PODCASTHappiness Break

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In this guided meditation, Dacher Keltner helps us cultivate awe by focusing on new beginnings. Whether it’s a budding plant, a new friendship, or a recent moment of wonder.

How to Do This Practice:

1. Find a quiet, comfortable space. Sit or lie down, close your eyes if you wish, and take deep breaths to center yourself.
2. Bring your awareness to the present moment—notice your breath, body sensations, and surroundings without judgment.
3. Reflect on new beginnings in your life. Picture meeting someone new and feeling curiosity about their stories, recall a moment of awe, like hearing a piece of music that moved you, imagine the growth of a budding plant, reaching for the light.
4. Focus on a recent moment of awe that touched you. Notice how it feels in your body and let the sensations linger.
5. When ready, gently open your eyes and carry this renewed sense of wonder into your day.

Today’s Happiness Break Host:
Dacher Keltner is the host of The Science of Happiness podcast and is a co-instructor of the Greater Good Science Center’s popular online course of the same name. He’s also a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

We’d love to hear about your experience with this practice! Share your thoughts at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

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Transcription:

I'm Dacher Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, where we pause for a moment in our busy days to find calm, to experience a sense of wonder, and to connect with all that makes life meaningful.

Today, as we enter a new year, I'll be guiding us in a meditation designed to nurture awe in the newness around us— whether it's a new friendship, the budding of a plant, first light of the morning, or any other opening experience life presents us with.

My lab's research at UC Berkeley shows moments of awe can really shift how we think, opening our minds to how we are connected to something larger than ourselves, and revealing to us the extraordinary in the ordinary.

As we experience awe, that which is vast and mysterious opens our bodies up like an antennae to the world, which you will feel in tears, the chills, a lump in the throat, and perhaps warming of the chest, sensations that arise when your vagus nerve is activated and oxytocin released

Awe can also lead to more generosity, kindness, and curiosity, and better health profile, making it – as Einstein and Rachel Carson said – the most human emotion vital to flourishing.

These moments of newness invite us to open our hearts and minds, offering fresh perspectives and a renewed sense of wonder about our lives. 

Let's now transition into a meditation to cultivate a sense of awe.

Begin by finding a comfortable and safe position, sitting or lying down, and gently closing your eyes. Take a deep breath in, feeling the air fill your lungs, and slowly exhale, releasing any tension you might be holding. Let's take a few more deep breaths, allowing each exhale to relax your body a little more.

Bring your awareness to the present moment. There's no need to change anything—just notice the sensations in your body, the rhythm of your breath, the sounds around you.

Now, let's imagine a new beginning—a new friendship, perhaps a loved one, a child. Picture meeting this person for the first time. See if you can bring to mind the sense of their face, their voice, their presence to you. Notice the sense of curiosity and wonder as you learn about this person's experiences and stories, realizing how much there is to discover about fellow human beings.

Now consider an experience of awe in hearing a new piece of music for the first time, one that spoke to you, made you feel like you were learning something about the patterns of life. A song that, thinking about it, gives you goosebumps or even the tears.

Let the notes and lyrics wash over you, introducing you to a world of emotions and sounds you've never experienced before. 

Now bring to mind the budding of a plant. See how it reaches toward the light, full of potential and life and even intention and consciousness. Reflect on the miracle of growth and the ever-present cycle of renewal.

Now, bring to mind a recent moment of awe, something new that has recently touched you. Perhaps it was in looking at a sunset, or hearing thunder, or a new place you've visited, or even a new idea that has sparked your curiosity.

How does this recent moment of awe feel to you now? Where do you sense it in your body? 

As we wrap up this meditation, take a moment to savor the new beginnings in your life. Embrace the awe they bring, the sense of openness to the vastness of life and how you're a part of many things larger than yourself.

Carry this wonder with you into the new year.

When you're ready, gently open your eyes if they were closed, and return to the room, bringing with you the inspiration of fresh experiences.

Have an awesome day.