Article

10 Ways to Cultivate Everyday Awe

4 min read

On this page:

  1. Walk in nature.
  2. Recall awe-inspiring architecture.
  3. Discover patterns.
  4. Take in a tree.
  5. Watch the clouds.
  6. Feel a wave of emotions.
  7. Meditate on the interconnectedness of all things.
  8. Match music to your mood.
  9. Appreciate your hands.
  10. Consider vastness.

When we experience awe, we feel better. Awe decreases our daily stress, improves our social lives, and boosts overall well-being. And the more we seek awe, the more we find it.

Rather than waiting to be awestruck, seek out that feeling. Practice slowing down, looking closely, wondering, making connections, expressing gratitude and appreciation, and finding awe in your everyday life.

Art is the perfect place to start. We’ve paired each of our ten tips with a work from our collection to get you going.

These practices were developed in collaboration with Dr. Rebecca Corona and Lindsey (Lou) Deringer, M.S., of the Social Interaction Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

Walk in nature.

Four women and two children, all with pale skin, carry baskets as they walk along a beach under a brilliant blue sky in this horizontal painting. The scene is painted with visible dabs and blended strokes. The women all wear long-sleeved shirts, calf-length skirts and aprons, head coverings, and gray clogs. The group walks to our left, amid shallow pools that reflect the topaz-blue sky. At the front of the group, to our left, a young woman wears a white kerchief tied at the back of her neck, under her blond hair. She wears a navy-blue shirt and a gray skirt, and she carries a shallow, woven, straw basket against her left hip, closer to us. On her other side, a barefoot child walks beside her. The child wears a white, long-sleeved shirt tucked into tan-colored shorts and a wide-brimmed, golden yellow hat. He holds a basket at the small of his back. To our right, near the center of the composition, a pair of women walk with their heads tipped toward each other. The woman closer to us has bright, copper-blond hair under a white bonnet tied under her chin. A black shawl crosses over her white shirt, and black coverings are pulled up over the forearms of her white shirt. Her beige apron mostly obscures her crimson-red skirt. Wearing dark stockings, she is the only woman whose shins are not bare. The woman next to her, farther from us, wears a dark gray head covering and skirt, and a navy-blue shirt. The chin straps on the bonnets of both of these women flutter in the breeze. Behind that pair, to our right, and older woman also wears a black shawl and sleeve protectors over a white shirt. Her apron is aquamarine blue and she lifts it over a brown skirt. She has stopped to gaze down at the second child, standing next to her. Sunlight sets the child’s blond hair aglow as he reaches down to tug at the leg of his dark gray shorts. He wears a teal-blue, long-sleeved shirt and is also barefoot. Touches of white paint on the beach around the group makes the sand seem to shimmer. More people approach the beach from the upper right corner, where the dune leads back to a lighthouse. The structure is a hazy, slate-gray silhouette against the bright white clouds in the vivid blue sky above. The beach slopes down to our left into the distance, where sailboats and people are suggested with a few swipes of paint. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “John S. Sargent. Paris 1878.”
John Singer Sargent, En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish), 1878, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund, 1917), 2014.79.32

Prepare. You only need 15 minutes for impact. Go somewhere in nature—a yard, park, greenspace, or area with views of sky or water. Turn off your phone.

Feel. Move slowly and gently. Tap into your childlike sense of wonder. Activate all your senses, and try to see things with fresh eyes. Observe human connectedness. Consider vastness. Notice what thoughts and feelings enter your mind.

Engage. As you scan your surroundings, what captivates you?

Recall awe-inspiring architecture.

The soaring, gilded vault of a central aisle of the inside of a church fills this horizontal painting. The ceiling of the nave curves up and away from us like a tunnel. It is lined with coffers, which have inset panels, decorated with gold. The light-filled nave angles down from the top center of the composition toward the lower left as it moves away from us. The white stone pillars supporting the barrel vault are intricately carved and decorated with pudgy, winged cherubs holding portraits of men, and aisles run parallel to the central nave to our left and right. In the side aisles, pink marble columns flank altars in chapels. At the far end of the church, the nave is interrupted where it opens into the light-filled crossing, before continuing beyond. Marking the space where the long hall of the church is intersected by a shorter arm to create a cross shape is a structure made of four twisting columns supporting a pointed canopy, all cast in bronze. Tiny men and women pray or gather in pairs and small groups along the nave. Some wear tattered clothing and others are elegantly dressed.
Giovanni Paolo Panini, Interior of Saint Peter's, Rome, c. 1754, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1968.13.2

Remember. Recall a time when you were awestruck by a built environment—a building, bridge, street, or even a whole city. What about it caught your attention? Reflect on why the experience with this space resonated with you.

Imagine. Consider each person whose work went into building or making this space.

Discuss. Ask friends and family about architecture that spoke to them. What do these specific memories of awe help us learn about ourselves?

Discover patterns.

The spiraling whorls of a nearly round, pearl-white shell fills this square painting. The inner edges of the shell’s whorls are shaded with pale spring green, especially to our right, and the innermost spiral is pale pink. The outer lip, that is, the open end of the shell, faces down to our right. The shell sits against a stone-gray background and casts a shadow to our left.
Georgia O'Keeffe, Shell No. I, 1928, oil on canvas, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, © Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1987.58.7

Pause. Find a spot where you can focus on something in nature—perhaps a flower, tree, mountain, or water. Take a few deep breaths.

Notice. Look closely at patterns, small and large. Examine lines, shapes, and textures. Notice changing light, repetition, and symmetry. Appreciate the complexity and intricate beauty of the natural world.

Capture. Make a small sketch or photograph to remind yourself of this moment.

Take in a tree.

The image shows a view from beneath a canopy of tall trees, looking upward. The scene captures an intricate pattern of tree trunks and branches, rising steeply. The horizon is not visible, as the focus is mainly on the trees and the dense array of leaves filtering the light. The brushstrokes are loose and expressive, with quick, gestural marks suggesting the leaves and bark textures. The color palette is monochromatic, dominated by rich sepia tones and varying shades of brown. Light and shadow interplay nicely, adding depth and dimension to the depiction of the foliage and tree trunks.
Franz Innocenz Josef Kobell, Trees with Dense Undergrowth, 1800/1820, brush and brown ink on very light green laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.111

Go outside. Take a few deep breaths as you head outside. Find a tree that catches your attention. Stand with it.

Notice details. Take in the shape of its leaves, the lines of its trunk and branches, and the range of colors throughout its form. Notice what it sounds like in the breeze, how it feels, and how it smells.

Appreciate. Admire how the tree looks this season, compared to how it might look next season. 
 

Watch the clouds.

This horizontal painting is filled with gray and white clouds against a blue sky. Wisps of white clouds are interspersed among banks of darker gray clouds against a pale blue sky in the top half of the painting. A tower of gray clouds to the left obscure a deep red circle, which only becomes evident upon careful inspection. Rays of pale shell pink streak down from the clouds along the bottom edge of the painting.
John Constable, Cloud Study: Stormy Sunset, 1821-1822, oil on paper on canvas, Gift of Louise Mellon in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1998.20.1

Go outside. Look up at the clouds for a silent minute. Breathe.
   
Observe. Examine the sizes, shapes, and colors. Are they fluffy? Are they crisp? Are they wispy? Are they moving quickly, slowly, or seemingly not at all?
  
Behold. Contemplate their transient beauty.

Feel a wave of emotions.

Beyond several craggy boulders that loom in the lower left corner of this horizontal painting, three sailing ships pitch wildly in crashing waves beneath towering clouds. At the center, a large ship tips sharply to our right with billowing ivory sails and two red, white, and blue striped flags whipping in the wind. White spray kicks up against the side of the boat and in the waves surrounding it. The sails of the second ship, to our right, are furled except for one that crashes down onto the deck. Tiny people scurry around inside the ship, which tilts steeply up on a high wave. The third ship floats beyond this, its sails also tied up. The top of a tall wooden mast along with a broken wooden pole poke up from emerald-green waves in the lower right corner, near a barrel and two bundles wrapped in cloth and tied with rope that bob nearby. One of the brown, jagged rocks to our left nearly spans the height of the painting while others jut from the water like crooked teeth. A bank of billowing, slate-gray clouds at the center of the sky separates a fog-gray sky and puffy clouds to our right from a patch of golden sunlight to our left, in the upper corner of the canvas. The artist signed and dated the work as if written on a rock at the bottom center of the canvas, “LBackh 1667.”
Ludolf Backhuysen, Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast, 1667, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1985.29.1

Pause. Think of something that is currently bringing you stress. Now imagine that thing as a turbulent wave—swirling, churning, frothing, undulating, billowing, surging, swelling, and crashing.

Breathe. Use your breath to calm this upsetting force of nature. Breathe gently, deepening the in-breath and slowing the out-breath. With each breath, visualize the water settling, the waves losing their energy, the storm passing, and a peaceful ebb and flow returning.

Remember. Emotions are as vast as the ocean and come in waves.

Meditate on the interconnectedness of all things.

A scene with a person holding a cornucopia is set against a night sky on this wood block. The person has peachy-brown skin and long silvery hair. A piece of drapery, also silver, flows around the hips as the person holds a cornucopia angled down and to the left. Blue and green material pours or hangs out of the horn. The person is contained within a silver oval frame. Fifteen green teardrop- or sperm-shaped orbs approach the oval to the left and fourteen approach from the right. Everything described so far is shown in low relief on the wood block. A translucent star is pinned or nailed to the panel near the top left corner and a translucent, crescent moon to the top right. To either side of the person are textured triangular shapes. The form to the left is green and points up, like a mountain, and the form to the right is blue and points in, like a cresting wave. Both have ragged edges and appear to be carved and affixed with nails, the heads of which are visible. Two translucent rectangles, possibly the same material as the star and moon, lie side-by-side between the green and blue forms on the bottom edge of the block.
Betye Saar, Twilight Awakening, 1978, mixed media on printer's wood block, Gift of Francine Farr in honor of Dr. Samella Sanders Lewis, with gratitude to Scripps College, Claremont, California, 2015.27.1

Pause. Notice a human-made object. Hold or touch it.

Imagine. Consider each person whose work went into making it.

Appreciate. Take a moment to express gratitude for each person’s work.

Match music to your mood.

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.
Gerrit van Honthorst, The Concert, 1623, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund and Florian Carr Fund, 2013.38.1

Find. Select a piece of music that matches your current feeling. As you listen, notice the similarities between the music and your emotion.

Reflect. How does the music connect with or change your feeling? Does listening to it heighten or soften your current feeling?

Create. Make a playlist of music that brings you joy, a playlist that calms you, or a playlist that makes you feel confident.

Appreciate your hands.

Dorothea Lange, Maynard and Dan Dixon, 1930, printed c. 1960s, gelatin silver print, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, 2016.191.60

Pause. Take a moment to look at your hands. Breathe gently. With a pencil, slowly trace your hands on a piece of paper.

Reflect. Think about all that your hands do for you and others. Inside the contour line drawing of your hands, jot down all the things that your hands do. Take time to be grateful for the role your hands play in your life.

Connect. Make an intention to use your hands to help, comfort, or bring joy to someone else today.

Consider vastness.

We hover over the bottle-green surface of a river as it rushes toward a horseshoe-shaped waterfall that curves away from us in this horizontal landscape painting. The water is white and frothy right in front of us, where the shelf of the riverbed changes levels near the edge of the falls. Across from us, the water is also white where it falls over the edge. A thin, broken rainbow glints in the mist near the upper left corner of the painting and continues its arc farther down, between the falls. The horizon line is just over halfway up the composition. Plum-purple clouds sweep into the composition at the upper corners against a lavender-colored sky. Tiny trees and a few buildings line the shoreline to the left and right in the deep distance.
Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara, 1857, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund, 1876), 2014.79.10

Pause. Find a photo, video, or work of art with a vast perspective.

Reflect. Consider for a moment your place in nature’s vastness. Consider the even greater scale of space and time.

Imagine. How might you move about your day with a heightened awareness of your interconnectedness to something larger than yourself?
 

Awe at the National Gallery of Art

Come explore how to nurture an awe mindset.

You may also like

Article:  Mindful Drawing: Activities that Embrace Experimentation

Drawing can clear your head and focus your attention on the here and now. Draw with us—no experience required.

Shown from the chest up, an older man with pale, peachy skin, wearing a high-collared black coat and a cream-white, ruffled collar, is shown against a deep wine-red background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right and he turns his face to look at us with gray eyes under pale gray eyebrows. He has a hooked nose and jowls along his chin line. His cheeks are flushed and his lips are set in a line. His white hair flares out along the sides of his head and is tied at the nape of his neck with a ribbon loosely painted and outlined with black. His ink-black coat has silvery gray highlights along the high collar and his right shoulder, to our left. The background is painted with light brushstrokes, deepening from scarlet red around his face to black at the upper corners.

Article:  George Washington, Pictured

For centuries, artists have depicted the military general—in paint, in print, and in plaster. These portraits continue to give us insight into Washington’s emotional life, military presence, and cultural footprint.