Some weeks you move from task to task and never look up. You hit every deadline and still feel strangely flat, like you're living on the surface of your own life. The things that make you feel most like yourself, like making something, being outside, or wondering about big questions, are the first things to go.
Spirituality doesn't have to mean religion. For many people it means feeling connected to something bigger than the to-do list. One of the most practical ways back to that feeling is surprisingly simple: go looking for awe.
What awe does
Awe is the feeling you get in front of something vast or beautiful that you can't quite take in: a huge sky, a piece of music, an act of kindness. Psychologist Dacher Keltner at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center has studied it for years. He describes how awe shrinks our sense of self in a healthy way, a "small self" that puts our worries in proportion.
In one study his collaborators ran with older adults, people who took a weekly 15-minute "awe walk" for eight weeks, simply paying attention to the wonder around them, reported more positive emotions like compassion and appreciation, and less daily distress than people who took ordinary walks.
Why it matters for your creative life
Creative work needs space to wonder. When every minute is optimized, there's no room for the noticing that good ideas grow from. Awe resets your attention outward, toward curiosity and away from self-judgment, which is exactly the state you want when you sit down to make something.
How to take an awe walk
- Go somewhere a little new. A different street, a park you rarely visit.
- Leave the podcast off. Let your attention wander.
- Look for vastness and detail. The size of the sky, the pattern on a leaf, the light at a certain time of day.
- Notice how you feel afterward. Then sit down for even 20 minutes of your own work while that feeling lasts.
You don't need a retreat to feel connected again. You need fifteen minutes of paying attention.
Accountability for the things that feed your soul
The things that matter most to your inner life rarely have deadlines, so they quietly drop off the calendar first. An accountability partner can hold space for these too, not just the "productive" goals.
Try making your challenge this week something like "three awe walks and two creative sessions." When you check in with your accountability partner, share one thing you noticed. It sounds small, but saying it out loud to someone tends to make the practice stick, and it's often the most meaningful part of the conversation.
This week
Put one 15-minute awe walk on your calendar. Go without a goal except to notice. Then spend a few minutes making something, even just a sketch or a paragraph, while you still feel a little bigger than your inbox.