Attuning to awe

Awe is that feeling when we encounter something so wondrous, vast, inspiring, or mind-blowing that it shifts our perspective and deepens our appreciation of life. And it's all around us, waiting to be discovered – in nature, collective experiences, and big ideas.

Recent moments of awe have brought me back to this space – this blog that I created to help others and, in the process, help myself. From feeding a majestic white horse, to reading an inspiring newsletter (shared below), meditating with my son* at the state park, beholding sunlight filtering through the clouds, watching a hummingbird sip from our leaking hose, hiking on a trail veiled in fog, and being mesmerized by a guitarist at our local farmers market…all fairly small moments, but taking time to savor these everyday wonders has been an easy way to become more attuned to joy and gratitude in my daily life.

So…what have been some recent moments of awe for you?

In the words of Raph Waldo Emerson, awe repairs. And research backs this up: awe can ease stress and anxiety, lower inflammation, boost mood and cognitive function, enhance creativity, and even support heart health. It shifts our focus outward, reminding us we’re part of something larger—nurturing kindness, generosity, and a sense of community. All qualities desperately needed in this era of division and incivility.

So let’s become awe-seekers. Let’s slow down and notice. Let’s engage our senses and seek out nature, the arts, and collective effervescence. Let’s unplug, open up, reframe the ordinary, and reflect on our experiences through journaling or discussion with others. I believe that experiencing awe can make the world a better place. And it’s waiting for us, if we choose to look. 

Love Against Probability
By Maria Popova

You wouldn’t have bet on it, this battered rock orbiting a star from the discount bin of the universe, you wouldn’t have bet that it would bloom mitochondria and music, that it would mushroom mountains and minds, and the hummingbird wing whirring a hundred times faster than your eye can blink, and your eye that took 500 million years from trilobite to telescope, and the unhurried orange lichen growing on the black boulder two hundred times more slowly than the continental plates beneath are drifting apart, and the marbled orca carrying her dead calf the length of the continent, carrying the weight of consciousness, and consciousness, how it windows this tenement of breath and bone with wonder, how it hovers over everything, gigantic and unnecessary, like love.

It is all so improbable, this wild and wondrous world, against all we know about the universe. And yet here it is, and here we are, set on it to know that we are dying and live anyway, and love anyway.

Our most beautiful, most transformative, most vivifying experiences and encounters are like that — they enter our lives through the back door of expectation, shattering the laws of probability with the golden gavel of the possible.

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*we’ve been enjoying the Calm App together, which is free for all KP members!