Why You Should Seek Out a Few Minutes of Awe Every Day

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Awe is one of those emotions you recognize the instant you feel it. It’s the feeling you get “when you encounter things that are vast and beyond your frame of reference,” says Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. 

He’s identified a set of reliable sources that includes nature, music, visual design, birth, spirituality, and moral beauty: moments when we witness extraordinary kindness, courage, or generosity in other people. People often experience awe while listening to a symphony, he says, watching an athlete do something seemingly impossible, holding a newborn baby, or hearing thousands of voices join together at a concert. But awe also turns up in moments so ordinary they’re easy to miss: the way sunlight filters through trees, the rustle of leaves in the wind, the intricate geometry of a snowflake. 

Read the whole story (subscription may be required): TIME Magazine

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