Feeling awe-some.

Why is it important, and how can we get more of it?

Awe is just one of many aspects of happiness, but it’s the one I want to highlight — not just for the sake of this article, but because science has shown us that experiencing awe is good for our health. I’ll get onto why a sense of awe is important in just a moment, and we will talk about ways of finding it, but let’s just say happiness in general terms is worth fighting for. But awareness is key, we need to know why, then we start to take note. Only then can we start to make a difference to the wellbeing of our own lives.

This brings me to a little segue if I may. A dear friend, Juliet was her name, died of cancer way too early on in life. But I remember dearly her favourite song of the time was ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams. And when I say ‘of the time’ I mean, she had just been told she had possibly only 2 years left to live at this point. There were about 8 of us sitting at a table in a busy restaurant when ‘Happy’ blared out of the speakers. Juliet asked one of the waiters to ‘turn it up’, made us all stand to sing and dance along — and then she tried to get the rest of the diners to join in. Two things here: She was genuinely happy, bursting with the joy of sharing — her favourite people all going a little nuts to her favourite (very) happy song — it was infectious and I still feel that joy as I write this; and secondly, my sense of awe as a witness. That sense of awe has stayed with me the last few years since she died and I use it as inspiration when I think of her. And by the way, she managed to change that ‘possible 2 years’ to an extra 5 vibrant years where she and her husband invested all their time into a love of sailing, right up to the very end. Instead of feeling sad with this story, I feel happy. Such is Juliet’s legacy.

But for the majority of us, happiness in all its facets comes and goes like the highs and lows of a rollercoaster, everything in balance. We rise, we fall, we expand, we contract, we laugh, we cry, we feel life is good until gloom casts its shadow. We yearn for positive feelings — life’s vital energy force, and there is a good reason for that. Positivity is not just what gets us out of bed in the morning, but it’s good for our immune system.

There are some people who just always seem to be happy, no matter what. They’re not necessarily jumping up and down with glee all the time, but neither do they seem to fall below a kinda happy medium. Let’s just say they are generally positive and content with their lot. On the extreme flip side there are those who feel they will never climb out of their hole, are overtly cynical, feel a victim of circumstance and think happiness is unachievable, or worse — overrated. Dare I add, there are also those that feel secure in their misery, and negativity feels more realistic because it’s familiar and paradoxically, it feels safe. And in a funny way it is, because we are of course negatively wired in order to survive. But this ancestral default is wildly outdated now that we don’t have to live in fear of being attacked every day, yet that same ‘safety’ valve keeps tripping unnecessarily and it’s not good for our health...and therefore our survival (anymore). The inherent basic structure of our brains may not have moved on, but thanks to scientific studies, we now know that we can rewire our brain and override certain functions — like erring on the negative. All that wasted energy we use ruminating while the clock ticks on and life continues with or without us, could be saved and put to good use. We can choose to enhance our positive outlook.

We can embody happiness.

Let’s break it down into 7 recognised sectors: Joy; contentment; awe; amusement; love; pride; compassion.

Try to pause at each facet of happiness and see if you can feel the differences. Each has a slightly distinct but subtle, expression in the body.

These categories were studied in 2015 by psychiatrists, scientists and researchers who were observing a group of volunteer students at an American West Coast university. The study was specifically to explore the positive effect of happiness states on inflammation markers, i.e., if positive emotions could actually lower inflammation in the body.

This got me super excited.

The study concentrated on observing the inflammation marker Interleukin 6 (IL6) which is a pro-inflammatory. That means we don’t want high levels of it in our bodies, although a certain amount of this cytokine is needed to herd cells in order to fight infection, disease and trauma. But Increased levels affect our immunity to certain diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and depression.

PANAS (Positive And Negative Affect Schedule) is a questionnaire that measures mood. These questionnaires were completed by the students to report the extent to which they had experienced positive emotions such as the ones listed above. They were also instructed to take oral swabs the same day they had experienced the positive emotions in two different studies. The first of the studies demonstrated that lower levels of IL6 correlated with positive emotions. The second study was to dig a little deeper and gauge which positive emotion had the most significant impact on IL6 levels.

And the winner is…awe. Yep, awe had the strongest correlation to lower levels of IL6 compared to any of the other positive emotions. The oral swabs taken that day showed that the students who had experienced the most awe had the lowest levels of IL6.

BOOM! How cool is that? You could even say it was awe-some.

One thought behind this positive effect suggested by Jennifer Steller, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto — and lead author of the study — is that when we feel awe, it can correlate with curiosity and the desire to explore. The opposite of which is feeling the need to withdraw when suffering from inflammation in the body.

So, when we feel awe, we feel inspired, creative and perhaps energised. These are all good feelings that stay with us after the event has passed. It can change us somehow, even if just for a little while and we want to hang on to that feeling. A feeling of lightness, wonder, magic and/or inspiration that happens with awe gives us a boost, and — on a subconscious level — a reason to carry on.

There are many different levels of awe of course. Whether it’s a piece of art that moves you, music that fills your cup, a beautiful landscape, shooting stars or — seemingly out of nowhere — a brilliant idea that you can’t wait to explore.

And it feels so amazing because, while feeling awe, you are right there in the moment. Nothing else exists as though you are suspended in time. It’s breathtaking. You are in the here and now, the present moment.

But instead of waiting for awe to find you, the next time you experience awe, notice how it feels in your body. Take a moment to make a mental note of this feeling. Record it in your mind. Then realise that finding awe doesn’t have to be a world changing event. We can find awe in the simplest things — a sunset, a rainbow, a breakdancer, a phone call out of the blue, a flower growing, a David Attenborough doc…however small. When you find it, recall the memory of the feeling of awe from the bigger awesome things have have happened in your life and add it to that smaller snippet of awesomeness, and let it grow, embody that memory. Happiness works this way. In the same way as success breeds success, happiness builds more happiness.

Now, go grab some awe.