How Awe Can Lessen Anxiety
People often ask me what the fastest way is to reduce stress or anxiety. As a mental health clinician, I tend to stay away from shortcuts.
Instead of focusing only on reducing distress, I often talk with clients about increasing what I call the “happiness factors,” the small, meaningful things that bring moments of lightness into the day.
And more recently, I’ve also been adding something else: increasing moments of awe.
There is often a pause when I ask this: when was the last time you experienced awe? It’s usually met with a quiet moment and sometimes even with a long silence. Not because the answer is complicated, but because the emotion of awe is not something we talk about often. Perhaps this blog will help you begin to notice it again and gently include it more in your everyday life.
What is awe?
It’s not just something we understand intellectually. It’s something we feel, often quietly and sometimes unexpectedly. Something stirs inside of us, and in certain moments, we find ourselves speechless in the presence of awe.
Research on awe suggests that moments of wonder can support emotional well-being, reduce stress, and help the nervous system settle.
What does awe feel like in everyday life?
Seeing the northern lights, listening to a moving piece of music, or simply sitting under a wide open sky can all bring on this sense of wonder.
But awe isn’t limited to rare or extraordinary moments. It also shows up in ordinary life:
Watching a child hold their parent’s hand
Noticing a daffodil return each spring
Witnessing a small moment of curiosity unfold
Awe is emotionally powerful, but in a gentle way. It expands us rather than overwhelms us. It pulls attention outward and gives us a wider sense of being alive.
Is awe the same for everyone?
There is no single way to experience awe. It is deeply personal, shaped by experience and by what we notice and pay attention to.
For one person, it may be Mozart’s concertos. For another, a quiet cup of coffee on a porch in the morning light. For someone else, it may be the rhythm of chanting in a place of worship, the stillness of nature, or the simple act of preparing a meal with care.
Sometimes awe shows up in very small ways:
A detail in a painting that suddenly stands out
Laughter shared between people
Light shifting across a wall without warning
Looking at a beautiful piece of art
It often isn’t loud at all. And that is one of the beautiful things about awe. It is a quiet emotion that slowly fills and expands us from within.
What are the benefits of experiencing awe?
In my work as a mental health clinician, I’ve become increasingly curious about how awe moves quietly through people’s lives.
Awe has a way of gently shifting us out of self-focused thinking. There is often a quiet internal moment of realizing I am small in a much larger world. Not in a diminishing way, but in a grounding one.
Research suggests awe can:
Reduce anxiety and stress
Create Empathy
Taps into creativity
Help calm the nervous system
Reduce rumination and overthinking
Increase gratitude and generosity
Create a greater sense of perspective and openness
It doesn’t take away the difficulty, but it can change how we perceive it.
What happens in the body during awe?
Awe isn’t only emotional, the body feels it too!
People often notice:
A deep breath they didn’t plan for
A long slow sigh that comes naturally
A softening in the body and muscles
Slower breathing and a sense of settling
Reduced tension and mental restlessness
Lower stress levels and a calmer nervous system
Sometimes even lowered heart rate and blood pressure
Many people describe feeling lighter, calmer, and more present after moments of awe.
How can you experience awe in everyday life?
Remember the last time you experienced awe and return to that moment slowly
Go back to a memory of awe in nature, art, music, or a simple human moment
Move a little slower than usual, as if you are allowing the world to catch up to you
Notice what you usually pass by, the light, the sounds, the small details that don’t ask for attention
Spend some time away from electronic gadgets and notice how much more available the world becomes when your attention is less pulled
Perhaps awe is less about searching for extraordinary moments, and more about learning to notice what is already here.
