Feel more awe to have a happier Happiness Day!

Happiness Day!

I’m slightly obsessed with it because I really want it to be trigger event for people – you, me and especially all of our young people – to be noticeably and genuinely happier.

One way to do that is to feel more awe.

When you feel more awe, one of the ten positive emotions for human wellbeing identified by positive psychologist Dr Barbara Friedrickson,[1] you “open up to new possibilities and ideas.” [2]

We feel awe when we encounter “beauty or goodness on a grand scale” [3] or another definition, “Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world.”[4] ​

We can feel awe in everyday life, as well as in the extraordinary.
I experienced it this morning when I was out having a walk. After days of monochrome, it is a jaw-droppingly beautiful, bluebird day. And, I am filled with awe. Breathing in awe. Finding stillness. All my senses opening up to the sunshine.

I wasn’t unhappy when I left the house, but I’m definitely happier as I slow down and allow myself to take in everything around me.

Awe as a Trigger for Sustainable Action
A key trigger for feeling awe is being in nature[5], exploring it, watching it, learning about it.
Surely then, creating opportunities for young people to feel more awe by connecting to Nature, is a crucial part of empowering them as agents of change, able to take action to solve sustainability challenges.

Why? Because it builds the point of empathy that they are part of an ecosystem, not separate from it. It connects them to their creativity as they explore the phenomenal interconnectedness of the world around them, inspiring them to be problem-solvers.

How can you build more awe on Happiness Day?
I create ‘change-maker spaces’ where I get children and young people to play with ideas, taking a challenge from one of the Sustainable Development Goals and exploring how to solve it with them.

As they research, I’m getting them to connect to awe, to be amazed at the elegant solutions that Nature already has in place and getting them to use all of this to inspire their innovative problem-solving.

For example, during my learn to move mountains® workshop on 21st February at Soft-Space Geneva, the children explored filter feeders – sharks, bivalves, birds - before using this natural ‘technology’ to design innovative ocean-going, microplastic eating robots.

Here’s how you can do the same, connecting to awe to build a happier community of change-makers:

1. Use my Ideas to Innovation Practice to play with ideas and create a ‘change-maker space’ with young people (sign up for the e-news to get access to the practice)
2. Do an awe walk. Even in a city, you can connect to Nature and explore the intricate ecosystems that get brushed over in the rush.
3. Take and share the Awe Quiz from the Greater Good Science Centre at Berkeley

 
A happier Happiness Day…and beyond
Experiencing awe then, allows us as individuals to feel more positive emotions. Not least, I think, because using it in the context above also inspires hope – another of the top 10 emotions - that we can take positive, affirmative action for the planet.

Protecting the planet is to be our best as humans and we need to give young people hope that they can and do have a positive impact.

Studies have also shown that experiencing awe, prompts greater kindness and “leads people to cooperate, share resources, and sacrifice for others, all of which are requirements for our collective life.”[6]

When we help others, we feel happier. It is an ingredient in our own fulfilment. Action for Happiness identifies “Do Something For Others” as one of its 10 Steps for Happier Living.

Making awe the lens that you look through, placing each of the unique humans that you are with into the global ecosystem, opens up a sense of vastness and value for their problem-solving creativity.

#awe #wellbeing #agentsofchange #changemakers #innovators #play #ideas #globalcitizens #entrepreneurs #sdg3 #happiness #happinessday #natureistheanswer #empathy
 


[1] http://www.unc.edu/peplab/publications/Fredrickson%20AESP%202013%20Chapter.pdf

[2] http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/barb-fredrickson/

[3] http://www.unc.edu/peplab/publications/Fredrickson%20AESP%202013%20Chapter.pdf

[4] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_do_we_feel_awe

[5] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/dacherkeltner/docs/keltner.haidt.awe.2003.pdf

[6] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_do_we_feel_awe