APRIL IS FOR AWE!!

HAPPY APRIL! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS MONTH’S PRACTICE, SEEKING AWE AND WONDER!!

Welcome to April is for AWE! This month we’ll be seeking to be amazed every day! We did a sampling of this practice in our January and February gratitude practice, and I had so much fun with it that I decided to make it the focus for April! Not only is it fun to seek awe and amazement daily, but awe-inspiring moments have also been found to benefit our mental and physical health. I’ve included some snippets from recent research on the benefits of awe-inspiring moments below. If you’re thinking of ways to seek out awe each day during this challenge, it’s simple! Look around your environment daily and find something that amazes and inspires you. One example of something that filled me with awe recently is refrigeration! It came as I was listening to a story on The Splendid Table about the hundred years of cooling advancement that led us to the refrigeration of the foods that we enjoy today and that we now all have this awesomeness in our house and don’t think of how much work it took to get here amazes me!

Another way to find awe is to look up! This month we have numerous planets in our sky, and to see a planet like Jupiter as a bright “star” in our evening sky while knowing that it is a planet that is more than ten times the size of earth amazes me every time I see it. Additionally, any time you’re seeking awe outdoors, you’ll not only find plenty of things to be inspired by (i.e., a flower blooming, a bird next building, ants working together…), you’ll get the added benefit of being in nature and the boost of goodness it provides to your health. So let’s be inspired this April with this awe and wonder practice! See below for recent studies highlighting the greatness of awe and being in nature!

A final note of goodness, as you seek awe this month and experience the wonder of witnessing a beautiful sunset or standing in a forest of towering trees, know that your body will also be releasing hormones to support your health. So not only will you get the fun of being surprised, inspired, and filled with wonder for our world this month, but you also will be participating in a practice that is incredibly impactful on your physical and mental health, making it a great practice to continue well past April!

I’d also love to see what is inspiring you! Please share your pictures of awe-filled moments with the hashtag #aprilisforawe and tag me @groundedpractice on Instagram. I can’t wait to be inspired by you!

A FEW RECENT STUDIES ON THE BENEFITS OF AWE:

  1. Awe Motivates Authentic-Self Pursuit. (Jiang & Sedikides 2022)

  2. "The Awe-Self Theory" suggests that experiencing awe can promote a self-transcendent mindset, which leads to greater well-being and pro-social behavior. (Shiota et al., 2021)

  3. Awe-inducing experiences can decrease feelings of entitlement and increase generosity toward others. (Piff et al., 2015)

  4. Exposure to awe-inspiring nature scenes can reduce anxiety symptoms and increase positive emotions. (Sturm et al., 2021)

  5. Awe can enhance creativity by broadening our perspective and increasing our openness to new ideas. (Shiota et al., 2017)

  6. Experiencing awe can promote a sense of meaning and purpose in life, which can lead to greater resilience and well-being. (Stellar et al., 2017)