Awe
by Dacher Keltner
A psychologist who has studied awe for decades describes its eight sources, moral beauty, collective movement, nature, music, art, spirituality, life and death, big ideas, and its effects: smaller ego, more generosity, better health. The book is personal, written after his brother's death, and it makes a case for seeking awe deliberately.
Read it if…
you feel flat and want to understand the emotion that reliably lifts people out of themselves.
Skip it if…
you want a practical manual; the suggestions are light and the science is the center.
Three things you will actually use
- Seek awe weekly; it is available and cheap.
- Notice moral beauty in ordinary people.
- Let awe shrink the self; it is a relief.
Do this first
Take a twenty-minute 'awe walk' this week: go somewhere new, slow down and look up.
Our verdict
Beautiful and well-researched; a book about an underused emotion.
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