Time Required
Four minutes
How to Do It
Set aside four minutes to watch the video below. Put the video in full screen mode and try to give it your full attention.
Note that this video is just one example of a visual experience that can elicit awe; there are countless others, and being exposed to them can have similar effects. The videos and other stimuli that inspire awe tend to share two key features:
- They involve a sense of vastness that puts into perspective your own relatively small place in the world. This vastness could be either physical (e.g., a panoramic view from a mountaintop) or psychological (e.g., an exceptionally courageous or heroic act of conscience).
- They alter the way you understand the world. For instance, they might make your everyday concerns seem less important, or they might expand your beliefs about the reaches of human potential.
Why You Should Try It
It’s easy to feel bogged down by daily routines and mundane concerns, stifling our sense of creativity and wonder. Feeling awe can reawaken those feelings of inspiration.
Awe is induced by experiences that challenge and expand our typical way of seeing the world, often because we sense that we’re in the presence of something greater than ourselves. Research suggests that experiencing awe improves people’s satisfaction with life, makes them feel like they have more time, makes them feel less self-conscious, and reduces their focus on trivial concerns.
But in our everyday lives, we might not regularly encounter things that fill us with awe. That’s where this practice comes in. It’s a way to infuse your day with a dose of wonder even if you can’t make it to an inspiring vista or museum.
Why It Works
Taking time out to experience awe can help people break up their routine and challenge themselves to think in new ways. Evoking feelings of awe may be especially helpful when people are feeling bogged down by day-to-day concerns. Research suggests that awe has a way of lifting people outside of their usual, more narrow sense of self and connecting them with something larger and more significant. This sense of broader connectedness and purpose can help relieve negative moods and improve happiness.
Evidence That It Works
Rudd, M., Vohs, K.D., and Aaker, J. (2012). Awe expands people's perception of time, alters decision making, and enhances well-being. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1130-1136.
In three experiments, participants were induced to feel awe—such as by watching an awe-inspiring video—as well as other emotions. People who experienced awe felt that they had more time available to themselves, were less impatient, were more willing to volunteer their time to help others, preferred having positive experiences over material products, and reported greater life satisfaction.
Sources
Melanie Rudd, Ph.D., University of Houston
Quick Description
Could your life be more awesome? Take our Awe Quiz to find out:
Comments
and Reviews
John Rochford
Amazing landscapes would love to see them
Judy Pauline Nommik
Loved watching the clouds and the metiors!
Joan Dunbar
So sad. I miss seeing the star filled sky, and the Milky Way. There are not many places one can be awe struck by this sight anymore. But thanks for the memory.
Julie Dailey
Very pleasing and calm
Kim Law
Visual delight. Big fan now of M83.
Pat
I could only watch a few minutes of this video due to the time lapse movements. Yosemite is one of my favorite places because of the grandeur and the sounds of nature all around me when I am outside the valley floor. This was too overwhelming to my senses.
Jacqueline Barbara Wagstaff
I found it most invigorating, the vastness, bareness, the sky changes, even the birds on the high boulders. I felt relaxed and in awe of the true beauty of all the landscapes. I enjoyed also the calming music. Over all I was happy and felt at ease whilst not practicing my breathing but I was too absorbed with the video to be honest. I will be looking at more as I learn on the why's and fore's in this program. Thank you Jackie
Renée Franco
I felt I could look at videos of nature every morning.
Renée Franco
Choice of music conflicted with the beauty of the scenery . Leave out music with these videos and it will help with being in the present
Renée Franco
I felt I could look at videos of nature every morning.
Renée Franco
I’m watching it on my iPhone so it has less of an awe impact.
Katherine B. Johnson
t beauty and vastness of the world is awe inspiring.
Gainor Hillegass
The scenes were awesome, but the fast forwarding of them destroyed the calming effect. It is as if you are saying, "Hurry up and let's get through this video". It left me cold. I am a lifelong woods walker, gardener, and lover of outdoors in general. If you play these videos at natural speed, they will be in sync with reality and far more effective. Slowly amble through the woods, glancing up into towering trees, noticing wildlife as it goes by, wildflowers on the ground, flittering in the breeze and glittering in the filtered sun. Stillness is the goal, not a frenzied rush of sun and stars through the heavens, or watching people rock climb. That made me nervous. You can do better with this. I didn't watch any of the other offerings, due to thinking they were more of the same. Give the viewer a mesmerizing, wondrous, slowly unfolding experience as if he or she were actually doing the walking.
The Greater Good Toolkit
Made in collaboration with Holstee, this tookit includes 30 science-based practices for a meaningful life.
The Greater Good Toolkit
Made in collaboration with Holstee, this tookit includes 30 science-based practices for a meaningful life.