Podcast Remediation Audio

This podcast episode discusses the concept of awe and its connection to well-being. Awe is described as the overwhelming sense of happiness or excitement that can come from witnessing something extraordinary. The episode explores how awe can lead to a more positive outlook on life and inspire acts of kindness and generosity towards others. Engaging in activities we enjoy, such as hobbies or art, can also bring feelings of awe and contribute to our well-being. The episode recommends reading the book "All the New Signs of Everyday Wonder" by Dr. Keltner, which explores different ways to experience awe. Overall, finding awe in our lives is important for our well-being and happiness. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt an overwhelming sense of happiness, calmness, or excitement come over you? Maybe this was watching a stunt or engaging in your favorite hobby. This emotion of extreme contentment can be categorized as the feeling of awe. Welcome back to Wellness Wednesday, the podcast where we discuss topics of well-being every week. Today's episode is all about awe and it has more of a connection to well-being than you might think. To briefly overview, we're going to discuss how awe can lead to having a more positive outlook on people and life, how engaging in activities we enjoy improves well-being, and we're going to talk about a specific book I read and how awe relates to well-being. If you're unfamiliar with what exactly awe means, according to Dr. Keltner, it can be defined as the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don't understand. So the first topic I want to discuss is how inducing feelings of awe can cause people to want to carry out acts of service towards others and how it can cause people to have a more positive outlook on other people and life. In this article that I read by Claire Prade and Vassilis Saraglou called Awe's Effects on Generosity and Helping from the Journal of Positive Psychology, they conducted a study to test this. They evaluated the ways in which feelings of awe inspired a person's morals and whether it caused them to be more likely to be generous towards others. Basically, by inducing feelings of awe, whether it's through activities they like or showing kindness, in return, it made them more likely to want to reciprocate that kindness towards others. So, like buying a stranger's drink or giving them a compliment. This allowed people to look at strangers and aspects of life in a more positive way. Having a positive mentality is very crucial to our well-being and finding positivity around us in life ultimately makes you happier. Finding awe in your life is a key way to have this positivity show through. The next topic I want to touch on is how engaging in hobbies or activities we enjoy can bring you feelings of awe and happiness. In the book, All the New Signs of Everyday Wonder by Dr. Keltner, he brings up the idea of how awe can be found through things like dance, music, or art. These are simple hobbies that we can enjoy every day by putting your favorite song on, making an art project, or doing a sport you like. These things can bring you happiness and cause you to experience the feeling of awe, which in return improves your well-being. Well-being is all about being happy, healthy, and content. Engaging in these activities improves your well-being and if they're physical activities like sports or exercise, your mental health as well as physical health will also improve. Now I know we've already discussed the book, All, but I want to go into a bit more detail. This book is very eye-opening and a very interesting read and I suggest you all read it. Keltner discusses many different ways in which we can experience the feeling of awe from nature to religion. He specifically talks about beliefs and how one's personal beliefs about things like ghosts or gods can bring forth feelings of awe. Everyone in life is different. Everyone has different beliefs on these topics. Everyone also has different morals in life and that's what makes awe so complex because everyone experiences it differently and different things will bring people awe. You just need to find what brings you these feelings in life and search for them. This concept is exactly like well-being. You need to find what makes you happy and once you do, your well-being can start to improve. So the next time you watch a sunset or play your favorite sport, pay attention to how these things make you feel and the awe that can come from them. Look for what makes you happy and engage in these things as often as you can. Your well-being is so important. I hope you all take some part of this information and can relate it to your own life and find the awe in your everyday adventures. Thank you for listening and thank you to Claire Prade, Vasilis Saraglou, and Dr. Keltner for your research contributions on the feelings of awe.