Key points from article :
Awe is an overwhelming, self-transcendent sense of wonder and reverence.
Your feelings of being diminished connect you to something larger.
You’re engaged with the expansiveness of the external world, less focused on yourself and more on others.
An “awe walk” is a stroll in which you intentionally shift your attention outward instead of inward.
A study had 60 adults in which half took weekly 15-minute “awe walks” for 8 weeks & half were controls.
The awe group had significant boosts of positive prosocial emotions such as compassion and gratitude.
In contrast, the control walk group tended to be more inwardly focused.
“..it promotes what we call ‘small self,’ a healthy sense of proportion between your own self and the bigger picture of the world around you,” - Dr. Virginia Sturm.
Research by University of California published in Emotion.
Adrian's comment: I just tried this today - I didn't do very well, but made me wonder how much of the effect is down to mindfulness - i.e. not so much the impact of awe, but the impact of stopping thinking about work and everything else.
