“The Emotion You've Been Ignoring”
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Title: Awe
Author: Dacher Keltner
Category: Mindfulness & Wellbeing, Motivation & Self-Improvement, Psychology & Human Behavior, Emotional Intelligence
What if the most powerful emotion you have isn't happiness or love, but the one you've been filing under vacation experiences?
Sam and Sophie walk through Dacher Keltner's definition of awe — vastness plus mystery plus accommodation, the moment your mental maps turn out to be too small. They trace Keltner's argument that awe is a social emotion, the ultimate we emotion, and follow it into the body: the vagus nerve, lower inflammatory cytokines, a quieter default mode network. The eight sources of awe get their own tour, from nature and moral beauty to collective effervescence and the awe of the everyday. The pair also sit with the uncomfortable part — negative awe, the tornado or the demagogue's speech — and why the goal is discernment, not chasing the feeling.
If you've been treating wonder as a luxury or a once-a-year trip, this episode reframes it as something your nervous system actually needs, and hands you a practical roadmap: the awe walk, attentional shifting, sharing the moment, and embracing mystery.
Awe by Dacher Keltner. For the full written summary, the whole library is on 7minutebooks.com/app — over 6,000 fiction and nonfiction titles you can read or listen to in any language, with infographics on many titles. Unlimited access from $2.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $19.99 lifetime.
Chapters
00:00Awe Isn't A Vacation Feeling00:52Vastness, Mystery, And Accommodation01:34The Ultimate We Emotion02:22What Awe Does To The Body03:19The Eight Sources Of Awe04:38Negative Awe And The Practical Roadmap
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