Experiencing Awe Is Not Just A Positive, It's Awesome For Your Health.

I came across a great piece in HUFFPOST GOOD NEWS on the Science of Happiness - "Here Are 10 Powerful New Insights From The Science Of Happiness" - that I plan to revisit in future posts, but I thought I would start today with one I found pretty awesome. It seems that two recent studies looked at experiencing awe. One of these studies was published in the journal Emotion - Can Awe Boost Health? - and it found "that people who experience high levels of positive emotions in general had significantly lower levels in their bodies of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are proteins associated with type-2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, depression, and other health problems," and that "awe was the emotion most strongly associated with lower levels of cytokines." Which is to say, that experiencing awe is awesome for your health. Researchers define awe as "as feeling like we’re in the presence of something larger than ourselves." I'm interested in not only how you define awe for yourself, but in your sharing examples of the times you have experienced awe, and what it felt like when you did in the Comments section below. Thanks.

(Photo - https://github.com/MG-RAST/AWE)