Can Microdosing Awe Help You Reframe Stress?

Outrage is loud, exhausting, and — according to your feed — mandatory. But what if the antidote to burnout isn't more hustle, more mindfulness apps, or more optimisation... it's awe?

This week, hosts Sally Clarke and Alexis Zahner unpack Sally's Fast Company piece on "microdosing awe" — the radical, deceptively simple practice of pausing to notice something vast, and why it might be the most underrated tool in your burnout-prevention kit.

In this episode

• Why awe isn't fluffy — it's a nervous-system reset that pulls you out of fight-flight-freeze and into healing mode
• The psychology of the "small self": why softening your ego (not shrinking yourself) is protective against burnout
• How awe slots into Sally's BRNT framework (Breathe, Rest, Nourish, Talk) as the connective thread, not a fifth pillar
• Why we're "saturated with outrage and starved of wonder" — and how algorithms are built to keep it that way
• Anger is initiatory, not transformative: holding outrage and awe at the same time, not choosing between them
• Emotional boundaries around what you consume — because nourishment isn't just food, it's your media diet
• The "stravification" trap: why turning awe into a measurable, optimised habit kills the whole point
• Practical ways to bring awe into the workplace — team WhatsApp photo threads, opening meetings with an awe share, one-on-one check-ins
• Sally's five straight days of sensory overload in the Amazon jungle, and what it taught her about resetting perspective back home

Key takeaways

• Awe = an automatic nervous-system regulator. You don't have to "think" your way to calm — your body can get you there in seconds.
• You don't need Kilimanjaro. A sunset, a dog in the park, a piece of music — the size of the moment doesn't matter, the noticing does.
• The "small self" isn't about being less — it's about stepping out of ego so you can see your problems (and yourself) more clearly.
• Outrage and awe aren't opposites. You can be furious about broken systems and still let wonder ground you — one doesn't cancel the other out.
• Urgency culture is profitable, not accidental. Outrage drives engagement — recognising that removes the self-blame.
• Nourishment includes your media diet. What you scroll shapes your nervous system as much as what you eat.
• Don't gamify awe. The second you're tracking "awe points," you've lost the plot — this is the opposite of a metrics game.
• Bring it to work in small doses: open a meeting with an awe share, start a team photo thread, ask "what impressed you lately?" in a 1:1.
• Awe is a courageous, almost radical act in a culture that rewards visible exhaustion — doing it anyway is the point.

Links & mentions

• Sally's article on microdosing awe is out via Fast Company — find the link and more of Sally's writing at salcla.com
• Sally's BRNT framework (Breathe, Rest, Nourish, Talk) — explored across her books and workshops
• Referenced: Tara Brach's teaching that "anger is initiatory, not transformative" see more at tarabrach.com

Live + Work More Human is hosted by Sally Clarke and Alexis Zahner. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and learn more at www.liveandworkmorehuman.com

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