Design awe walks that amplify the psychological return of outdoor movement

Walking with intentional attention to vast, novel, or beautiful elements generates awe — which compounds the mood benefits of movement.

Why it works

Awe experiences — encounters with vastness that challenge current mental schemas — are associated with reduced self-referential thinking and decreased default mode network activity (the same network associated with rumination and depression). During awe, attention shifts outward rather than inward, providing natural relief from self-focused worry. Combining physical movement with deliberate awe-seeking creates a joint effect: the physiological benefits of exercise plus the psychological benefits of perspective-expanding experience.

How to do it

1. Before the walk, set an intention: "I will look for something vast, beautiful, or surprising."
2. Slow down for moments that could be awe-inducing — a view, a large tree, shifting cloud patterns.
3. Leave headphones out for at least part of the walk to allow environmental sounds to register.

Evidence

Research from Dacher Keltner’s lab found that awe walks — brief outdoor walks with instructions to seek awe — produced greater increases in positive emotion and prosocial behavior than control walks over eight weeks. (rct)

The awe walk protocol used explicit instructions that may not transfer to unstructured outdoor walking; participants were older adults (60+), limiting generalization.

Sources

• Sturm et al. (2022), "Big Smile, Small Self: Awe Walks Promote Prosocial Positive Emotions," Emotion

Common mistake

Walking outdoors while absorbed in a podcast or phone, which replaces the attention-outward mechanism with attention-inward media consumption — and loses the awe-seeking benefit entirely.