Awe is awesome

Hey Phase blog, hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday!

Today I thought I’d write about awe. Mostly because I was in Iceland over Easter and it was AWEsome. (Pardon the pun).

In all seriousness, the science of awe is a relatively new area of research. Jonathan Haidt, who recently wrote bestselling book ‘The Anxious Generation’, published a paper back in 2003 with Dacher Keltner called ‘Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual and aesthetic emotion’. Since then, an increasing number of studies have been conducted, indicating that awe is an incredibly important emotion for our wellbeing. 

Keltner and Haidt proposed that the two ways we can characterise experiences of awe are “perceived vastness” and “need for accommodation”. I certainly encountered “perceived vastness” almost constantly while in Iceland. Anyone who’s ever walked up a mountain or watched the sunset over the ocean will recognise the feeling of awe we encounter when we’re exposed to the beauty of the natural world. 

The second characterisation of awe - “need of accommodation” - may seem less familiar. However, it is super important. Sometimes, our current understanding of the world is violated, causing a reaction of awe. On other occasions, our expectations of what is possible are left changed. We may even perceive awe as a negative emotion under certain conditions. 

Some ideas as to why we evolved to experience this unique emotion include: the need to accommodate new information, the need to seek shelter or the need for reverence to form social cohesion.  

Awe is an interesting emotion. But, why is it important? Well, there is a lot of suggestion that it is becoming a rare emotion. The more time we spend glued to our phones, or thinking about ourselves, the less likely we are to feel awe-struck.  

In the past couple of decades, scientists have proposed numerous psychological benefits of awe, such as: a greater sense of connectedness alongside self-diminishment, enhanced critical thinking, greater life satisfaction, decreased materialism and a boost in reported mood. 

Personally, my favourite thing about awe is that it prompts wonder and questions; it reminds me how silly I am if I ever think I have to have all the answers or that I need to worry about being perfect. Awe is countercultural in a world where everyone wants to be on the right side of an argument or feel certain about everything. I’m grateful to the mountains, glaciers, lagoons and waterfalls in Iceland for all the awe they prompted. 

With the summer fast approaching, I’d encourage everyone to get outside in search of awe; it’s AWEsome. 

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