One way to cope with loneliness, excessive self-focus, or cynicism? Cultivate awe | Dacher Keltner

Research shows that people recently exposed to awe are kinder, more environmentally friendly, and better connected to others

Awe is the feeling we experience when we encounter vast mysteries we cannot understand. We find awe, I report in my new book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life, in eight wonders of life": the moral beauty of others, nature, collective movement, music, visual design, spirituality and religion, big ideas, and the cycle of life and death.

Empirical research by me and other psychologists has found that the cultivation of awe can be done, as with mindfulness practices, anywhere, and only takes a minute or two. You don't need a lot of money, nor to travel to exotic locales, to find awe; it literally is always around you, if you just take a moment to pause and open your mind to what is vast and mysterious nearby. Still other studies suggest that awe is up to the task of responding to the crises of individualism, of excessive self-focus, loneliness, and the cynicism of our times, and even to some extent to rising problems of physical health.

Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life