So you’ve just encountered a disappointing setback at work that’s puts into question your self-worth. With every passing day, you feel negativity taking over. Its subtle at first, but is now overriding your system, leaving you wanting to do as little as possible. Feelings of hopelessness sweep over you, and it’s hard to get out of bed. Pretty soon you’re convinced nothing can make the situation better. Not wanting friends and family to experience you like this, you begin to isolate yourself and cancel existing plans. You wish there were something to pluck you from this debilitating spiral, but it just feels too powerful.

You wonder, “why is this happening to me?” You’re frustrated with yourself yet powerless to shift your mind or your body away from this pattern.

Awe: the counterweight to depression

Depression is connected to the complex emotional experience we call awe. Awe is the experience of making meaning from vastness and seeing the world differently as a result.

For instance, imagine this scenario:

You’re not much of a camper, but your friends pull you to join them on their annual camping trip to Yosemite. The impact of the night sky in nature is something you’re aware of intellectually. You’ve even been before, once or twice. However, there’s something about being here this time confronting you with just how incredibly small you are, and you hold your hands up to the sky for scale.

As you lie outside gazing into the dark and star-filled void, your mind wanders away from your small size and into the idea of being human. You look to the left and right of you at your friends. They each have their faces turned toward the sky. It’s quiet. You’re suddenly aware that you’re all together. Together at this campsite, in this country, on this planet. The silence breaks from bristling leaves. Then a crack of laughter. Someone leans over to you and asks, “so, why do you think we’re here?” 

Awe Moves Us From The Physical to The Psychological to The Existential.

Religious experiences, the birth of a child, and sunrises are some of the many experiences people claim as awe-inducing in their lives. Experiences of awe move the body from the sympathetic into the parasympathetic system of functioning. This is movement from our threat detection system to our relaxation and connective systems. For instance, the awe of watching a sunrise provides our body the sense of safety needed to access self-reflection and awareness.

This way, awe-based experiences are encounters with uncertainty. Encounters with wonder in physical, social, or conceptual forms confront us with our physical smallness and cognitive limitations. The fascinating details of a clear night sky, powerful waterfall, or stadium cheering decreases our self-focus and heightens our attention of the outside world. As we focus less on ourselves, interactions with vastness can challenge our ideas of the world. As a result, awe inspires acceptance of the world in all its uncertainty and mystery.   

Awe Changes Depression by Breaking Up Negative Thoughts .

Aspects of depression such as rumination and hopelessness emerge from strongly held beliefs about what the world is like. These beliefs about the world and ourselves then prime how we predict and react to the events around us. Outdated beliefs about life, such as “the world is entirely unsafe” keep us stuck in these depressive symptoms. However, feeling awe can help loosen the grip that our outdated beliefs about life have on us. This is because awe-filled encounters decrease our self-focus, which gets heightened in depression. Rigid and unhelpful beliefs loosen through encounters with vastness. This offers our brain a chance to update how we predict and react to people and situations in our lives. 

In one frame work called the Matryoshka Model, you can trace how encounters with awe shift from our electrical impulses to our physiology, to our psychology, and eventually to our attitudes about life.

Let’s delve into how the Matryoshka Model can illustrate the transformative power of awe on depression through different layers, like those nesting dolls, but with each layer representing a different type of change.

1. Awe Creates Neurological Changes in Depression

Firstly, let’s talk about electrical changes. When you’re in awe, it’s like your brain gets a reboot. Think of it as the lights coming back on in a room that’s been dark too long. Depression often dims our neural activity, but awe can spark a surge of electrical activity in areas like the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in attention and emotional regulation. This can disrupt the repetitive, negative thought patterns that characterize depression, giving you a new, brighter perspective.

2. Awe Creates Immediate Changes in Depression

Next, we move to immediate psychological changes. Awe acts like a lens, expanding your view from the narrow focus of self to the vastness around you. It’s like stepping out of a tiny, cramped room into an open field. This shift can halt the rumination cycle, where you’re stuck replaying your worries. Instead, you’re now engaged with something larger and more magnificent, which can lift your mood and bring a sense of peace, even if just for a moment.

3. Awe Creates Cortisol Changes in Depression

Diving deeper, there are neuroendocrinal psychological changes. Here, awe starts playing with the chemistry of your mind. It’s known to reduce levels of stress hormones like cortisol while possibly boosting feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin. This biochemical shift can help ease the physical symptoms of depression, like fatigue or pain, by calming the body’s stress response. It’s like awe sends a message to your body: “Let’s dial down the stress, shall we?”

4. Awe Creates Existential Changes in Depression

At the core, we have existential changes. Awe might not just change how you feel momentarily; it can alter how you see your place in the universe. Depression can make you feel insignificant or lost, but awe can reconnect you with a sense of purpose or meaning. It’s like opening the last doll to find not just another doll but a whole new world of possibilities. This layer can inspire you to rethink your life’s narrative, encouraging a journey towards what truly matters to you, fostering hope and resilience against depression.

So, through the Matryoshka Model, awe isn’t just a fleeting emotion; it’s a layered experience that can touch every part of your being—from the electrical zaps in your neurons to the deepest sense of your existence. Each layer peels back another aspect of depression, making way for healing and growth.

Awe Can Sometimes Increase Depression

While awe can induce feelings of greater connectedness to the world around us, the reality is that encounters with awe-inspiring events can also inspire feelings of powerlessness and insignificance. This occurs when the event is a frightening or saddening one, such as a destructive wildfire, severe snowstorm, or heart wrenching documentary about an issue you care about. When we begin to experience isolation, loneliness, and insignificance as a result of scary and tragic encounters, this is a signal that it’s time to reach out for connection from safe and trusted others. Finding connection with other people after difficult encounters helps us to channel our feelings of awe into a greater source of wisdom and meaning in life. Despite the complexities of awe, seeking out positive experiences of awe can promote our well being and thriving.

Seek Awe in the Everyday

Awe is both a collective and deeply personal experience. While it’s found by immersing oneself in nature, it’s also discovered in the details of daily life. According to Ambre Associates, Awe can be found without major travel or expenses with these 5 minute practices. Some include:

• Taking a slow walk, stopping to gaze at something that catches your attention.

• Listening differently. Focus on the sounds of the instruments in your favorite song, tune into the sounds of nature and public life.

• Listening to a speech delivered by your favorite speaker.

• Following Instagram accounts that share pictures of nature.

Reach out for help

Connect with someone who can support you in understanding existential depression and it’s impact on yourself, work, friends, and family. I help people access inner strength so they can lead lives of greater safety and freedom.