By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
I have learned something recently that, please forgive me for being corny, but it is pretty awesome. I happen to be someone who believes we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that we have been given life on this planet by Someone who not only loves us, but IS love. That love knows no bounds, is holy, and is much stronger than evil. And with that belief, I want to spend all of my life learning, growing, and becoming what my Maker dreams I can be.
So it is with awe that I tell you about awe and what it can do for every part of your life. There is a researcher who has spent his whole career studying the topic of awe, and he ain’t finished. His name is Dacher Keltner, and he is the author of the book, Awe: The New Science Of Everyday Wonder And How It Can Transform Your Life. It turns out that awe has a profoundly positive effect on every aspect of human health and well-being, shows up in your blood and brain, and most interesting to me is utterly transcendent when it comes to how it shows up in cultures.
In the literal thousands of studies drawn from dozens of cultures, awe shows up the same. The look on the face, the mouth ranging all the way from opening a touch to “my jaw hit the ground,” the inevitable smile at the end; it is what invariably shows up in people all over the planet.
My first thought as to the greatest source of awe was that Nature would win hands down. Seeing the vastness of the ocean, or a huge oak tree, or a gorgeous flower growing; all of those sights do indeed inspire awe. And even in this hurried, pre-packaged world, Kelter found that the average person experiences true awe two to three times a week.
Awe can be found in art and music. The Sistine Chapel comes to mind as does Handel’s “Messiah,” or if you prefer, kintsugi pottery or kids singing at the top of their lungs on the way to camp. Dance does it, the sound of bells, a stadium full of people cheering provides awe. It is everywhere, and Keltner has even studied awe in animals.
However, there is a quality that Keltner calls “moral beauty” that is the big gun when it comes to the power of awe. Turns out that all over the planet, the thing that causes humans to react in awe is observing or participating in humans doing good. It is actually profoundly healthy. That level of awe lowers inflammation. It deepens a sense of being. It pulls people together, and they show it through touch, voice, facial expression, and body language. It inspires generosity after the fact. Most importantly, it quiets the self. Who hasn’t stood on the beach, heard the waves, smelled the salt, heard the gulls, had no ability to see beyond the horizon, felt small, and it felt so good to be reminded of just that? Being small and simultaneously aware of being loved is a good thing, and I would encourage you to get Awe and start to get good at looking for awe’s awesome evidence everywhere and every day.
