Scientists suggest narrating awe experiences to increase feelings of awe.
In three experiments, participants who were induced to feel awe, compared with other emotions, felt that they had more time available, were less impatient, were more willing to volunteer their time to help others, preferred experiences over material products, and reported greater life satisfaction.
— Greater Good Science Center
Inducing Awe
In the explanation above, for some reason, what sticks out to me is: induced to feel awe. Most commonly I have heard of induced labor for delivering a healthy baby. I didn’t think of awe as something that could be induced. But, the more I think about it, by taking an awe walk, we can induce awe. By having a healthy baby, we can induce awe. By going to a concert, we can induce awe. By taking a walk down a city block and noticing the fascinating architecture, we can induce awe. Why not induce awe by reading and writing awe narratives? It actually seems logical to me now.
Feeling Awe
From my own personal experience, I know about feeling awe in a moment. I recognize it when my breath is caught short or my thoughts stop for a moment as an experience broadens my perspective beyond what I could previously imagine. It brings new wonder. Sometimes there are even goosebumps. I know about re-experiencing the feelings of awe when I write about it and when I re-read my own experiences or the experiences of others. I am just learning about the science behind this practice of narrating awe.
Benefits of Induced Awe
The benefits described above are something I would sign up for, and even pay money for help in achieving:
- Feeling like we have more time available
- Being less impatient
- Increased willingness to volunteer our time to help others
- Preferring experiences over material products
- Reporting greater life satisfaction
Well, an awe narrative can contribute to these benefits by inducing awe, and they are free to write and to read. What a lucky find.
Writing Awe Narratives
I am going to hone my awe writing to increase the benefits I experience from my feelings of awe. I hope it will also be a way to induce awe in readers, increasing their feelings of awe and the benefits for them as well.
Many of my awe experiences are documented in published stories and photos. Some of them are lacking the details that would fully reignite my feelings of awe as I reread. Lacking these details also makes them less likely to induce awe in others as they read. Here is one moment of awe that could use some more details: Gray: A poem about today or here.
Questions to Develop Awe Narratives
This poem about a gray day just barely sheds a sliver of light on the awe of that experience. The details I would consider adding are around the following questions:
- How did this moment make me feel in relation to the vastness of the universe? I felt like a small part of something much bigger like I wasn’t the only one facing changes. Nature was cycling all around me if I noticed or not. There are so many things in close proximity to my home that I miss and so many more reaching beyond my daily life and the parts of the planet I have the opportunity to explore.
- How did this moment make me feel connected? I felt like there was some force that stopped me this day. I have passed this tree daily for over 15 years and have never noticed this season of the gray buds. I was nearing the end of an aweless walk and all of a sudden this tree brought perspective, there is a warm fuzziness about a gray day. There is some awe in every day if we are open to it. Somehow I was drawn to this source of awe and I am thankful. I hope my neighbors have also taken a moment to savor this treasure that is here for our pleasure. I wanted to knock on doors to share this moment with them. I have already been asked, Don’t your neighbors think you’re weird? I am sure they do. I don’t see any of them outside taking pictures and looking at trees and flowers up close the way I do. But, I think it is weird that they don’t! And, I must say, science is on my side for seeking awe.
- How did this moment of awe make me feel about time? Time stops for me when I feel awe. Sometimes it can be translated into a 20-minute photo shoot that I think takes two minutes. Sometimes it is just a moment of deep breathing to catch my breath and feel the awe in my heart and soul. The grayness of this day was drawn out by the grayness of this fuzzy gray bud. The time of day slipped away, it was just day. Seasons also make me feel the repetitiveness of time.
- What other feelings did this moment of awe evoke? Wonder is always at the top of my list of feelings that coincide with awe. How do cycles in nature repeat without fail? How was this all created so perfectly in synch? I also feel gratitude for being able to witness such an interesting transformation and for the joy this gray bud added to my day.
- How did this moment of awe transcend my understanding of the world? I am not as aware of my surroundings as I thought I was. There are more details than I could possibly experience in a lifetime. There will always be new things to explore. My assumption that nothing would be beautiful on this gray day and that I wouldn’t find awe was so wrong. I could have so many more awe experiences in my life if I got more comfortable in accepting that I don’t understand or realize the vastness of the universe. I am here to learn and take it all in. I am here to be wowed and to wonder, not to have it all figured out.
- What other descriptive details could I add to capture this moment of awe? What else did I see, hear, touch, or physically feel in my body during this experience? Adding these details would take the story from saying the moment happened to actually capture the moment of awe in its entirety.
These questions will help me work on my awe writing. Incorporating more of these ideas into each awe narrative will help me capture the true feeling of awe in each experience. This will help me reinvigorate the feelings of these moments. I hope my writing and these questions will also help readers connect to these experiences and adopt the mindset to find more awe and to develop their own collection of narrated moments of awe.
Final Thoughts
Narrating our awe experiences has many benefits and it helps readers reap the benefits as well.
If you want to capture some of your moments of awe and share them with us at For Awe, our Medium.com publication, we would be delighted!
Thanks for reading! I am glad you stopped by to share in my excitement for awe narratives.
If you haven’t been officially introduced to “awe narratives” this is a great resource to learn more about the practice and the science behind it: Awe Narrative (Greater Good In Action)