Coaching practices for Awe and the Small Self During a Big Change
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Awe and the Small Self During a Big Change, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My own problems have swollen up to fill my entire world and I can’t see past them
- In the moments something vast cracks me open, I feel this soft pull toward everyone and everything
- For a little while right after something takes my breath away, the stuff I’d been stressing about genuinely feels smaller and farther off
- When something makes me feel tiny against how huge the world is, my reflex is to flinch and grab back control, like feeling small is a threat to fend off
- I feel small and stuck inside my own head, looping on my own problems, and I want something vast enough
Practices that may help
- Awe and the Small Self
Dacher Keltner’s research shows that awe — the response to something vast that exceeds our current frame — reliably produces the "small self": a felt diminishment of individual concerns that is experienced as expansive rather than deflating. This shift reduces self-focused rumination, increases prosocial behavior, and expands the sense of available time. The core effects are well replicated; the neural and downstream health claims are more preliminary. - Deliberately invoke the small-self shift
Seek an encounter with something genuinely vast to let your personal concerns be re-proportioned.
Awe and the Small Self - Use awe to reconnect with something larger than yourself
When awe makes the self feel small, follow the natural impulse toward belonging — toward community, nature, or humanity at large.
Awe and Well-Being, Made Practical - Write from a small-self perspective after awe
After an awe experience, write briefly from the perspective of someone whose personal concerns feel appropriately small.
Awe and Well-Being, Made Practical - Courting the small self
Seek experiences that make you feel small in a good way — and notice the relief in it.
Awe Walks, and the Science of Wonder - Seek out awe as a broadening and self-transcending emotion
Awe expands perceived time, reduces self-focused thought, and increases prosocial behavior — and it can be deliberately accessed.
Broaden-and-Build, Made Practical - Deep time humility
Situate yourself in deep geological and historical time to shrink ego-urgency and expand perspective.
The Good Ancestor: Long-Path Thinking for a Meaningful Life - Seek awe in collective rituals and shared experience
Experience something vast alongside others to amplify both the awe and the connection.
Awe and the Small Self - Update your love map after major life changes
When life shifts, assume your map is outdated and ask new questions.
Love Maps: Knowing Your Partner's Inner World - Pursue personal growth that you share — not parallel but joint
Growing alongside a partner or friend, rather than separately, leverages the self-expansion mechanism for both people simultaneously.
Self-Expansion Model: How Relationships Grow (and Stagnate) Us
Related concerns
- Awe And The Small Self
Dacher Keltner’s research shows that awe — the response to something vast that exceeds our current frame — reliably produces the "small self": a felt diminishment of individual concerns that is experienced as expansive rather than deflating. This shift reduces self-focused rumination, increases prosocial behavior, and expands the sense of available time. The core effects are well replicated; the neural and downstream health claims are more preliminary.
- Feeling Small In A Good Way
Seek experiences that make you feel small in a good way — and notice the relief in it.
Courting the small self
- Awe And The Small Self When Overwhelmed
Dacher Keltner’s research shows that awe — the response to something vast that exceeds our current frame — reliably produces the "small self": a felt diminishment of individual concerns that is experienced as expansive rather than deflating. This shift reduces self-focused rumination, increases prosocial behavior, and expands the sense of available time. The core effects are well replicated; the neural and downstream health claims are more preliminary.
- Awe And The Small Self With Friends
Dacher Keltner’s research shows that awe — the response to something vast that exceeds our current frame — reliably produces the "small self": a felt diminishment of individual concerns that is experienced as expansive rather than deflating. This shift reduces self-focused rumination, increases prosocial behavior, and expands the sense of available time. The core effects are well replicated; the neural and downstream health claims are more preliminary.
- Awe And The Small Self With My Team
Dacher Keltner’s research shows that awe — the response to something vast that exceeds our current frame — reliably produces the "small self": a felt diminishment of individual concerns that is experienced as expansive rather than deflating. This shift reduces self-focused rumination, increases prosocial behavior, and expands the sense of available time. The core effects are well replicated; the neural and downstream health claims are more preliminary.
- Small Self Awe
Dacher Keltner’s research shows that awe — the response to something vast that exceeds our current frame — reliably produces the "small self": a felt diminishment of individual concerns that is experienced as expansive rather than deflating. This shift reduces self-focused rumination, increases prosocial behavior, and expands the sense of available time. The core effects are well replicated; the neural and downstream health claims are more preliminary.
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