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.
Why it works
Awe disrupts the brain’s ordinary temporal tracking by loading the perceptual and appraisal systems with novel, complex stimuli that require effortful processing. This engaged processing makes the subjective duration of the experience feel longer — the opposite of the time compression produced by familiar, automatic activity. Awe also reduces the urgency that drives time pressure.
How to do it
- When you feel acutely rushed or time-anxious, spend 5 minutes deliberately exposing yourself to something vast (a sky, a cathedral, a large piece of music).
- Allow the experience to slow you down rather than fighting it — the goal is to let the awe disrupt the urgency.
- After five minutes, return to what you were doing and notice whether the time-anxiety has changed.
Evidence
Rudd, Vohs & Aaker (2012) found experimentally that awe induction (vs happiness induction) expanded perceived time available, increased willingness to volunteer time for others, and increased life satisfaction. (rct)
Time expansion effects were measured immediately after induction; whether brief awe doses in daily life produce the same effect outside lab conditions needs further study.
Sources
- Rudd, Vohs & Aaker (2012), "Awe expands people’s perception of time, alters decision making, and enhances well-being," Psychological Science
Common mistake
Using an awe-inducing image or video as a distraction from time pressure rather than as a deliberate reorientation — the intention matters for whether the expansion effect occurs.
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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.
- 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.
- 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