3-Minute Awe Activation Sequence

Time needed: 3 minutes (60 seconds each)

Setting: Any environment

Purpose: Cultivating the expansive emotion of awe through intentional attention

Scale Shift (60 seconds)

What: Changing your perspective on size and scope:

- Look up at the sky, ceiling, or tallest thing visible

- Imagine the vastness beyond what you can see

- Consider the age of something around you (building, tree, mountain)

- Think about the countless people who have looked at this same view

- Let yourself feel small in a comforting way

Notice: How perspective shift affects your sense of problems, the humbling feeling of vastness, any expansion in your chest

Why: Awe often comes from encountering something larger than ourselves, puts daily concerns in perspective, activates sense of connection to something greater

Detail Wonder (60 seconds)

What: Finding complexity in the seemingly simple:

- Choose something ordinary nearby (leaf, hand, fabric, technology)

- Study it as if seeing it for the first time

- Consider the intricate processes that created it

- Marvel at the complexity hidden in everyday things

- Let yourself be amazed by what's normally overlooked

Notice: How close attention reveals hidden complexity, your capacity for wonder about familiar things, the shift from taking things for granted

Why: Awe emerges when we recognize extraordinary complexity in ordinary things, builds appreciation for daily miracles, enhances present-moment awareness

Connection Recognition (60 seconds)

What: Sensing your place in larger systems:

- Think about your connection to nature, community, or history

- Consider the web of relationships that support your life

- Reflect on human achievements you benefit from daily

- Feel your part in something larger than individual existence

- Allow gratitude for interdependence

Notice: The warmth of belonging to something bigger, any emotion that arises from recognizing connection, how interconnection feels in your body

Why: Awe often includes recognizing our place in larger wholes, reduces isolation, builds sense of meaning and purpose

Closing: Take one breath holding the sense of awe you've cultivated

Notice: How awe affects your current concerns and perspective

Why: Awe has been shown to increase life satisfaction, reduce stress, and enhance prosocial behavior

Tips:

- Awe can be found in both grand and tiny things

- Let curiosity guide your attention

- Don't force the feeling - create conditions and let awe emerge

- Works indoors and outdoors

- Can be adapted to any environment or schedule