Experiencing awe quite literally improves your health

The world needs more “awe,” says Twitter account Culture Critic (@Culture–crit). The account regularly posts messages about culture, past and present, and how much we have seemingly lost to “progress.” It also defends tradition as a good thing for humanity, saying, “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”

It recently posted the benefits of finding yourself in “awe” with a beautiful photo of European architecture. The account’s followers then posted their own awe-inspiring photos.

Reminder that experiencing awe quite literally improves your health.

Awe, which has only been studied properly in the last two decades, has been shown to:
• Reduce stress
• Trigger the release of oxytocin
• Lower levels of inflammatory cytokines

Being made to feel small… pic.twitter.com/nF2UqSkRRU

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) January 8, 2024

The post generated significant conversation.

Here’s what it stated:

Awe, which has only been studied properly in the last two decades, has been shown to:

• Reduce stress

• Trigger the release of oxytocin

• Lower levels of inflammatory cytokines

Being made to feel small (experiencing “self-diminishment”) even quells our negative self-talk, by deactivating the part of the cortex involved with how we perceive ourselves. Through awe we become less attuned to ourselves and more attuned to the wider world. Dacher Keltner at UC Berkeley said: “We are at this cultural moment of narcissism and self-shame and criticism and entitlement; awe gets us out of that.”

Reminder that experiencing awe quite literally improves your health.

Awe, which has only been studied properly in the last two decades, has been shown to:
• Reduce stress
• Trigger the release of oxytocin
• Lower levels of inflammatory cytokines

Being made to feel small (experiencing “self-diminishment”) even quells our negative self-talk, by deactivating the part of the cortex involved with how we perceive ourselves.

Great post. How can one not feel in awe when in the presence of this. pic.twitter.com/yPVCgl5WMx

— Iconic Settings (@IconicSettings) January 8, 2024

Through awe we become less attuned to ourselves and more attuned to the wider world. Dacher Keltner at UC Berkeley said: “We are at this cultural moment of narcissism and self-shame and criticism and entitlement; awe gets us out of that.”

Neuroscientists define awe it as the emotional response to something vast that defies (and changes) our existing frame of reference of something.

READ: What’s happening to the great Cathedrals of Europe?

What’s one way to experience it? Travel to your nearest cathedral and gaze upwards.

Gothic architecture was built for this very purpose – through maximum height and maximum light. Achieving this at vast scale was a critical breakthrough by medieval engineers, who pioneered the flying buttresses, the pointed arch, and various other innovations which made taller and thinner walls possible.

Those builders also believed that light itself was divine, and that when it poured in through the great windows it elevated one’s consciousness to the heavens.

I’d always regarded Zion Nat’l Park in Utah as a series of cathedrals. It has been my favorite of the parks for just the feeling you describe.

(photo credit: https://t.co/XEhyGinVbX) pic.twitter.com/EfBs6jGBB5

— HawksNest1010 (@jay_hohl) January 8, 2024

As English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said: “The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.”

Neuroscientists define awe it as the emotional response to something vast that defies (and changes) our existing frame of reference of something. What’s one way to experience it? Travel to your nearest cathedral and gaze upwards. Gothic architecture was built for this very purpose – through maximum height and maximum light. Achieving this at vast scale was a critical breakthrough by medieval engineers, who pioneered the flying buttresses, the pointed arch, and various other innovations which made taller and thinner walls possible.

Is there a more depressing trend than churches becoming coffee shops? pic.twitter.com/ubpECwA1DV

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) January 10, 2024

Those builders also believed that light itself was divine, and that when it poured in through the great windows it elevated one’s consciousness to the heavens. As English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said: “The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.”

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If you are on Twitter (X), follow Culture Critic for more inspiring photos and discussion, and a look at what our society is at risk of losing.

–Dwight Widaman | MV

Lead photo: Wyatt Wellman (avatar name) Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0