Welcome to happiness break, where we take a little break in the day and try practices shown to help

us cultivate things like connection, compassion, and resilience.

I'm Dacker Keltner, and this week we're tapping into an emotion that is near

and dear to my heart. Aw, the feeling we get in the presence of vast things that

challenge our understanding of the world.

As you may know, my research for the past 10 years has found that these brief moments of awe

make us feel small, humble, less stressed, more connected to other people, and kinder, even when we experience

awe by ourselves.

Aw brings out the better angels of our nature.

We can practice cultivating feelings of awe through all of our senses.

Today we're going to focus on sight and more specifically the awe of colors.

So please find a space either inside or outside

where you can take a moment and pause

and look slowly at a scene in front of you. Maybe you might step outside the front door

and look around you at the leaves of trees, the colors of clouds or the sky, or maybe stay inside wherever you are,

and look for what catches your eye in terms of captivating patterns of colors,

wherever feels comfortable for you.

Now, settle into a pattern of deep breathing, really focusing on how that pattern of

that pattern of inhalation and then exhalation relaxes your body, slows your heart rate down,

brings a bit of ease through breathing. Now cast your gaze over the space around you,

taking in what you see in the scene in front of you.

You may shift your attention to specific details of things, the color and surfaces on a table, for example, or trees if you're outside. You may also step back and just get a sense of the Gestalt or the whole scene at once in a more holistic way. Now let's start to notice the colors of everything that you see.

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