Trial Report Awe reduces depressive symptoms and improves well-being in a randomized-controlled clinical trial, 2025, Lopez et al

[rvallee]

Awe intervention​

The intervention component consisted of teaching participants a simple three-step process of how to find awe in the ordinary: by paying attention to the environment in daily life, slowing down, and expanding on those awe moments. Participants were given the following instructions:

How to access moments of AWE in the ordinary

Attention: full and undivided attention on things you appreciate, value, or find amazing.

Wait: slow down, pause.

Exhale + Expand: amplify whatever sensations you are experiencing.

Participants were asked to practice finding awe at least three times a day. They were also reminded that finding awe does not require extraordinary events and can be practiced in brief moments throughout the day—less than 30 seconds, three times a day.

Literally all this does is cheapen the meaning of awe. It's like turning it into a product, commoditized, sold in bits and pieces for mindless consumption. Take it out of the freezer, microwave, then chomp on it without ever tasting the rubbery food imitation.

The exact opposite of what awe is about. It's like the problem with superpowers: if everyone is super, no one is. If someone tries to force "awe" 3 times per day, then nothing is.

Obviously this is just regular mindfulness with a different hat, which clearly is somewhere the field will have to turn to now that all the false promises of mindfulness have turned out to be just as much bunk as "power posing", The Secret and other superstitious nonsense.

 

[Hutan]

Obviously this is just regular mindfulness with a different hat, which clearly is somewhere the field will have to turn to now that all the false promises of mindfulness have turned out to be just as much bunk as "power posing"

Yes, the trick with all these therapies is to rebrand frequently, so the complaints about the previous brand don't stick.

Besides, AWE is a whole lot easier to use for an acronym than MINDFULNESS.

Attention: full and undivided attention on things you appreciate, value, or find amazing.
Wait: slow down, pause.
Exhale + Expand: amplify whatever sensations you are experiencing.

 

[Yann04]

Literally all this does is cheapen the meaning of awe. It's like turning it into a product, commoditized, sold in bits and pieces for mindless consumption. Take it out of the freezer, microwave, then chomp on it without ever tasting the rubbery food imitation.

The exact opposite of what awe is about. It's like the problem with superpowers: if everyone is super, no one is. If someone tries to force "awe" 3 times per day, then nothing is.

Obviously this is just regular mindfulness with a different hat, which clearly is somewhere the field will have to turn to now that all the false promises of mindfulness have turned out to be just as much bunk as "power posing", The Secret and other superstitious nonsense.

Is that not the system we live in? To turn everything into a product, into a profit, into power, into control.

I think we sit on the forefront of that given how the state-academia-clinical medicine has treated us, (without forgetting the insurance and wellness industry influence in this as well).

It’s like we sit in an intersection of so many overlapping forms of power and control. Some with the goal to profit, some to erase, but they have a similar end goal from our perspective.

 

[V.R.T.]

Is that not the system we live in? To turn everything into a product, into a profit, into power, into control.

I think we sit on the forefront of that given how the state-academia-clinical medicine has treated us, (without forgetting the insurance and wellness industry influence in this as well).

It’s like we sit in an intersection of so many overlapping forms of power and control. Some with the goal to profit, some to erase, but they have a similar end goal from our perspective.

Very well put. As someone who studied a lot about systems of control, capitalism etc etc, it was bizarre to find that I had still managed to be completely hoodwinked by said system, and then sort of be strapped into a front row seat to observe and be a victim of the emptiness and cruelty of the system we live in.

 

[Yann04]

Very well put. As someone who studied a lot about systems of control, capitalism etc etc, it was bizarre to find that I had still managed to be completely hoodwinked by said system, and then sort of be strapped into a front row seat to observe and be a victim of the emptiness and cruelty of the system we live in.

Oo thats so cool. I kinda wish I had taken more philosophy courses in uni. Back when I could read abstract jargon and make sense of it without crashing.

But yeah, being versed in different currents of philosophy and critique of power, are really useful tools to have in our situation. For me with having ME/CFS it really helped me realise I wasn’t insane. I was maybe just sane in an insane system.

 

[Utsikt]

You don’t really need much knowledge to analyse this, though. Just try to answer the following question, and be prepared for uncomfortable conclusions:

Who benefits from this, and how?

 

[Utsikt]

From funny images from pompous parsnips:

disappointing awe

Reminds me of the book/movie The Martian about an astronaut stranded on Mars. Maybe it was his ability to find awe in everyday happenings that saved him in the end, and not any of that science babble?