One Mental State that will Accelerate Your Learning & Healing with Dacher Keltner
Feb 26, 2024
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Explore the power of awe in daily life with guest Dacher Keltner. Awe activates the parasympathetic system, reduces stress, and offers incredible perspective. Learn how to embrace awe daily for improved mental state and overall well-being.
Experiencing awe regularly can improve mental state by reducing stress and inflammation, enhancing creativity and providing perspective.
Awe can trigger a neural process that promotes a shift towards a parasympathetic state, fostering openness, curiosity, and connection to something greater.
Deep dives
The Definition of Awe and Its Impact on Creativity and Well-being
Awe is defined as the feeling we experience when encountering vast mysteries that animate our search for answers and transformation. Research shows that awe enhances creativity, expands our sense of wonder and meaning, and reduces daily stress, improving overall well-being. Additionally, awe has been found to elevate vagal tone, reduce inflammation in the body, and provide a sense of more time, fostering a more creative and adaptive mindset.
Neuroscientific Insights on Awe and the Default Mode Network
Neuroscientific studies reveal that experiencing awe deactivates the default mode network in the brain, associated with self-referential thoughts and ego. Awe triggers a reduction in activity in the amygdala, the brain region responsible for detecting threats, leading to a decrease in stress responses. This neural process promotes a shift towards a parasympathetic state, enhancing openness, connectedness, and curiosity, contributing to a sense of wonder and transcendence.
The Transformative Power of Awe and its Role in Cultural Change
Awe is highlighted as a catalyst for personal and cultural transformation, fostering openness to bigger perspectives and reducing self-absorption. The ability to experience awe regularly can lead to improved mental and physical health, reduced inflammation, and a sense of connection to something greater. By embracing awe in daily life, individuals can tap into a mindset of wonder, curiosity, and purpose-driven seeking, aligning ancient wisdom with modern scientific understanding for personal growth and societal change.
How can you cultivate more awe into your daily life?
On the spectrum of emotion, awe is probably one of the most elusive and misunderstood. It’s easy to feel awe when you encounter the wonders of nature, a piece of powerful music or art, or have a deeply spiritual experience. But is it possible to create and embrace a sense of awe in your everyday life?
I’m excited to welcome Dacher Keltner to the show today. Dacher is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, the founder and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center, and a renowned expert on the science of human emotion. He’s here to talk about his latest book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.
When you’re in a state of awe, your entire body opens up. It activates your parasympathetic system, reduces stress and inflammation, and provides incredible perspective that can improve your mental state. Listen in as Dacher talks about how important it is to embrace the wondrous feeling of awe and why you should find time for it every day.
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