I’m Awestruck by My Little Penny Puppy!

Awe is a fundamental part of being human- making our bodies and minds more receptive to new information, new experiences, and life’s deeper meaning -Lani Shiota of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

In an earlier blog, I discussed positive emotions and the role they play in positive psychology. Originally, interest, love, joy, and contentment were the four positive emotions studied by Barbara Frederickson. Later, gratitude, serenity, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, and awe were added to the list. Frederickson concluded that all but one of these 10 positive emotions demonstrated some correlation to wellbeing. Awe was the exception!

Why do you suppose this is? What makes awe different? When do you feel awe? How would you define it?

Awesome, awe-inspiring, awestruck…when you read them, positive connotations come to mind, right? But what about awful? If something were full of awe, wouldn’t that be a good thing? Then, why do we think of something bad when we picture awful?

Awe is a complex emotion. Feelings of awe can be positive or negative, unlike most other emotions (especially those considered ‘positive emotions’ in fields including positive psychology). Dacher Keltner, one of the most well-known psychologists to study awe during the past 15 years, explains that the word is derived from Old English and Old Norse and pertains to “fear and dread, particularly toward a divine being.” Today’s meaning evolved into:

Dread mingled with veneration, reverential or respectful fear; and the attitude of a mind subdued to profound reverence in the presence of supreme authority, moral greatness or sublimity, or mysterious sacredness.

 I don’t know about you, but when I think of an awe-inspiring experience, I imagine an extremely positive experience often occurring in nature. My last three days have been magical. You see, my family’s beloved pets, a golden retriever and house cat who cumulatively gifted my husband, kids, and me 20 years of love and affection, both passed last summer within about a month of one another. We decided to adopt another golden retriever puppy. We brought her home this past weekend. Penny is the most beautiful puppy. She is the image of perfection. Anytime we take her out, people of all ages come running to pet her. It reminds me of our early days with our kids, some 20 years ago. What incredible years those were!

What is it about young people and animals that’s so attractive to others?

According to the John Templeton Foundation,

Awe experiences are what psychologists call self-transcendent. They shift our attention away from ourselves, make us feel like we are part of something greater than ourselves, change our perception of time, and even make us more generous toward others.

When do you feel this way? Is it when you perceive extreme beauty, excellence, virtue, or maybe the supernatural?

It’s fascinating to me to see how the literature connects awe with so many other phenomena of psychology…humanity, transcendence, flow…in other words, we are attuned to things that do not occur naturally in our day-to-day lives except perhaps for a select few of us (the Lucky Ones). But why then, I ask, does awe not demonstrate correlation with wellbeing according to the research? I certainly feel more connected to something larger than myself when people swarm around to meet Penny. I am most definitely in awe of her beauty, sweetness, and out-of-this world cuteness.

What role then do feelings of fear, dread, and threat play in awe-inspiring scenarios?

As referenced in the Science of Awe , a white paper prepared for the John Templeton Foundation by the Greater Good Science Center in September of 2018 (Dechner,  https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Awe_FINAL.pdf), Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt explain how awe-inspiring circumstances require two phenomena, perceived vastness and a need for accommodation. The concept of perceived vastness is self-explanatory to me. It’s the need for accommodation that shed new light when I read it. You see, there are indeed awful events that occur in the world: genocide, famine, natural disasters, etc. They are truly terrible and at the same time, very difficult to wrap our heads around. As such, sometimes we need to metaphorically and quite literally, adjust our mindset and thought process to comprehend how and why things like this occur. Fear or dread-based experiences that fall beyond our understanding therefore create awe without wellbeing.

Good to know, but I prefer to remain awestruck by things like my adorable little Penny puppy finding a way to feed her stuffed animal through the hole in the center of her frisbee! Nonetheless, this article piqued my interest, and I am encouraged to think more about awe and its multiple dimensions in the coming weeks. Join me!

 What awe-inspiring events will you think about today? What other emotions conjure up images for you when you contemplate a sense of awe?