The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life
Award-winning social psychologist Dacher Keltner has spent his career speaking to different groups of people, from schoolchildren to prisoners to healthcare workers, about happiness and the good life. These conversations and his pioneering research into the science of emotion have convinced him that happiness comes down to one thing- finding awe. In Awe, Dacher Keltner presents a radical investigation into this elusive emotion, which allows us to collaborate with others, to open our minds to wonder, and to see the deep patterns of life. Drawing on his own scientific research into how awe transforms our brains and bodies, alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life during a period of immense grief, Keltner shows us how cultivating wonder in our everyday life leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. The book includes intensely moving, deeply personal stories of awe from people all over the world-doctors and veterans, environmentalists and poets, indigenous scholars and hospice workers, ministers and midwives. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights, Awe is our field guide for how to uncover everyday wonder as a vital force within our lives.
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I just don't understand why we need an entire book to tell us about our own personal reason for experiencing awe. I felt as if most of the first half of the book was dedicated to tales about what caused others to experience awe. But seriously, when he stated that he experienced awe after crying over a song that made him sad, that just made me shake my head. And that seemed to make him more sad than the entire tale he told of his brother taking pills to end his life (was it assisted suicide?).
Some parts were too technical, with references to things I didn't know, but the author believes we already know. He may be an expert in his field, but not in writing a book.
Again, I just don't understand why we need an entire book to explain what makes us go Awe! I would think most people already know.