Many indigenous people have a close relationship with Mother Earth. They embody awe in all of their rituals and prayer ceremonies. The non-indigenous world has much to learn about awe from them. Credit: DC Stock (Adobe)
By Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
Unless you’ve been living in a cave or accumulated $1 billion in wealth, you’ve felt the cold press of dread that living in this world generates. We’re living in a trauma-inducing culture with a constant bombardment of news about the climate emergency, wars, and pandemics.
What most people don’t know is that we always have a free remedy to trauma accessible to everyone – awe..
Awe is always available in a wide variety of shapes and forms, from fireflies and stunning flowers to the emergence of a magical rainbow or an astronomer’s spectacular color images of a nebula. And millions of people are mesmerized by astounding feats on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
These seemingly miraculous occurrences can help us heal from the trauma we are all presently going through, as well as past, debilitating trauma.
But the news gets even better. We don’t have to wait for a rainbow or a firefly – every moment of every day we each have the power to generate awe with the simplest acts of kindness or courage. Yes, you heard me – you have the power to change your own body, those around you, and the world. You can be an awe creator with the simplest acts. I’ll show you how.
But before doing that, I want to take you on a journey into the science of trauma and how awe can heal it. You’ll be stunned, as I was, to learn how awe can help overcome narrow perspectives and open us up to a wider embrace of the world. You’ll see that awe can help people feel more engaged and want to take action. And finally, more awe can help overcome political divisions and transform our world.
Awe Heals Us Individually
My exploration of scientific studies, lived experience and neurobiology reveals that awe heals us mentally and physically — offering a path forward in this age of uncertainty. Yes, I’m telling you that watching a complete solar eclipse or dancing with thousands to your favorite song played live empowers your body in terms of both health and wellbeing.
Trauma Harms Your Mind AND Body – Awe to the Rescue!
We tend to think that trauma is a mostly mental issue that lives in our head. But you don’t need to have attended medical school or even passed AP Biology to understand that trauma impacts us physically as well as emotionally.
The amazingly complex proteins that regulate our bodies’ immune systems are called cytokines. When the body is subjected to trauma, cytokines kick in to heal by reducing inflammation. And here’s a difficult truth – sometimes they respond to the threat by sending out too many triggers and cause more inflammation, like a soothing trickle of water on your head becoming a torrent that makes it difficult to breathe.
The astonishing news is that while trauma can cause inflammation through cytokines, being exposed to awe can counter that response and in fact lead to healing of the trauma also using cytokines! Dr. Gina Simmons Schneider notes, “We can help the body achieve balance by cultivating the positive emotion of awe. Awe and wonder appear to lower inflammation and promote better health and immune system functioning.”
Now that we understand the physiological effects, let’s see how awe heals trauma on a wider stage, and how much hope we can find in the process.
Awe Open Us Up, and That’s Great News
Simple garden-variety awe is one of the most important remedies we have for the assaults that are taking place collectively and globally. You can uplift collective healing without planning a group meditation trip to Yosemite or marching with a million people.
Awe opens us up. Which is good, because some of us (like me) have coconuts heads that need to be cracked. Being filled with awe stretches our brains to incorporate something seemingly “impossible”, our emotions fill with wonder and joy and our sense of self tunes into the people around us.
More Receptive to Otherness
In her research, Margy Sperry notes, “Social psychologists describe awe as a ‘self-transcendent emotion:’ an emotion that shifts one’s focus away from self, binds us to others and promotes collaboration. Experiences of awe, research suggests, help us to feel less preoccupied with our individual needs and more receptive to ‘otherness,’ reorienting us towards the ‘greater good.’”
Increased Social Connections
Awe inspires feelings of social connection scientists have found. Simmons Schneider relates a common but wonder-filled and nourishing experience:
“My husband and I experienced awe, wonder, and social connection at a concert by Sir Paul McCartney. At Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, with the full moon rising behind the stage, the 72-year-old McCartney hit all the high notes and rocked out like a 25-year-old to a multi-generational audience of loving fans.
“At the end of the concert, the couple next to us, strangers, but fellow fans, embraced us, and we wished one another well. We felt a collective joy, moved by the infectious energy of a shared musical experience. It made us feel close and connected.”
While concerts, sports events and even Tik Tok videos can cause us to hug strangers (or pour buckets of ice on our heads), when we share a sense of awe we increase our social connections and begin to care about other humans, strangers or not, more.
An Astounding Fact: “Moral Beauty” Inspires Awe
When most people think of awe, they feel they have to go out and find something spectacular. But the truth is every one of us can generate awe with the simplest act of kindness. That act can transform you, the recipient, and anyone who watches it.
This gift that we can give to ourselves and the world is not far away, and is always in our grasp. These acts of kindness and courage are called by a somewhat esoteric term, “moral beauty.”
Examples of moral beauty can be seen almost anywhere we look, from someone volunteers to bring food to elders to a teen standing up to bullying or a firefighter rescuing someone from a burning home.
And the great thing is each of us can be the source of abundant moral beauty every day. It’s incredible to think that we have the power to create a world of moral beauty regardless of our circumstances.
“Over 95% of the moral beauty that stirred awe [in studies] worldwide was in actions people took on behalf of others. Acts of courage are one kind of moral beauty,” says Dacher Keltner in his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.
What’s amazing is that Keltner is saying moral beauty inspires awe.
Whether a heroic act or simple kindness, experiences of moral beauty change the giver, the recipient and everyone who witnesses the moment. In fact, even the witnesses will act kinder. Everyone will feel awe.
I Think the Tech Bros are Wrong: How Can Technology Solve Anything Without People?
Watching slo-mo videos of lightning strikes may inspire terror, but also brings wonder. Lightning, a powerful natural force, is at the same time beautiful and ethereal. Credit: The Slo Mo Guys
In a more connected world, our ability to share joy becomes a worldwide phenomenon. Technology gives us more and more gifts, including thrilling images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, slo-mo lightning strikes, and the ability to relive the most enthralling musical performances of all time.
But we are blessed and cursed simultaneously. Because while technology gives us more glimpses into the mysteries of life, it also tends to disconnect us from each other and nature. And those disconnections are critical in a time when nature herself is in pain, and we are both the ones inflicting and healing. Technology is not an answer by itself.
Disconcertingly, technology connects and disconnects us at the same time.
Other People May Be the Problem, But They’re Also the Answer
It’s easy to point the finger at any number of people, corporations and movements when things aren’t going the way we think they should. Pointing a finger gives us someone to blame, and blaming someone alleviates our own sense of guilt and responsibility.
But pointing the finger also puts us into an unhealthy us-versus-them dynamic. We are all flawed and we all hold responsibility for both good and bad things. People broke the things that are broken, but it’s also people who will fix them.
I can’t watch the infamous 2014 Evenord-Bank Nürnberg “Ode To Joy” flash mob performance without crying – both the music and the crowd are magnificent. Credit: Flash Mob Geek
People, working in community. Our only answer is working together. And awe is a glue that can bind us to each other.
“Witnessing others’ acts of courage, kindness, strength, and overcoming activates different regions of the brain than those activated by physical beauty, namely cortical regions where our emotions translate to ethical action…We often sense tears and goose bumps, our body’s signals that we are part of a community appreciating what unites us. When moved by the wonders of others, the soul in our bodies is awakened, and acts of reverence often quickly follow,” writes awe researcher Dacher Keltner.
Jump In – The Water’s Fine
Awe feels good, awakens us, brings connection, heals internalized trauma, encourages us on a spiritual level, helps us understand and accept both life and death and radically changes us. I wish I could share everything I’ve learned about awe with you in one article (because awe is incredible). I can’t.
Blue whales, the largest animals ever to live on our planet, have hearts the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. They produce deep, low-frequency sounds that can travel across entire ocean basins. Their songs may help them communicate over distances of up to 1,000 miles. I get the tingly kind of awe when I see Blue whales, even through my computer screen. Credit: Silver Shark Adventures
What I can do is remind you that awe is a powerful collective good that we can all access and share. Additionally it can encourage us and others. The times I’ve been filled with awe – walking on the Great Wall of China, standing on a glacier, giving birth – have brought me closer to this wonderful planet as well as the people who inhabit it.
When I accept the feeling of awe, when I allow myself to be awed, I consent to be flooded with feelings and cherish the reverence that I know will follow.
Awe has opened me up in the most profound ways. And awe can bring the healing and unity we all crave, if only we are bold and vulnerable enough to search for and welcome it.
It’s a gift we can all have gratitude for. And when we get good at inviting awe we’ll retrain our neural pathways to seek goodness, thereby changing our minds, bodies, communities and world.
ED: We would welcome you sharing your favorite moments of awe with us! Are you as amazed as we are that during these ominous times that we have the choice and power to make a profound difference? Does this give you hope?