Awe

Joel Dean, Founder of Joyful
Last updated October 29, 2026

Awe is what you feel when you meet something so vast you can't quite take it in: a sky full of stars, a huge storm, a musician at the top of their craft. It makes you feel small, and the small feels good.

Your breath catches

You go still. For a moment your own worries seem to shrink, and you're only looking.

Three closer words split awe by what it makes you want next: amazed is being surprised by something you didn't think possible, inspired is wanting to go and make something because of what you saw, and curious is wanting to understand how it works.

Example

"We pulled over on a dark road and looked up. I'd never seen the Milky Way before. My daughter didn't say a word for about a minute, which never happens."

Vastness, and a mind that has to stretch

Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt named two things at the heart of every clear case of awe.¹ The first is vastness: something larger than you, in size, power or skill. The second is a need for accommodation, meaning your usual way of seeing can't hold the thing, so it has to stretch.¹

Awe at a wildfire and awe at a sunset are both awe.

What changes between them is the flavor, and Keltner and Haidt listed five: threat, beauty, exceptional ability, virtue and the supernatural.¹

Smaller in the selfie

Feeling small in awe is something researchers have measured, with a camera. Over eight weeks, 60 older adults took a 15-minute walk each week, and half were guided to look for awe along the way.² The awe walkers felt more awe, and they took up less of the frame in the selfies they took on their walks.²

They also reported more joy and more warm, other-focused feelings during the walks, and over the weeks their daily distress dropped more than the other group's.²

Their scores for anxiety, depression and life satisfaction didn't change in either group.² Treat an awe walk as a mood practice. It isn't a treatment.

Where to find awe this week

Take an awe walk. Fifteen minutes, somewhere with sky or trees. Look up and around as if you'd never been there, which is close to the practice in the study.²
Watch someone excellent. A dancer, a carpenter, a child sounding out a word. Exceptional ability is one of awe's five flavors.¹
Let in small vastness. A slice of tree ring, a time-lapse of a seed, a photo of Earth from space. Vast doesn't have to mean far away.
Write it down the same day. Awe can fade fast, and a few lines keep it.

Journal prompt

When did something last make you feel small in a good way? Write what you saw, and what it did to your worries in that moment.

Answer this with Joy

Questions people ask about awe

Can awe be negative?

Yes. Awe flavored by threat, like a huge storm or a volcano, can be frightening as well as amazing.¹

Is awe the same as wonder?

They're close. Wonder leans toward curiosity, wanting to understand. Awe adds the sense of being small next to something vast, and the two arrive together a lot of the time.

Grateful: glad for what came to you.
Contentment: the quiet, settled kind of good.
Nostalgia: a warm look back.