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.
Why it works
Awe requires perceived vastness, and visual and narrative content that conveys scale beyond human experience can induce the emotion without requiring physical travel. The critical variable is attentional engagement: vast content watched as background wallpaper does not produce the accommodation response — the mental frameworks must actually be challenged, which requires focused engagement.
How to do it
- Identify one documentary, film, or piece of music that genuinely moves you toward awe — a real example, not an ideal one.
- Watch or listen with screens off, full attention, in a room without other distractions.
- Allow yourself to be affected — do not immediately analyze or evaluate.
- Sit with the feeling for two minutes after it ends before resuming normal activity.
Evidence
Lab-based awe induction using video clips (often of nature at scale) reliably produces positive affect and small-self effects, consistent with Keltner’s model. Video-induced awe is used as a standard manipulation in research. (observational)
Lab-induced awe via video may be lower intensity than naturally occurring awe; whether regular home use produces the same benefits as lab protocols is not established.
Sources
- Keltner & Haidt (2003), "Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion," Cognition and Emotion
Common mistake
Having awe-inducing content on in the background while doing something else — this creates ambient pleasant imagery without the attentional engagement that produces the emotional response.
Practice this with IX Coach
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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.
- 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.
- 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