A Practice You Can Try This Week (No Course Required)

One of the simplest things I teach — and one of the most underrated.

Hi friends, here’s a free Growth Challenge from my upcoming “Science of Living Well” 8-week virtual course. No strings, takes about fifteen minutes, and it’s almost embarrassingly simple: go for an awe walk.

That’s the whole instruction. You go for a walk — anywhere — but instead of walking to get your steps in or to grind through your mental to-do list, you walk to be surprised. You deliberately go looking for things that are bigger than you. The scale of an old tree. The architecture of a cloud. A kid noticing something you stopped noticing decades ago. The point isn’t to find something Instagram-worthy. It’s to let your attention widen past yourself for a few minutes.

Here’s why it works, and it’s not woo: Dacher Keltner’s research on awe has found that even small, ordinary doses of it do something measurable: awe quiets the ego — the “small self” — and, paradoxically, that’s what leaves people feeling more connected, more generous, and happier afterward. In one study, older adults who took a weekly awe walk reported more joy and more compassion than those who just walked. Same walk. Different attention.

That’s the secret, really. Most of us move through extraordinary things on autopilot. Awe is a way of paying attention you can switch on — on a Tuesday, on your own street. You don't have to go anywhere to find it.

Try it this week. Leave the phone in your pocket. See what’s been there the whole time.

p.s. — This is a taste of what we do in my live course, The Science of Living Well, starting July 8 — the week on awe and peak experiences is one of my favorites. Early-bird runs through next Sunday, June 28, if you want in. But the walk above is yours to keep either way.