Tap into a sense of wonder by focusing on the small things around you, on a nature walk or city stre
Over time, they also noted more significant increases in daily prosocial emotions and bigger reductions in daily distress, even when they weren’t walking.
So how can we cultivate awe, which is typically associated with breathtaking vistas and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, in everyday situations?
“It’s really about just shifting your attention outward and paying attention to the little details that we often overlook,” explains the study’s lead researcher, Dr Virginia Sturm, associate professor of neurology at the University of California San Francisco.
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“When we’re busy and stressed, we are often kind of stuck in our heads and not noticing the world around us. So it’s just appreciating the petals of a flower in a way that you never did, or noticing the leaves on a tree and how they’re moving in the wind, or how a bird is flying in a certain way. It’s really just noticing little things.”
Teresa Chan, a clinical adviser at Mind HK, a Hong Kong charity for improving mental health awareness, believes that “awe walks” might offer a useful counterpoint to the seemingly perfect social media images that epitomise our digital age.
“I think in the day-to-day, it’s quite easy for most of us to take our everyday surroundings and environment for granted – or overlook the simpler, smaller things that are immediately in front of us,” she says.
As a starting point for cultivating awe, Chan suggests engaging multiple senses, including touch, hearing, smell and sight. “Ask yourself: what can I truly see right now?” She says. “How often is it that you really tune into the colours or the textures?”
For Amanda Yik, founder and certified forest therapy guide at Shirin Yoku Hong Kong, the concept of awe walking shares similarities with certain aspects of forest bathing. Yik, who specialises in helping Hongkongers to connect with the natural world, advises anyone seeking awe to switch off their phones and walk at a slow, but comfortable, pace.“This is easier said than done, I think, for a lot of people in Hong Kong, but slow down,” she says. “Just take your time; there’s no need to rush.”
Although the study’s participants were aged 60 to 90, Sturm believes that its findings, though subjective, could potentially apply to people of all ages. Chan believes that, with multiple generations currently experiencing major lifestyle shifts because of the Covid-19 pandemic, seeking awe could be a useful “simple intervention” for anyone who feels the need to boost their well-being right now.Participants in the study were asked to walk in new places, where possible, but with travel restrictions ruling out overseas adventures, for now, opportunities to seek awe in novelty are limited. However, Sturm stresses that seeking awe is a question of mindset, rather than plane tickets.
“Going somewhere new if you can is probably the easiest way to feel awe, but I really don’t think it has to be some big trip to the Grand Canyon – it can really be something quite simple,” she says, suggesting “walking around our own neighbourhoods, but taking a fresh look at them”.
“I often feel moments of awe in the places that I actually visit all the time,” says Yik, who walks the trails near her home in Discovery Bay on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island around three times a week when not working. “Maybe it sounds a little bit counter-intuitive, but I think that’s actually one of the greatest ways to cultivate that sense of awe, because you really start to notice how things change over seasons, and you build a relationship with the place, and I think that helps deepen that sense of awe and appreciation.”
Yik often takes her clients to beauty spots like Tai Po Kau nature reserve in the New Territories and Lung Fu Shan on Hong Kong Island. But you don’t necessarily have to leave the city to feel the emotional benefits of awe: Sturm points out that it can be inspired by city architecture, museums and even our own backyards.
“There’s always potentially something in our more immediate surroundings that has the power to inspire us,” agrees Chan. “It’s just that we need to make that active effort to tune in and find it.”
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Slow down and cultivate a sense of awesomeness
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