Why we need the emotion of awe, more than ever…

Friday, January 12, 2024. revised Friday, August 30, 2024.

What emotion thoroughly brings you into the present moment, and then expands that moment… while installing a profound sense of well-being at the same time?

Answer: Awe.

Pre-COVID research suggests that experiencing the emotion of awe helps bring human beings into the present moment, while expanding it and generating positive emotions.

New research tells us that many distinct experiences; moving through the beauty of the natural world, enjoying a painting or a symphony, among many other human experiences, are capable of eliciting the emotion of awe.

The power and utility of eye-popping moments…

I’ve written about the power of awe in a previous post.

Awe involves two things. The first is what Melanie describes as perceptual vastness.

The second is what she calls a “need for accommodation.” By that she means that a human in the throes of awe will feel a need to overhaul our understanding of the world which results in us potentially building new “knowledge structures” to perhaps contain and explain our sense of awe.

This is where we get both the concepts of awesome and awful.

The compelling experience changes how you perceive the world… is awe an unplanned encounter with the sacred, or it’s shocking absence?

Awe helps fight the ‘time famine’ in your life… by replacing it with a sense of time affluence.

Dr. Melanie Rudd and the research team examined the connection between awe and time perception;

“A recent poll of more than 1,000 Americans found that nearly half felt they lacked enough time in daily life.

This feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it—or “time famine”—has been linked to undesirable side effects, including trouble sleeping, stress, difficulty delaying gratification, and postponing seeing a doctor when ill.”

How the study was conducted

These researchers wanted to test how feelings of awe affected human patience and forbearance, their willingness to help other humans, and get self-reports on life satisfaction.

They found that an eye-popping moment — the experience of something surprising, powerful, beautiful, or even sublime — can have a powerful impact on the human brain and nervous system.

I can’t help but imagine that we’re trying to measure something ineffable, something perhaps beyond our ability to measure, describe, or comprehend.

How do we bring slide rules to measure the sacred?

As I mentioned earlier the feeling of Awe, has two components:

“First, awe involves perceptual vastness, which is the sense that one has encountered something immense in size, number, scope, complexity, ability, or social bearing (e.g., fame, authority).

Second, awe stimulates a need for accommodation; that is, it alters one’s understanding of the world.”

Will more awe open to you up to other awesome humans?

The study found that awe made humans more patient, less materialistic, and more open to being of assistance to other human beings.

Here is the fascinating part. We suspect that we now understand why this occurs. This happens, because awe slows down our subjective experience of time.

The authors describe their fascinating findings:

“People increasingly report feeling time starved, and that feeling exacts a toll on health and well-being.

Drawing on research showing that being in the present moment elongates time perception, we predicted and found that experiencing awe, relative to other states, caused people to perceive that they had more time available and lessened impatience.

Furthermore, by expanding time perception, awe, compared with other states, led participants to more strongly desire to spend time helping other people and to partake in experiential goods over material ones.

A small dose of awe even gave participants a momentary boost in life satisfaction. Thus, these results not only have implications for how people spend their time, but also underscore the importance and promise of cultivating awe in everyday life.”

I think what we’re talking about is a compelling, unplanned encounter with some felt sense of the sacred.

What do you think?

Be well, stay kind and Godspeed.

REFERENCES:

Rudd, M., Vohs, K. D., & Aaker, J. (2012). Awe Expands People’s Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1130-1136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612438731