I’m sitting at DFW Airport with 7 hours to wait before I meetup with my writer friends with whom I’ll be traveling to Italy for an 8-day writers’ retreat at Poggio al Casone, a winery bed & breakfast. I’ve been looking forward to this trip to spend time with old friends, to inspire some new writing and to visit Italy again.

A couple of nights ago, Steve and I went to dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. He asked me what I was most looking forward to on this trip. I thought about it for only a few seconds before I said, “to find moments of awe.”

I was a little surprised at my answer, but it’s true. I love when awe strikes me. It’s one reason I like to travel!

I also love serendipity — like today, when I was waiting to board my flight from Cleveland to DFW. While browsing Apple News for things to read and I came upon a HuffPost article titled, “Scientists Asked People to Do One Thing Differently While Taking a Walk. The Results Were Astounding.”

The article was about “awe” of all things. In case you’re not able to open the link, here are a few highlights that were insightful to me:

• Awe deactivates the part of our brain “where all the self-representational processes take place: I’m thinking about myself, my time, my goals, my strivings, my checklist.” That part of the brain quiets during awe.
• Awe activates our vagus nerve – the bundle of nerves starting at the top of your spinal cord that helps us look at people and vocalize. It slows our heart rate, helps with digestion and opens our bodies to things bigger than us.
• Awe cools down the inflammation process.

The above information is from studies conducted by Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. He was also the scientific advisor behind Pixar’s “Inside Out!”

Keltner suggests taking “awe walks,” where you look around with child-like wonder. Pause and notice the world around you. It’s one reason I’ve enjoyed my grandkids. What better way to see the world through a child’s eyes than to see it through your grandchild’s eyes?

He also suggested watching for sources of “moral awe” — kindness, goodness or generosity of people.

This article suggests that opening up to moments of awe is like flexing your “awe” muscle. In other words, people who practice awe start to feel more and more awe. Most interesting to me was the discovery that awe brings about the “disappearance of self.” People become more interested in the bigger world around them and lose track of themselves.

I anticipate lots of such moments on this trip. The beauty of the Italian countryside. Great conversations with old and new friends. Art. Wine. And hopefully, at least a few moments when words spill onto my page and I think, “Did I really write that?”

But if my eyes are truly open, I also believe there will come some unexpected moments of awe, and that will be most awesome of all! 🙂

Note: If you’d like to listen to a full podcast interview with Dacher Keltner on awe, click HERE. (Am I Doing It Wrong: Living In Awe and Wonder)