Join Center for Inspired Teaching in our campaign to make Curiosity the word of the year in 2025! Take the below Curiosity Challenge, share it with friends and family, and make every day a day full of curiosity.

Capture Awe

Sharpen your observation skills and find awe right where you are.

In his 2023 book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, social psychologist Dacher Keltner describes ways in which every one of us can train our brains to find more meaning in our lives. Keltner defines awe as, “…the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world.”

Awe is a trigger for curiosity.

Look around you, wherever you are right now. At your breakfast table; in a coffee shop; on the bus; at the grocery store; in your place of work. See anything that brings you awe? Go find a window. Better yet, head outside. Spend the next few minutes, or the rest of your day, searching for awe.

Snap a photo of something that brings you awe, that triggers your curiosity.

Think: a bird searching for food on the snowy ground; fungus growing inside a fallen tree; an infant or toddler doing, well, anything; the moment the streetlights come on at golden hour; and if you’re lucky enough to catch a sunset, that works too!

What questions do these moments of awe raise?
How do they trigger your curiosity?

Did You Know?

Aside from being a wonderful feeling to experience, there is scientific evidence that awe is actually good for our heath.

A 2022 research study by Maria Monroy and Dacher Keltner found that awe “is associated with a profile of elevated vagal tone, reduced sympathetic arousal, increased oxytocin release, and reduced inflammation—all processes known to benefit mental and physical health.” Check out these 6 ways to bring more awe into your everyday life. And watch this sweet video about how noticing the world through the eyes of a child can supercharge your access to awe.

.