Think of a recent experience of positive awe. Can you recall how it felt, what may have shifted in your body or emotional state, and perhaps any after-effects? Not only does awe uplift and open us up during the experience, but also recent studies point to extended positive impacts as well. Cultivating the experience of awe can bring enormous benefits to our life and leadership.
While the research focusing on awe from inside the brain and body is relatively new, awe has naturally inspired humankind throughout history. Its power to foster social connection, collaboration, kindness, and curiosity has contributed to our evolution as a social species. These same benefits are fundamentally important for compassionate leaders and the wellbeing of those with whom we connect.
Awe is composed of two experiences. The first is the experience of vastness. With awe, what we experience is well beyond normal. The vastness can occur in many dimensions: size (the night sky), sensory (a powerful piece of music), social importance (pandemic), and others. The vastness is accompanied by a need for “accommodation,” or the sense that our model of the world needs to be updated to reflect the experience.
Awe connects us to others, inspires creativity, and is an antidote to stress
There is a paradox at the heart of awe, which is that in grasping something much more vast than us, we feel much smaller. The paradox arises when, in the shrinking of ourselves, we come into a more secure relationship with the universe around us. The feeling of smallness doesn’t make us feel little, it makes us feel connected and expansive! This can lead to an easing of the egoic pressures we put on ourselves. Instead of building a worldview that accommodates our “small self,” we begin to connect to a much wider view and see ourselves within that bigger whole. Awe has the power to draw us outside of ourselves and into deeper relationship with the wider world.
Positive emotions often reinforce the status quo by rewarding experiences that occur within current structures. Awe has the opposite effect. It stimulates thoughts beyond our usual boundaries. The accommodation that occurs with awesome experiences opens us up to new ways of thinking, to greater creativity. Previously held beliefs of our personal limits are eroded by awe. Once we dissolve our personal limits, we can embrace the limitless potential of other individuals, teams, organizations, and more.
As our creativity expands, as we relax into connection, awe has the capacity to reset our stress levels. A short period of time engaged in awe-inducing, nature-based activities has been shown to reduce stress right away, and have a continuing impact well after the activities.
Awe can be experienced in ordinary circumstances
Many moments of awe are delivered to us magically by nature. An amazing sunset, a clear moonless night in a dark area, or the unbelievable diversity of life in one square foot of the forest floor each have the potential to fill us deeply with awe. But we don’t have to wait for awe inspiration to be delivered to us. There is only one thing needed for awe – an intention to find it right where you are, in the current moment.
For example, the average human heart beats 100,000 - 140,000 times per day. It pumps around 2,000 gallons of blood daily as well. While it does this, it carries oxygen to every cell in the body, and returns carbon dioxide to your lungs to be exhaled. It circulates blood to the liver and kidneys to filter waste and toxins to be excreted, and carries nutrients, hormones, and proteins throughout the body to regulate and respond to every activity in your life. This is only a start of the description of the heart, and the heart interacts with all the other systems of the body, each with their own awe-inspiring stories. Every human and every living thing has its own amazing process for living. Pause for a moment and consider the wonder that is your own body, your own existence, when you want to encounter awe.
The opportunities to contemplate awe are endless. Are you reading this on a computer? Have you considered how easily this has reached you? Contemplate the massive complexity and learning behind everything that it took for this to reach you. Or spend a little time with a young child. Much of what induces awe in them can still be awe-inspiring for us, if we will just pause and allow it to touch us.
Awe strengthens compassionate leadership skills
Multiple research studies have shown that experiencing awe leads people to act more compassionately. People are more likely to move to action and assist someone in need, and they are likely to be more generous with others as well. For example, people who have been placed for one minute in a beautiful spot in nature, as compared to those placed for a minute in an average constructed environment, were more likely to help someone with a minor mishap (dropping a box of pens).
It isn’t only moments of positive awe that influence our compassion. In moments of extreme tragedy, when we experience negative awe, we also find ourselves connecting quickly with our compassionate self. A natural disaster provides an easily understood example of this response. While we may be overwhelmed by the suffering and devastation, the scope of the suffering elevates our desire to move into action.
In Closing…
Awe changes us. The changes are beneficial for our inner wellbeing as well as for our relationships, sense of possibility, feelings of satisfaction, and happiness. We can experience awe anywhere we are. The more we practice, the more equipped we will be to lead compassionately.
Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.