I've been trying to tell you all for years..

[DaKCMan AP]

Feeling Awesome: Studies Find An Emotion Has Myriad Benefits

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB216039...79740497232322

Feeling Awesome: Studies Find An Emotion Has Myriad Benefits
By
Elizabeth Bernstein

Polett Villalta says her first deep scuba dive was one of the best experiences of her life. As she descended to 110 feet, a sunken ship slowly became visible in the green-grey water. A turtle swam by.

She and her dive buddies entered the darkness of the ship with a flashlight, and the wreck “came alive,” she says. Colorful coral grew over the submerged steel; parrotfish and angelfish darted in and out of shadows. She dropped to the sand and touched the bottom of the ocean.

“I can’t describe an experience like that, being part of an element that feels a lot bigger than me,” says Ms. Villalta, a 39-year-old web developer who lives in Hallandale Beach, Fla., and has been paralyzed from the chest down since she was 12. “It’s like nothing else matters

Want to improve your life? Go do something awesome.

The actual feeling of awe, and experiences that inspire it, benefit us in all sorts of ways, from stronger health to improved relationships, according to several recent studies.

Researchers have found “awe experiences” increase our prosocial behaviors, making us more generous and more humble. They increase our “empathic accuracy,” so we recognize another person’s emotional expression and respond with concern. And they make us more willing to engage with trust and connect with others.

Awe is an emotional response to something vast, and it challenges and expands our way of seeing the world. It might be triggered by an encounter with nature, a religious experience, a concert or a political rally or sports event. We’re not likely to find it on a treadmill at the gym.

I heard from people experienced awe at the birth of a child, watching a meteor shower and visiting the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, in California. A man said he found it awe-inspiring to work with homeless people and witness their resilience and kindness. My dad said he experienced “nine days of awe” on a solo kayak trip in Alaska.

People report having three awe experiences a week on average, says Dacher Keltner, director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. The lab has been working with the Sierra Club to take 56 inner-city high-school students on a rafting trip and study whether they experience academic benefits. Preliminary findings show that a week after the trip the teens reported being more engaged and curious about what was happening in the world.

Awe experiences may help fight depression, experts theorize. Other research from Dr. Keltner’s lab, published online in the January 2015 journal Emotion, indicates awe may help reduce inflammation. Researchers asked 119 undergraduates to rate how often they felt seven positive emotions including awe. Those who reported the most awe had the lowest levels of inflammation markers in their saliva. The study didn’t examine the link between awe and depression, but past studies have found heightened inflammation in people with depression. “I think awe could be a great intervention,” says Jennifer Stellar, lead researcher on the study.

Researchers believe awe is powerful because it takes us out of our own heads. “Awe minimizes our individual identity and attunes us to things bigger than ourselves,” says Paul Piff, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine.

I felt awe on a night dive with friends in Miami, our flashlights illuminating an array of colors and creatures as we floated over the reef. I have been diving with Ms. Villalta, and to see her transcend her physical limitations and submerge underwater is awe-inspiring. She dives with buddies—myself included—who are certified to assist disabled people, helping her in and out of the water, holding onto her tank to pull her along and helping her equalize air pressure.

In two unpublished studies Dr. Piff has found awe makes people more generous and more helpful to others. In one study, nearly 300 participants were randomly divided into three groups and watched one of three video clips. A group that watched nature scenes edited to evoke awe tended to agree with statements like “I feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things.”

The participants were given a test to measure generosity called a dictator task. They were told they would get 10 lottery tickets for a prize drawing and would be assigned a partner who wouldn’t get tickets and didn’t know about the drawing. When asked how many tickets they wanted to give their partners, people in the awe group said they would give away approximately 25% more.

In another study, 90 college students were taken one at a time to visit a stand of tall eucalyptus trees. Half were asked to gaze up at the trees for 60 seconds—a task shown to evoke awe; the other half were asked to stand with their backs to the trees and look at a building. Afterward, a researcher approached each student with a questionnaire and pretended to trip and drop pens on the ground. Dr. Piff’s team measured whether students bent down to pick up pens and, if so, how many. The awe group picked up 10% more pens. The researchers also asked the participants whether they felt entitled to payment; the awe group felt less entitled.

Ms. Villalta says she finds the ocean awe-inspiring. She went snorkeling and free diving a lot as a child. When she was 12, in her native Venezuela, she dove off a friend’s shoulders into the surf and hit the sand head first. She has been in a wheelchair ever since.

Family members used to take her to visit the ocean, bringing her into the water and holding her up in the waves. Then she decided to learn to dive. “Diving charges my batteries to deal with the everyday,” she says.

Next month, Ms. Villalta plans to sky dive for the first time. “My mother tells me my wings were clipped when I was a child,” she says. “I have managed to make them grow back in some way.”

—Write to Elizabeth Bernstein at elizabeth.bernstein@wsj.com or follow her on Twitter or Facebook at EBernsteinWSJ.

[BucEyedPea]

have to subscribe to read

[Prison Bitch]

No surprise the wsj writes about taking exotic trips ad scuba diving trips to the reef. However most working stiffs can't afford to go see anything "awesome" with the family outside a drive g trip to the Grand Canyon

[Dave Lane]

I've experienced so much shock and awe it's almost unfair.

[Red Beans]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

No surprise the wsj writes about taking exotic trips ad scuba diving trips to the reef. However most working stiffs can't afford to go see anything "awesome" with the family outside a drive g trip to the Grand Canyon

Acid is relatively cheap

[DMAC]

Originally Posted by Red Beans

Acid is relatively cheap

DMT too

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

No surprise the wsj writes about taking exotic trips ad scuba diving trips to the reef. However most working stiffs can't afford to go see anything "awesome" with the family outside a drive g trip to the Grand Canyon

Get a job, hippy!

[Red Beans]

Originally Posted by DMAC

DMT too

True. 20 minutes of space travel right in your own bedroom. Whew!