Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health

Abstract

How do experiences in nature or in spiritual contemplation or in being moved by music or with psychedelics promote mental and physical health? Our proposal in this article is awe. To make this argument, we first review recent advances in the scientific study of awe, an emotion often considered ineffable and beyond measurement. Awe engages five processes—shifts in neurophysiology, a diminished focus on the self, increased prosocial relationality, greater social integration, and a heightened sense of meaning—that benefit well-being. We then apply this model to illuminate how experiences of awe that arise in nature, spirituality, music, collective movement, and psychedelics strengthen the mind and body.

Performance in a task improves when subjects experience respect, rather than admiration, for those teaching them

“…These results suggest that experiencing ifu is involved in performance improvement. A variety of research on awe suggests that stimuli that are outside of one's viewpoint or experience arouse awe, which motivates one seek new information and update their views or knowledge [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Hence, participants who experienced ifu toward the lecturer in the video clip were likely to practice the tips explained by the lecturer and were motivated to improve their scores in the second exam.…”

Transcending the Self to Transcend Suffering

“…In this manner, the endurance of personal suffering would be made possible via dedication to these three domains beyond the self (Wong et al, 2021). Empirical study has affirmed that self-transcendent values and experiences bear positive associations with diminished depressive symptoms, improved emotional wellbeing, and post-traumatic growth (Bojanowska & Kaczmarek, 2018;Monroy & Keltner, 2022;Xie et al, 2022).…”

“…This complete absorption into an intrinsically positive state may lessen the weight of one's negative affect. The self-transcendent experiences (e.g., flow, awe, compassion) derived from activities such as communal worship, musical performance, or immersion in vast scenes of nature have been linked to the heightening of positive affect, mitigation of negative affect, and efficacious therapeutic outcomes (e.g., Kim et al, 2018;Matthews & Cook, 2009;Monroy & Keltner, 2022;Moss, 2018;Reynolds & Prior, 2006).…”

“…Self-transcendent cognition--the reasoning and appraisal of phenomena according to a frame of reference beyond the self-gives rise to global meaning beliefs that may successfully account for suffering without setting negativity as the predominant feature. This selftranscendent cognition can occur via adopting a reasoning from the perspective of social entities beyond the self or even of abstract spiritual ones such as the idea of nature overall (e.g., Block, 2001;Frounfelker et al, 2020;Monroy & Keltner, 2022). Empirical research has found that people's perceptions of meaning are greatly influenced by a sense of self-transcendence (e.g., making a positive impact on society) (Huang & Yang, 2022).…”

“…For example, self-transcendent experiences such as awe may give rise to a sense of meaning and provoke meaning-making processes that help solidify self-transcendent cognitive beliefs and values (Monroy & Keltner, 2022;Kim et al, in press;Rivera et al, 2020;Stella et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2019). Inversely, reframing one's suffering through self-transcendent cognition may likewise induce some self-transcendent experiences, such as feelings of serenity derived from believing in natural forces greater than the self (Kreitzer et al, 2009;Garcia-Romeu, 2010).…”