Build a personal catalog of micro-awe triggers
Identify the small, reliable stimuli in your everyday environment that reliably produce a mild sense of wonder — and use them deliberately.
Why it works
Keltner’s later work, including his book "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder," emphasized that awe does not require grand experiences — it can be found in music, mathematical elegance, a moment of human connection, or a well-crafted sentence. Identifying your personal micro-awe triggers makes awe a resource you can access daily rather than once per visit to a national park.
How to do it
- For one week, note every moment that produces even a mild version of awe — anything that makes you pause or think "that is remarkable."
- After the week, identify the two or three triggers that recurred most: music, certain kinds of writing, particular places, specific people.
- Build deliberate access points: keep the music in a playlist, the place on your route, the writing type in your reading diet.
Evidence
Keltner’s research and clinical positive-psychology practice support cultivating awe from everyday sources; the specific practice of cataloguing personal triggers is a therapeutic extension rather than a directly trialed intervention. (anecdotal)
The micro-awe catalog approach is practitioner-derived from Keltner’s framework. The evidence for everyday awe generally is real; this specific implementation tool is not independently tested.
Common mistake
Assuming you don’t experience awe because you’ve never been to the Grand Canyon — everyday wonder is the more reliable resource, and it requires noticing rather than traveling.
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More practices for Awe and Well-Being, Made Practical
- Take a weekly awe walk
Walk with the explicit intention of seeking something vast or wondrous — shifting your attention outward rather than inward.
- Use documentary and large-scale art to trigger awe
Watch content that conveys genuine vastness — deep space, ecosystems, historical scale — with full attention rather than as background.
- 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.
- Attend to moral beauty as an everyday awe source
Notice and dwell on acts of extraordinary virtue, skill, or dedication — a common awe trigger that most people overlook.
- Use awe to expand perceived time
Deliberately induce awe when you feel time-pressured or rushed — awe reliably slows perceived time and reduces the feeling of scarcity.
- 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.
Related concepts
- Awe and the Small Self
Keltner’s science of wonder — the small self, moral beauty, and why awe heals
- Awe Walks, and the Science of Wonder
Why wonder quiets the self, and how to walk for it on purpose
- Positive Psychology, Made Practical
PERMA and the well-being exercises, graded honestly on the evidence
- Broaden-and-Build, Made Practical
Using positive emotions not just as rewards but as resources that build lasting psychological strength