person standing in beautiful nature under the stars - light into you — 📸✨: *Stephan Widua* (*@stewi*)

When did you last feel truly awestruck?

Not just happy or content or pleasantly surprised. But genuinely, breath-catchingly amazed. That feeling where you're suddenly so aware of how big and beautiful and mysterious life is that your own worries shrink down to their actual size for a moment.

Maybe it was a sunset that stopped you in your tracks. A piece of music that gave you chills. Standing at the edge of the ocean and feeling simultaneously tiny and completely held. Watching something be born. Looking up at a sky absolutely packed with stars.

Whatever it was — can you feel even the echo of it right now?

That feeling has a name. Researchers call it awe. And it turns out it's not just a nice experience to have every once in a while.

It's actually one of the most healing things available to us — and most of us are wildly underusing it.

What Is Awe, Exactly?

Awe is that specific feeling of encountering something so vast, so beautiful, or so far beyond your ordinary frame of reference that it momentarily expands you.

It's different from happiness, which is warm and familiar. Different from excitement, which is energizing and forward-moving. Awe is almost like a pause — a moment where the usual noise in your head goes quiet and something deeper gets to speak.

Researchers Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt, who have studied awe extensively, describe it as the experience of encountering something that challenges your existing mental structures — something so large or profound that your brain has to expand just to make room for it.

And that expansion? That's where the healing begins.

Awe shows up in a lot of different forms. It can be:

Natural awe — the Grand Canyon, a thunderstorm, a field of wildflowers, the night sky
Spiritual awe — a moment of deep prayer or meditation, a healing experience, feeling genuinely connected to something greater than yourself
Human awe — witnessing extraordinary kindness, courage, creativity, or love
Intellectual awe — a concept or idea so profound it rearranges something in your thinking
Everyday awe — the smaller, quieter moments of wonder that are available all the time if we're paying attention

That last category is the one most of us have lost access to. And it matters more than we realize.

What the Science Actually Says About Awe and Healing

Okay, let's talk about the research — because it's genuinely fascinating and I think it'll shift how seriously you take your own sense of wonder.

Awe reduces inflammation.

A study out of UC Berkeley found that people who reported experiencing more awe in their daily lives had lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines — the markers associated with chronic inflammation, which is linked to everything from depression and anxiety to heart disease and autoimmune conditions. Of all the positive emotions studied, awe had the strongest association with lower inflammation. Let that sink in.

Awe shrinks the ego in the best possible way.

Researchers call this the "small self" effect. When we experience awe, our sense of self temporarily softens — we feel less caught up in our own worries, less rigidly identified with our problems, less consumed by the mental chatter that normally runs the show. People consistently report that their personal concerns feel smaller and more manageable after an awe experience. Not because the problems disappeared, but because their perspective shifted.

Awe makes us more generous and connected.

Multiple studies have found that awe increases prosocial behavior — people who've just experienced awe are more likely to help strangers, donate to others, and feel a sense of connection to the broader human family. Awe literally opens us up to each other.

Awe slows time.

This one is wild. Research published in the journal Psychological Science found that awe creates a sense of time expansion — people who experienced awe felt like they had more time available to them, were less impatient, and were more willing to be present. In a world where everyone feels chronically rushed, that's remarkable.

Awe supports mental health.

Studies with veterans experiencing PTSD, people dealing with chronic illness, and individuals in mental health treatment have all found meaningful benefits from awe-inducing experiences — including reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress.

All of this from stopping to look at the stars. From standing at the edge of something big. From letting yourself be moved.

The Energetic Side of Awe

Now let's layer in what's happening energetically — because the science and the spiritual actually tell a very similar story here.

From an energetic perspective, awe is one of the highest-frequency emotional states available to us. It's expansive by nature — it literally opens the energy field rather than contracting it.

Think about the physical sensation of awe for a moment. Your chest opens. Your breath deepens. Your shoulders drop. Your eyes go wide. Everything in you expands outward rather than pulling inward.

That's the opposite of fear, stress, and contraction — which are the energetic states that keep us stuck, depleted, and disconnected from our own healing capacity.

When you're in a state of awe, you're in a state of openness. And openness is exactly the condition your energy body needs to receive, to heal, to shift, and to grow. (This connects so naturally to what we explored inThe Energy of Surrender— that quality of releasing your grip and allowing something larger to move through you. Awe creates that same opening, often without you even trying.)

Awe also has a way of reminding us — at a felt, embodied level — that we are part of something much larger than our individual worries and plans. That reconnection to the bigger picture is profoundly grounding, even as it simultaneously expands us. (If your foundation has been feeling shaky lately, pairing awe practices with some intentional root chakra work can be a really powerful combination.)

Signs You've Lost Your Sense of Wonder

Here's a gentle check-in. Not to make you feel bad — just to get honest about where you are.

1. Everything feels ordinary and a little flat.

Not depressed exactly, but just... meh. Colors feel duller. Days blur together. Nothing seems to land the way it used to. That flatness is often a sign that wonder has gone quiet.

2. You're consuming more than you're experiencing.

Scrolling, watching, reading about other people's experiences rather than having your own. When we live primarily through screens, we starve the part of us that needs real, embodied, surprising encounters with life.

3. You've stopped noticing the small things.

The way light hits a window in the afternoon. The sound of rain on leaves. The improbable beauty of a spider web covered in dew. Wonder lives in the details — and when we're too busy or too distracted to notice them, wonder fades.

4. You feel chronically rushed and impatient.

Remember how awe expands time? Its absence does the opposite. When we lose our sense of wonder, we tend to feel like there's never enough time, never enough of anything. Life becomes a series of tasks to get through rather than moments to inhabit.

5. You've become a little too certain about everything.

Wonder requires not-knowing. It requires the humility to be surprised, to be wrong, to encounter something that doesn't fit your existing understanding. When we close ourselves off to mystery — spiritually, intellectually, or emotionally — we close ourselves off to awe. (This connects beautifully to what we explored in How to Grow Without Forcing — that willingness to be a beginner, to be in process, to not have it all figured out yet.)

6. Joy feels like something you have to manufacture.

When wonder is alive, joy tends to arise naturally from ordinary moments. When it's gone, joy can start to feel effortful — like something you have to engineer rather than something that just happens. (If this resonates, my post on cultivating everyday joy is a good companion to this one.)

7. You've forgotten how to play.

Wonder and play are cousins. When one goes, the other usually follows. If life has become entirely serious and productive with no room for delight, curiosity, or silliness — your sense of wonder is probably asking for some attention.

8 Practical Ways to Invite More Awe Into Your Daily Life

Here's the beautiful thing about awe: you don't have to travel to the Grand Canyon to find it. It's available in much smaller doses, much more often, if you know how to look.

1. Go Outside and Actually Look Up

This is the simplest awe practice there is, and it works almost every time. Go outside after dark and look at the stars. Watch a sunrise or sunset all the way through — not just a glance, but the whole slow show. Let the sky do what it does.

There is something about scale — the sheer, incomprehensible vastness of the sky — that reliably produces the small-self effect. Your problems don't disappear, but they find their right size again.

2. Seek Out "Awe Walks"

Researchers at UC San Francisco studied the effects of regular "awe walks" — brief walks taken with the intention of noticing something wondrous — and found significant improvements in positive emotions and reductions in daily life stress after just eight weeks.

The key ingredient? Curiosity. Walking not to get somewhere or to exercise, but to be genuinely open to whatever catches your attention. A strange cloud formation. The way tree roots break through concrete. A bird doing something unexpected. Let yourself be surprised.

3. Spend Time Near Water

There's a reason humans are so consistently drawn to oceans, rivers, and lakes. Water has an almost immediate regulating effect on the nervous system — and large bodies of water in particular tend to produce reliable awe responses. (I touched on this in the root chakra post — water's clearing quality is real, both energetically and psychologically.)

Even if you don't live near the ocean, a river, a waterfall, or even a rainstorm can do the trick.

4. Let Music Actually Move You

Music is one of the most accessible awe triggers we have — and most of us are using it as background noise rather than a genuine experience.

Pick something that has moved you before. Put on headphones. Close your eyes. Actually listen. Let it do what it does to you without multitasking through it.

Those chills you get from music — researchers call them "frisson," and they're a physical marker of awe. Your body knows what's happening even when your mind is still catching up.

5. Engage With Art, Nature, or Ideas That Are Bigger Than You

Visit a museum and stand in front of something for longer than feels comfortable. Read about the universe — the actual scale of it, the age of it, the sheer improbability of any of this existing at all. Watch a documentary about deep sea creatures or the formation of mountains or the migration of monarch butterflies.

Let yourself encounter something that reminds you how much you don't know. That's not unsettling — it's liberating. (This is exactly the energy of releasing resistance— loosening your grip on what you think you know and allowing something new in.)

6. Practice Noticing the Micro-Moments

You don't need grand vistas for wonder. Start small. Really small.

Look at a flower up close — I mean really close. Watch a bee work. Notice the pattern on a leaf. Pay attention to the way your coffee steam spirals. Watch a child discover something for the first time and try to see it through their eyes.

Everyday awe is a practice. The more you look for it, the more it appears. (This is exactly what we talked about in Finding Fun in the Little Things— that gentle retraining of attention toward what's already beautiful.)

7. Sit With Something You Can't Explain

This one is a little more spiritual — but stay with me.

There are things in life that defy easy explanation. Synchronicities. Healing that happens faster than it should. The sense of being guided. Moments where the universe seems to be winking at you.

Instead of immediately explaining these away or filing them under coincidence, try just sitting with them for a moment. Let them be mysterious. Let yourself be amazed without needing to resolve the amazement.

Mystery is one of the great doorways into awe. And awe is one of the great doorways into healing.

8. Open Yourself During Energy Work

This is something I see regularly in healing sessions — moments of genuine awe that arise during or after Reiki work. People describe suddenly feeling the vastness of their own energy field. Sensing something larger moving through them. Feeling deeply, inexplicably held.

That's awe. And it's one of the reasons energy work can be so profoundly healing — it creates the conditions for the kind of openness that awe requires. When the energy body is clear and flowing, wonder has room to arise naturally. (If you've been feeling closed off or flat lately and grounding practices haven't been enough, a distance Reiki session might be exactly what your energy field needs to open back up.)

Journal Prompts for Reconnecting With Wonder

These are worth sitting with slowly — maybe outside if you can manage it.

When did I last feel genuinely awestruck? What was it, and what did it feel like in my body?
What parts of life have started to feel flat or ordinary that used to feel alive?
Where have I stopped allowing myself to be surprised or not-knowing?
What is one place, experience, or type of beauty that reliably opens me up?
What would my life look like if I intentionally sought out awe every single day?
What mysteries am I living with right now that I haven't allowed myself to fully appreciate?

Affirmations for Cultivating Wonder

I am open to being amazed by ordinary life.
Wonder is available to me in every moment.
I allow awe to expand me and heal me.
Life is more mysterious and beautiful than my mind can fully hold.
I give myself permission to be moved.
I am part of something vast, beautiful, and good.
The more I notice, the more there is to notice.

Frequently Asked Questions About Awe and Healing

Is awe the same as gratitude?

They're related but different. Gratitude is appreciating what you have. Awe is being genuinely amazed by something beyond yourself. Both are healing — but awe has a unique quality of expanding your sense of self and temporarily dissolving the boundaries between you and something larger. They work beautifully together though.

Can I experience awe if I'm depressed or anxious?

Yes — and in fact, intentionally seeking awe is one of the evidence-based approaches being studied for both conditions. You may need to start smaller and be more intentional about it when you're struggling, but even brief moments of wonder can create meaningful shifts. Be gentle with yourself and start with what's accessible.

How often should I be seeking awe experiences?

Researchers suggest even small daily doses of wonder make a measurable difference. You don't need a dramatic experience every day — just the intention to notice something that moves you. One awe walk a week, one stargazing session a month, one intentional music listening session — it adds up more than you'd think.

What if I've just lost the ability to feel things deeply?

That emotional numbness is real, and it often has layers — exhaustion, grief, trauma, or prolonged stress can all contribute to it. Energy work can be genuinely helpful here, as can some of the gentler practices in this post. If it feels persistent and deep, it might also be worth talking to a mental health professional — there's no shame in getting support from multiple directions.

Does awe have to be religious or spiritual?

Not at all. Awe is a human experience that transcends any particular belief system. Whether your wonder is sparked by nature, science, art, music, or human connection — it all counts. The healing benefits show up regardless of the source.

Final Thoughts

Here's what I really want to leave you with today.

The world has not actually become less wondrous. The stars are still there. The ocean is still doing its thing. Kindness is still happening in a thousand quiet places every single day. Life is still, at its core, an absolute miracle.

What changes is our attention. Our willingness to slow down enough to notice. Our permission to be moved.

You were born with a sense of wonder. It hasn't left — it's just been buried under busyness and stress and the relentless scroll of ordinary life.

But it's still there. It's waiting.

And all it takes to wake it back up is a moment of genuine looking. A willingness to be surprised. A breath slow enough to let something beautiful actually land.

Start there. See what opens. 💛

Want support clearing what's been keeping you closed off and creating more space for wonder, healing, and aliveness? Distance Reiki is a beautiful place to begin. Book a session here and let's open things up together.

The Energy of Wonder: Why Awe Heals More Than You Think