Eight Paths to Awe

Actively seek awe through its eight identified pathways: moral beauty (kindness/courage), nature, collective movement, music, visual design, spirituality, epiphanies (big ideas), and life and death.

10. Integrate Brief Awe Moments Daily

Incorporate small, three to five-minute shifts into your daily routine to experience awe, such as sitting in a garden during lunch, taking a short walk with colleagues, or sharing awe stories, as these are easy to do and provide benefits.

11. Practice Weekly Awe Walks

Engage in a weekly ‘awe walk’ by visiting a slightly mysterious place and intentionally observing both small details and vast elements of your surroundings, which can reduce distress and increase feelings of awe.

12. Observe Nature for Brief Periods

Take one to two minutes to observe natural elements like trees, sunsets, or clouds, focusing on details and movement, as even short periods of observation can reduce narcissism, entitlement, and increase altruism.

13. Reflect on Nature’s Temporal Vastness

When observing nature, reflect on its vastness across time, considering its age and how it connects to past generations, to foster a sense of being part of something much greater than your individual existence.

14. Re-engage with Meaningful Music

Revisit music from your past that evoked strong emotions or a sense of wonder, as re-listening to these songs can reconnect you to visceral awe and its associated benefits.

15. Daily Awe Through Music

Dedicate a short period, like 10 minutes daily, to listen to music that gives you goosebumps or a profound sense of awe, as this is an easy and effective way to gain its benefits.

16. Engage in Collective Effervescence

Seek out experiences of collective effervescence by engaging in synchronized movements with others, such as dancing, cheering at sports events, or participating in communal rituals, to foster shared consciousness and a sense of unity.

17. Prioritize In-Person Group Activities

While online activities can be convenient, prioritize attending in-person group classes or events (e.g., yoga, hobbies) at least once a week to foster community, meet like-minded people, and combat loneliness, as online solitary activities do not compare to collective engagement.

18. Reduce Self-Focus Through Others

Combat mental health challenges by reducing excessive self-focus and actively engaging with other people in physical settings, as awe and genuine connection are not typically found through solitary use of Zoom or smartphones.

19. Be Fully Present in Collective Moments

Avoid distractions like cell phones during collective experiences (e.g., watching children perform) to ensure your awareness is fully present and shared with others, allowing for a deeper experience of awe.

20. Seek Awe in Vast Real-World Experiences

Recognize that true awe, particularly the sense of vastness, is difficult to experience directly through a smartphone; instead, seek out real-world experiences that offer visual and temporal vastness.

21. Use Technology to Revisit Awe Memories

Utilize smartphones or other technology to revisit past awe-inspiring memories, such as listening to meaningful music or viewing images of grand architecture, ideally in a quiet place, to re-evoke those feelings.

22. Find Awe in Hardship

Recognize that awe can emerge from grappling with struggle, suffering, and pain, and can inspire you to seek ways to improve situations or build community, even in difficult circumstances.

23. Practice Three Principles for Dying

When confronting death, adopt three principles: accept uncertainty and mystery, simply witness the process without trying to control or label it, and engage in compassionate action by being kind rather than trying to fix or mislead.

24. Cultivate Awe When Facing Terminal Illness

When facing a terminal illness, cultivate a sense of awe about the experience, as this can help you feel connected to a broader human experience and family, providing comfort and a sense of meaning.

25. Allow Awe to Guide Through Grief

Recognize that grief, despite its pain, contains elements of mystery and vastness; allow awe to guide you through these mysteries, helping you navigate the process.

26. Embrace Life’s Cycle of Decay

Embrace the natural cycle of creation, birth, growth, decay, and death (wabi-sabi), rather than resisting it, as this perspective can bring comfort and a sense of awe in understanding life’s broader evolution.

27. Reflect on Your Place in Systems

When experiencing awe, ask yourself what larger system you are a part of (e.g., fellow humans, an ecosystem, culture), to realize your small but connected place within something vast.

28. Cultivate Humility for Success

Recognize that humility, defined as a realistic assessment of oneself and openness to others’ strengths, is a pathway to enduring success and can be fostered through awe experiences.

29. Embrace Parenthood’s Self-Transcendence

Understand and embrace parenthood as a profoundly transformative experience that naturally takes you outside of yourself, shifting focus from individual worries to broader responsibilities and a new sense of purpose.

30. Approach Childbirth with Awe

Adopt an awe-based approach to childbirth, being fully aware of the experience and understanding its vastness and profound significance.

31. Reflect on Moral Beauty of Mentors

Engage in an exercise of reflecting on a mentor whose kindness or courage profoundly impacted your life, recognizing their moral beauty and how their influence continues with you today, as this can evoke awe.

32. Engage with Meaningful Ideas, Texts

Actively seek out and engage with ideas and texts (e.g., literature, philosophy) that resonate with you and help you reflect on life’s bigger questions, fostering a sense of awe and personal spirituality.

33. Practice Life Trajectory Reflection

Regularly practice imagining the full life trajectory of someone you deeply care about, from their birth to their death, to cultivate appreciation for their journey and find awe in the natural cycle of life.

34. Seek Awe Through Secular Rituals

For those who are not religious, actively seek to build a sense of awe through secular rituals, communal activities (e.g., singing together), and engagement with inspiring texts or art, mimicking the awe-generating aspects of religion.

35. Practice Regular Contemplative Activities

Engage in a regular contemplative practice, such as meditation, to cultivate a heightened awareness that allows you to perceive awe and wonder in everyday life, even outside of your dedicated practice time.

36. Cultivate Everyday Awe and Wonder

Make a conscious effort to cultivate awe and wonder in your daily life by engaging in simple practices like listening to music, taking an awe walk, reading inspiring poetry, or observing children, as it is readily accessible.

37. Minimize Commute Time

Be aware that long commutes, often associated with buying a nicer home, can significantly undermine your happiness, suggesting a need to prioritize proximity over property size if happiness is the goal.

38. Discourage Youth Materialism

Recognize that pressuring high school students and teenagers to pursue materialism does not bring them happiness but actively undermines it, suggesting a need to guide them towards other values.

39. Engage in Pro-Social Behaviors

Regularly practice gratitude, spend time outdoors for walks, and engage in giving or serving others and charity, as these actions are linked to significant increases in life expectancy.