Think about the last time you felt like this. A sky full of stars. It was a piece of music that reached a deep and unexpected place. A stranger stops to help someone they don’t know, and something sticks to your chest in response. If you’ve ever wondered how dread often feels, you’re not alone.
This feeling is dread. Most of us live with much less than we could have.
In a life full of notifications and rushing routines, we’ve largely forgotten how to pause for wonder. But science has spent two decades studying what happens when we do that, and the results are astonishing. Awe is not just a Pleasant emotion To stumble. It is one of the most powerful tools we have for feeling Healthier, kinder and more energetic.
Here’s what it is, why it’s important, and six simple ways to feel it more.
“The world is still amazing. We just have to remember how to look at it.”
What dread actually is (and why have we forgotten about it) ✨
Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast beyond your normal understanding of the world. So said the psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley Dacher Keltnerone of the world’s leading researchers on the subject, defines it.
“Fast” does not necessarily mean “Grand Canyon.” It can be physical, like standing at the edge of the ocean, but it can also be deeply human, like witnessing an act of extraordinary courage or kindness. Child’s hand. Redwood tree. Choir in full voice. Any of these could stop us in our tracks.
What surprises most people is how often dread is actually present. Keltner researchwhich was collected from tens of thousands of accounts in 26 countries, found that people report feeling dread two to three times a week on average. The problem is that dread is common. Our fast-paced, screen-filled lives train us to rush past them without ever stopping to really feel them.
Why dread is good for you
For a long time, awe was considered a pleasant but simple feeling, a bit of wonder on an ordinary day. Research has shown that this view was wrong. It turns out that dread is something close to necessity.
A 2023 study published in Scientific Reports She tracked 269 adults over 22 days and found that on days when people felt more awe, they reported about 20 percent less stress, fewer physical symptoms, and greater overall health. A parallel study of 145 health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic found the same pattern.
The physical effects go even further. A A 2015 study of 94 college students It found that those who reported frequent dread had significantly lower levels of interleukin 6, a marker of inflammation in the body. Awe was the strongest predictor of all the positive emotions studied.
Dread also does something unusual to our sense of time. In a A 2012 study published in Psychological SciencePeople who had just experienced dread reported that they felt like time had extended, which made them less impatient, more generous, and more satisfied with their lives.
Brain scans offer one explanation why. Dread reduces activity in the brain’s default mode network, the system associated with self-focus and mental chatter. It moves us from thinking about ourselves to feeling part of something bigger, a shift researchers call the “micro-self effect.” Studies consistently prove that people who feel awe become more generous, more humble, and more connected to others.
Less stress
Higher dread days are associated with approximately 20% less stress and fewer somatic complaints (Scientific Reports, 2023)
Calms the body
It is associated with lower blood pressure and reduced markers of inflammation (IL-6) in the body
Quiet mental chatter
It reduces activity in the brain’s default mode network, facilitating rumination and self-focused thinking
It makes us kinder
Reducing the ego through the “small self” effect, shifting the focus from me to we and increasing generosity
Expands time
People feel less impulsive and more patient after dread, even when nothing in their schedule changes
Raises mood and connection
Associated with greater well-being, stronger social connections, and a lasting sense of meaning and purpose
6 ways to experience more awesomeness 🌌
1. Find everyday moral beauty
This is the finding that surprises people the most: the single most common source of awe in everyday life, across cultures and continents, is not nature, music, or great architecture. It is the good of others. Keltner calls this moral beauty, and it describes the awe we feel when we witness another person’s courage, kindness, generosity, or strength.
A stranger helps a fallen person. The friend who stays when they can leave. A neighbor is quietly taking care of someone else’s child. These moments are everywhere, and are always more terrifying than most people expect.
Spend a week actively noticing them, no matter how small, and write one down every evening. You’re not looking for grand gestures. You train your attention on the beauty that was already there.
2. Enter the vastness of nature
Nature has been a reliable source of awe for as long as humans have existed, and researchers consistently rank it among the most powerful stimuli. Spending time in nature is associated with lower blood pressure, lower cortisol, and a simple self-transformation that makes us feel connected rather than isolated.
The important thing you should know is that you don’t need a mount. A city park, a walk on the river, sitting for ten minutes under a big tree, or a wide-open sky viewed from your backyard can all provide the same essential element: a moment of scale that reminds you that the world is bigger than your inbox. If possible, leave your phone behind and take five minutes to look at something bigger than yourself.
3. Let the music move you
Music is one of the most reliably accessible sources of awe and one of the least used. The special feeling it can produce, sometimes called a shiver, is a physical sign that something transcendent is happening, as it creates shivers or chills that travel through the body. Co-listening, whether at a concert, a church service, or a playlist in the living room with someone you love, deepens the effect.
The key is to actually listen, not have music playing in the background while you do seventeen other things. Awe demands attention, and attention is the least we give music. Pick one piece that has touched you before, sit with it fully, and let it own you completely.
4. Find group moments
There is something that happens when people move, sing, or experience something together; It simply does not happen alone. Researchers call this “collective effervescence,” and it describes the power of a shared experience.
It’s why a concert sounds different than listening to it at home, why joining in a hymn or hymn can generate a feeling that’s really hard to explain, and why the energy of the crowd changes what the event does to you.
Shared awe shifts the brain’s focus from individual concerns to group belonging. Find one shared experience this month, such as a concert, worship service, community event, or class, and notice the difference between experiencing it alone and as part of a crowd.
5. Slow down with art and design
Art and architecture have always been deliberate attempts to inspire awe, and they often succeed. The challenge is that we tend to move through them quickly, checking out the room rather than actually stopping.
A museum, a cathedral, a beautifully designed building, a piece of entirely handcrafted pottery: these things hold the effort and vision of another human being, and when we give them real attention, they can make us pause.
Brain research suggests that dread reduces activity in the self-focus network. When we stand before something broad or complex enough, we forget to engage ourselves for a moment. Visit one place this month with the clear goal of trying it rather than passing by, and spend at least five minutes with one thing.
6. Do awe walk
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, studied what happens when you take a regular walk but add one specific element: intentional attention to novelty and wonder, moving through your surroundings as if you were seeing them for the first time. People who took these wonderful walks reported much greater joy and less sadness than those who took ordinary walks, and their photos showed that they were looking outward rather than inward.
The Walk of Awe is not a longer walk or a better route. It’s the same walk with different eyes. Leave your earbuds behind, move a little slower than usual, and look for one thing you haven’t noticed before. The details of a building, the way light falls on an ordinary object, a plant growing through a crack. Treat it as a small discovery.
Wonder is closer than you think ✨
The dread hadn’t really gone away. It was present in the morning sky you passed on your way to work, in the song you almost skipped, and in the neighbor who quietly helped someone without telling a story. We stopped noticing it, not because it disappeared, but because we became so adept at staying busy.
The world is still amazing. Science gives us permission to take this seriously, and to treat astonishment not as a luxury, but as something close to a necessity. Look for a little more often. The rest tends to follow.
