The Power of Awe: The Key to a Healthier and Happier You with Dr. Michael Amster

The more people microdose these moments of awe, the more benefit they had. In our research studies, there's a correlation between the dose response you can't overdose. I know you used the word overdose earlier overdosed on awe, but really you can't. Really, an overdose is associated with harm harming ourselves. But the sky's the limit when it comes to dosing on awe and it's beautiful on how it changes our physiology. It's not just psychological, but physiological. It has profound impacts on our health. Hello friends.

Welcome to Happiness Squad. This is the podcast dedicated to helping you unlock your full potential by mastering the art and science of happiness. We bring on the best leading experts on these topics to help you unlock your true potential and live with more joy, health, love and meaning in your life. Your host is no other than a star combo of Ashish Kothari and Anil Ramjiani who are both on a mission to provide you with an unfair advantage to be the masters of your experience and leaders in your industry. Get ready to be moved, challenged and enlightened on this podcast. It may change your life. Thanks for being here and joining the squad.

Hey Happiness Squad. It's great to have you with Ashish and I as we discuss with our guests who are industry leaders and experts helping individuals and organizations unlock better their best selves and flourishing. Have you ever experienced an orgasm? Get ready because by the time this episode is done, you will be able to mega dose our next guest tells us more. Meet Dr. Michael Amster. He's a physician and faculty member at the Turow School of Medicine. He has over 20 years as a pain management specialist and is keenly aware of the integration of mind, body and spirit and the effects of physical and psychospiritual pain on health and well being. He's the co author of the Power of Awe. Michael is a firm believer in and has conducted extensive research in this space. Being in awe can be powerful to both your mind and your body. And now the AWE method provides a shortcut to all these benefits and is accessible to anyone, anywhere. Michael is on a beautiful mission to share his power with as many people as possible. Stay tuned till the end because his greater call to action will blow your mind away in a world that needs more awe. The interconnectedness he shares is an orgasm in itself. We strongly recommend you pick up his book and learn more. Let's harp for happiness together. Please join Ashish and I as we welcome Michael to the Happiness Squad.

Hi Michael, it is so lovely to have you with Anil and I on our Happiness Squad podcast.

Thank you, Ashish and Anil, it's really an honor to be here. I'm a fan of the work you're doing and spreading happiness out there in the world. And we're talking today about awe. And I'm really in awe of the two of you because you guys have awe in your names. Yeah, Ashish and Anil. So we are going to rock on the ah today.

We are rocking on the ah and you've got Anster. So there's the, you know, between the ah and the am, we complete the om. Right. The beautiful world of union and the magic word.

Yeah, all good things coming.

Three.

Yeah, for sure. I'm really thrilled to be here. Thank you.

So, Michael, we always like to start this podcast, right, which is all about truly helping people unlock their full potential by really integrating the science of happiness. For us, happiness is not what we're solving for. Happiness is the means by which we help people unlock their fullest potential, live their best lives. And we always start with this question, Michael, which is what is happiness for you and how has that definition changed for you from your younger years?

Yeah, thanks for asking that question. You know, Ashish, I read about your biography and your profile and I think you and I have a very similar background. You know, we're both obviously quite high achievers. I'm a medical doctor and wanted to be a physician since I was a little kid and really pushed myself hard. And I think when I was younger, reflecting on this, my happiness was based upon my successes for sure. You know, academically as well as those peak performances of life where, you know, maybe you went on an awesome hike or an incredible concert and I felt that all the stars aligned and then those experiences would bring me happiness. And over the years, and I know you can relate to this with the experience of having some anxiety and how we manage stress in our professional careers. I suffered from anxiety as well and had panic attacks taking exams. And that was really the doorway for me of developing a mindfulness practice and attended my first Buddhist meditation retreat, which really has brought me to where I am today of having a 30 year spiritual practice and discovering that happiness, I believe at this point is really based upon, you know, two big factors for me in my life and, and this ties in my book as well on awe. So I, I think that my happiness is based upon one is living in this state of wonder and awe and seeing the beauty in everything in the ordinary times of my life. So instead of needing to find the happiness in those, those incredible peak Experiences of, let's say, hiking up to a plateau or seeing an incredible sunset at the ocean. I can find profound happiness in the simplicity of just walking down to the park with my dog and looking and appreciating the beauty around me. And then second is gratitude. I know this is part of your model as well, is that when I live my life in awe and I see the beauty around me, and when I live my life in gratitude and I see what I'm grateful for and appreciative of on a daily basis and, and sometimes many times a day, these microdoses of gratitude, these microdoses of awe are what really create happiness for me.

I love those, Michael. And as I was mentioning to you earlier, you know, I was reading your pause or rereading your book again this morning last night. Sorry. And you know, I was reminded and I was. I was literally smiling from ear to ear, believe it or not, at like 10 o' clock in the night. Because you started the book with one of my favorite quotes. I talk about that every time, which is we can live as if life has no miracles. It's filled with the whole life is miracle. Right. And these notions of micro doses of awe. I love, love, love that. And we're gonna get into that a bit for our listeners here. But, you know, I have these moments, as you said, it's the little things and mindfulness. It's interesting that you started from the door of mindfulness, because I actually do think if you're not mindful, those mundane, those activities, most of our life can go off as real mundane activities. But hidden in every one of those moments are amazing moments of awe. Right. Like, even if you're at a. I was at the Whole Foods yesterday, Michael, and I was looking and just seeing the color and the bounty that earth gives us in terms of the different kinds of fruits and the shapes and the colors. And we never take a moment and just reflect on that, you know, like, oh, my God, like, we had nothing to do with this. I mean, this is nature's produce.

Yeah, exactly. And even when life doesn't go as we had hoped or planned, we can still find that awe and wonder. And for example, I broke my toe last week while on vacation in Kauai. And I've been really in awe of my body's healing and watching the bruising and the swelling and knowing that all these immune factors and cellular repair mechanisms are there healing the bone, even though I'm in pain. And it's not what I wanted to start my summer with, a Broken toe. But it's really. Even these challenging times in life can be sources of awe.

Absolutely.

And actually that can take us back to remembering how important it is to access that awe and wonder and gratitude in these challenging times of our lives, as well as the easy times.

Oh, my God. And reminders. Right. Like, you know, you mentioned, I talk about this, too, which is, you know, gratitude. You mentioned that your toe was hurting, which means the toe actually had a foot that it was attached to, which was attached to a leg. You know, how many people have lost their limbs, you know, in the war or in other accidents? So even to your point, I think you're so spot on. And there is so much power in that, Michael, in that mindset and kind of this hardwiring ourself, that even in our. Even when we face obstacles, even when we suffer, when we struggle, one, we can find something to be grateful for. And two, in that moment of gratefulness, truly give ourselves a microdose of awe. Right. Which is all your book, which is what your book is about, and I would love to get into it. Anil, I think you've got a question for Michael around that I didn't microdose on awe last night. I majorly overdosed on awe last night. So I am really excited today.

No, I. I totally agree. I mean, you know, a couple things I also want to share.

I think.

One is for those of you that haven't list, haven't read or listened to the book, the Book of Joy. You know, the Dalai Lama says in there, even when you can find joy and suffering, there is beauty in that. And as I hear you both talk, even what you just mentioned, Michael, breaking your toe, finding the beauty in that. You know, Ashish, you and I have had conversations where we're almost wired for fear. You know, I burned the bottom of my foot on the beach the other day, and I looked at it, I was like, oh, that looks painful and it's sore. And I actually was, like, looking at kind of the downside of it. But when you just said what you just said, both of you, one, about the beauty of how the body can heal itself, and second, hey, it's attached to a foot that's attached to my leg that allows me to run. I mean, it's just these little simple things that we should reframe and rewire that it is awe. It is beautiful, it is powerful, and all it takes is that simple thought, but just reminding ourselves over and over, you know, in a healthy way. And I think that that does lead me to wanting to know more about. And I'll be honest, Michael, I've not read your book. I'm keen to. Ashish, you've sold me on it, so I'm actually going to pick it up. But maybe for our listeners that also haven't read it yet, could you maybe give us an overview of the AWE method and the core principles? I believe it's attention, wait, exhale and expand.

Yeah. So our book, the Power of Awe is a book that we wrote based upon our research that we've done at the University of California at Berkeley at the Greater Good Science center, and my colleague and co author Jake Eagle, who's a psychotherapist and I created the AWE method. And I'm sure I'll share a bit later about the story of how we came about with discovering this method. But at the height of the pandemic, we wanted to help people that were really struggling with anxiety and depression and loneliness and burnout and other chronic health symptoms related to sheltering in place and all the stress at the time. And so we came up with this very simple, quick three step process to access moments of awe in the ordinary. And so we actually used the word awe A W E. And we created an acronym from that word and it's the three steps, which as you said, anil, it begins with attention. And so what I'll do is I'll just talk people through what the three steps are and then I can guide everyone on an experience. And I'm also always mindful. I listen to most of my podcasts while driving in the car, so I want to make sure people, you know, don't have too much of a profound awe moment. We call the extreme level of awe and orgasm, where, you know, your whole body, you know, might tingle and chill and you feel a discharge of energy in your, in your body. And it sounds like yesterday Ashish had some orgasms at the Whole Foods. So. Yes. Yeah, yeah, maybe people were looking at you like, wow, this guy is, he's, he's pretty high on, on the, the produce today.

You are in Boulder, right, Ashish? So I am Boulder.

Yeah. It definitely is a normal thing in Boulder to have, you know, these orgasms at the Whole Foods for sure. And I live in Santa Cruz, so I think I'm at the Boulder on the west coast. I definitely have some awe moments going to the farmers markets here as well. And so, yeah, I'll walk through the main method and then we'll kind of go through it as an experience. So A stands for attention and so what we're asking you to do is to bring your full undivided attention to something that you value, appreciate and find amazing. So right now, as you're listening, just look in front of you, what's around you. So I know that Ashish you're in looks like your home office and maybe Anil as well. And I mean wherever you are, if you're in your car, you can look around you and find something of beauty, something that you value, appreciate. And when we begin the practice, we're just going to bring our full undivided attention to that one thing and letting go of anything else. So we're bringing intentionality to that practice and full focus and attention. And then the W stands for weight and the weight is a pause. And in that moment of pausing, and it really is just the cycle of a breath or two, we're really gifting ourselves a moment. You know, we're so busy these days and our hyper connected wired world, we're always distracted. And you know, when somebody waits and they open a door for you, maybe you know, going into a car or going through a doorway, it feels so good when someone care takes you and is waiting for you. And so we're waiting for ourselves. You know, how often do we pause and give ourselves a moment of pure presence and an awareness. And so this is what we're doing in that, that wait. And then the E stands for two things we're going to take on the sort of the final breath. We're taking a longer exhale out. And when we take that longer exhale, we're stimulating our vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is attached at the bottom of our diaphragm. It's the master computer of the autonomic nervous system, the part of our nervous system that regulates our blood pressure, heart rate, all these processes without us having to think about it. And the parasympathetic part attached to the vagus is the healing resting repair state opposite that of the fight flight freeze of the sympathetic. And so when we take that nice long exhale out and you can do that right now with me, you almost like taking a long sigh, you automatically feel more present and rested and aware and calm and peaceful. And then the E also stands for an expansion. And when we have a moment of awe, if you think back to some extraordinary awe moment you've had in your life, maybe you've been blessed to go to the Grand Canyon or go to Yosemite or you've seen a beautiful sunset, you've witnessed the birth of a Child, you've maybe attended the passing of someone and seen their last breath. There's an experience in which these awe moments expand our sense of self. We feel connected to the vastness of life, to the universe, to God, whatever words you want to use. And so we are intentionally having a moment of expansion when we have these moments of awe. So we're so for me, it's like letting the experience fill me up, it expands within me. So like for Ashish, yesterday at the Whole Foods, you know, you're, you're letting those cucumbers and eggplants and peaches, they're just getting really big and filling you up with a lot of excitement and, you know, and awe. So that's the three step process. So we'll just talk through it now in that 15, 22nd practice. So right now, again, just invite you to find something that you value, appreciate and find amazing and just really hold that fully in your awareness. Letting go of any other thoughts and just waiting with a few cycles of a breath and then another nice inhale in and a longer exhale out and that expansion of energy, letting it really fill you up and even getting bigger than yourself. And then maybe you can reflect for just a moment how you feel right now. Noticing a shift in your physiology and your awareness and your sense of self.

Yeah.

How was that for you guys?

Incredibly relaxing. It was, I mean, I'm going to say it was simple yet powerful. I mean, I'm not sure if my voice illustrates it, but I mean, I'm used to. In one of our practices under self awareness, Ashish says step two is to pause. Right. And that's a great way to breathe and reflect and just give your body a moment, your language, your mind moment. And the way you helped me channel that just now, Michael, was, was just, was beautiful because I'm looking at outside a skyscraper into some potted plants and just the colors and just, it just, it felt incredibly relaxing. And I'm smiling, you know, and it's just, it's. I have to say again, my mind is clear and I've. Yeah, I feel, I feel amazing.

Yeah. You know, for me, Michael, you know, I loved it. It's, you know, I've sat beneath. I wish I could show you. I don't have my other camera, but my office literally is next to this magnificent, glorious fir tree. And we've had more rain this year than the last 50 years in Colorado. And so it is even more kind of, if you will, you know, there's so many green new shoots, if you will. And I always, you know, work here, so I'm literally sitting underneath it. Oftentimes will I'll work outside and just, you know, this moment of connecting with the beauty of it in all its imperfections. You know, a tree with. It's an old tree, right? So you have branches that have fallen off in the wind and like in storms, but. And it's also a house to so many birds because I can see them. We have a little bird feeder. So I was connecting with that around that tree and how filled with life it is and how big of a part it's playing and really feeling when you, especially for me, the expand part of it. In that moment, I truly felt connected in a way that I've always been amazed. I'm grateful for the tree, I love the tree, I see the birds. But that moment of expansion in particular, I hadn't connected it earlier, but really allowed me to almost feel one oneness very energetically with that tree, which also brought a lot of stability and calmness because of the nature of that tree. So thank you for that gift of.

Awe and thank you for sharing about that. And one thing I wanted to share with the listeners is that awe is contagious. And just you sharing the awe that you had right now, it gifted me with a moment of awe. And I was witnessing anil really enjoying what you were sharing, Ashish, and vice versa. And when we share awe with others, we gift them with awe, the listener. So that in itself is a wonderful practice of just sharing awe with each other. And that's something I do in my medical practice is I often begin my patient care visits asking my patient about a moment of awe they've had recently in their life. And it's such a great way to begin an interaction with somebody or even.

Personally, I love it and I'm going to integrate it. We have at Happiness Squad, Michael, we've built a program, it's a 12 month program around helping people unlock their full potential by really building habits. So we've got micro practices that are five minutes or less that people can integrate into their lives. And one of the practices we have is around micro breaks, you know, and I kind of created that practice inspired actually by a conversation I was having with one of my clients who said, ashish, I would love to be mindful, but my mind is too full of problems, I don't have time. And I was like, well, let's create something that is five minutes or less that increases your chances of doing it. And then we broke it down even further. Michael to say let's not do a five minute practice, let's do a practice of one minute five times. So I actually am going to integrate that one minute. Not in that minute, you've basically taken it even shorter to 5 to 15 seconds. But imagine in that micro break, if we now connect in addition to allowing our parasympathetic to catch up to our sympathetic through the pause in the breath. But if we actually then gave ourselves a micro dose of awe by actually bringing to attention something that truly we value. I love that. I think that bundling effect will be amazing and I think it will create, it'll further increase and shorten the time it takes to create a habit because you're giving yourself a dopamine hit by truly really connecting with what you already have versus chasing the next high.

Yeah, I love what you're saying, and this is actually what we found in our research studies is that the more people microdose these moments of awe, the more benefit they had. In our research studies there is a very, there's a correlation between the dose response and there's, there's, you can't overdose. I know you, you used the word overdose earlier. Overdose on awe. But really, you know, you can't really over an overdose is associated with harm. Harming ourselves. But you can, you can. The sky's the limit when it comes to dosing on awe. And it's beautiful on how it changes our physiology. It's not just psychological but physiological. It has profound impacts on our health.

I think you're spot on. And I'm actually going to restate. I'm going to restate what I said. I should have said I didn't overdose, but I mega dosed. I love it was the big, the Big Gulp. That was my big gulp of all right, don't drink Big gulp of coke. But I think you can have a big Gulp of Big Gulp of all.

Exactly. I love it.

Just, just if you, if you mind me, help me out here. So Ashish, you worked with your client to come up with that approach. Michael, you've just walked us through this practice. Like you said, Ashish, under 15 seconds, 20 seconds. I'm sure there are people, our listeners that are probably like a little cynical going, okay, hang on a second, guys. Like I, I don't, I don't think this is really possible. I think that maybe this is just taking that deep breath that had that effect. And I know you talked about the vagus nerve being triggered right on the diaphragm, but maybe just help our listeners who may just say to all of us, I don't know if I really agree with having this type of practice. Things like this aren't possible in these few seconds. Just from your experience, Michael and I just like how do you know or how can people know that this truly can over time help them unlock that better part of themselves.

Yeah. So we conducted original research as I stated, at UC Berkeley at the Greater Good Science center. And prior to our research a lot of the awe research was on looking at extraordinary awe, the kind of the awe you experience when you go to the Grand Canyon or witness these profound experiences. And what was unique is that we were able to in a sense bottle up almost as a medication and teach patients how to microdose throughout the day and to deliver this in clinical research studies. What we did was we had enrolled about 300 primary care patients. The study commenced in June of 2020. So right at the height of the pandemic, these George Floyd riots were also going on. So there's a ton of stress going on in the country. People are sheltering in place, there are race riots. It was a really difficult time. And we, you know, over half the country was struggling with depression, anxiety, a lot of loneliness. So what we did was we taught this awe method in a 21 day program. There was four Zoom sessions that were an hour each and we did, you know, pre post metrics as well as daily diaries and reporting by the participants. Our second study we actually enrolled approximately 200 doctors and nurses looking at, you know, burnout and the, those those that were on the front lines, managing Covid and trying give them some help at that time. And our results really speak for themselves. I mean it's really quite awesome. What we found, for example we saw and one of our papers just got published last week in one of the nature journals called Scientific Reports which if the reader searched my name in the Journal of Scientific Reports, you can read it the original research. But we talk about all this research in our book the Power of Awe. But for example, we saw a 35% reduction in both cohorts of depression which if you think about it, we ask people just to practice one minute a day, three times a day, these 20 seconds of awe. And we know that these moments of awe, we can talk about this later, but what it actually does to our physiology is profound. It's not just psychological, but our physiology, our cells cellular level. There is a change that happens when we have moments of awe in our life. We are wired as humans through our evolution. That awe is perhaps one of the most positive. Sorry, the most powerful of all positive emotions for our health.

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And it's about. And it's about rather than accidentally finding ourselves in moments of awe. Because that happens too, right? I still remember so vividly, Michael, 23 years ago, the first time I found myself at the rim of the Grand Canyon. You know, talk about an orgasm moment. Like I was just literally I was reminded of the magnificent, you know, like how small and insignificant to some extent our lives are. Even though in our minds we are the most important thing in the world. And both in terms of the scale of what I was seeing, but also the duration in time of how long it's been created and the beauty on all levels of it. I was like, oh my God. But that happens to us accidentally. And I think what I've loved about your work and about your research is you've taken it from those events, those experiences that you go do to things that you can do in the here and now. Every moment we can actually experience it and for our listeners. Michael, you didn't mention it, but I will. You partnered with one of my favorite researchers, Ducker, at tjse. Right. Who spent his whole life, he's the most preeminent researcher on awe and the power of awe. But a lot of that work is around external. And so to be able to bring that into the context of how people can integrate them into the day to day. I've loved that and I've loved the science And I invite anybody who kind of says, yeah, yeah, yeah, but does it really work? Pick up a copy of the book the Power of Awe that Michael published and you'll see enough research. If you're a research nerd like me, there is enough research. But then put that aside and just, you know, Tal Bin Shahar says this. Michael's done all the research, but in addition to the research, he's also done a lot of the research. So go do your own research. Give yourself a micro dose of awe and see what shifts for you.

Exactly. I, I would advise. Yeah. Any skeptic, but even a listener who's, who's into this, and they want to develop a practice to build what we call your awe muscle. A 21 day program is what we did in our research studies. And we know from a focused practice of 21 days, you do begin to rewire your brain. Instead of it being a temporary trait, it becomes a state. Sorry, a temporary state. It becomes a trait of who you are as a person. And what's beautiful is that over time you will begin to have what I call spontaneous moments of awe. So I like what you said, Ashish, that this practice is, we're bringing intention. We're calling in these moments of awe by choice. But then over time, what happens is you're just out there living your life, and all throughout your day, all these ordinary moments are going to turn into moments of awe. You'll start to see miracles and wonder and beauty in ways that you never saw possible. Yeah, I mean, I was just. My moment of AWA leading you to the practice was looking at these scissors I have on my desk and just being in awe of what scissors bring to our productivity in our lives as humans. I do surgeries and so how important scissors are in the surgical arena, but just totally in awe of the design and the power behind them. So it's everywhere around us that we can tap into a moment of awe. It's. It's endless, really.

Do you know, Michael, I think that that was brilliant. I really appreciate you sharing that. I think what I'd love to know is, and our listeners are probably thinking the same is like, this is a powerful gift that you've just given all of us. And you shared today the book you've written, the research you've done, the time you've taken, what inspired you and your colleague to actually develop this method, and how can we understand how maybe it's affected you or your family or someone near and dear to you personally in their own life?

Yeah, well, it's so neat. I love the parallels of the conversations we all are having. So very similar to what Ashish just shared about having that client, about wanting to have a very concise mindfulness practice that basically you can take on the go anywhere. That's the exact conversation I had with my colleague Jake about four years ago. He's been leading mindfulness spiritual retreats for his community called liveconscious.com for over 20 years. I've been a mindfulness teacher, trained in traditional Buddhism in a multi year program. I led a Buddha sangha. I've taught mindfulness to patients in an MBSR format. And it was the same challenge we were always facing. People saying, I don't have time to practice, my life is too busy. I've tried this. It's so hard. It's actually making my, my symptoms worse or more anxious because I can't do it. And so we decided to discover what was the root essence, exactly what you were talking about, Ashish. Like if there was this one core practice, what could that be? To take people.

Simple, easy, small, that we can fit into our lives.

Yeah. And that gives people a profound reset of their nervous system. I think of it as we talk about this in our book. Our first line is that we were almost embarrassed that we stumbled upon a shortcut to transcendence. And so we set out to find a practice that would give people a taste of what the Buddha calls nirvana. It's that state of pure presence, of peace, of awareness, of a sense of timelessness expanding and that oneness, the non duality that you know, we seek in these spiritual practices. And it was pretty clear to us that it was like, oh yeah, there's something about awe that a moment of awe is that that fleeting experience of a transcendent state. And it was when I flew out to visit Jake, he lives in Hawaii. We spent a week exploring, like how are we going to just, you know, you know, discovering what this methodology would be and playing around and experimenting. And Hawaii is filled with a lot of extraordinary awe for anyone who's ever been there with the beautiful mountains and the colors, the food, the plants, everything. It's just so much awe. But it was actually in this moment of making pancakes one morning for Jake and Hannah where I poured the batter and I just stood there and watched these pancakes go from a liquid to solid. And I know baked pancakes for my kid and hundreds of pancakes in my lifetime, but never actually stood there, just watched the pancakes cook. I was always off doing something else. Multitasking. Like we all Do. And, and it was. I had an orgasm just being present with those pancakes, going from liquid to solid. And it was in that moment, it's like, oh, this is it. This is the practice. It's all about finding the awe in the ordinary. We don't have to go anywhere out of our homes to find awe. We don't have to. We can be in a hospital bed and, you know, recovering from an illness and find awe in the hospital. It's all around us, no matter where we are. We can be at a red light in her car, waiting. And there's awe. And that's the beauty of this practice, is that it can be done anytime, any place. And it's effortless, which is, which is so amazing. And there's a reward, you know, that's the reward.

Exactly. Right away.

Yeah, right. There's an immediate reward. You feel good when you have a moment of awe. And that was always the challenge with more traditional mindfulness practices was people finding the reward was it could take years of practice before you might feel like you're actually benefiting and having a reward.

And that's the idea, right, Michael, Isn't it? And that's behind the happiness program that we've created, which is, you know, I will for sure not go and say no. You can actually have these amazing changes in your brain that long standing meditators that meditate a lot have, right? Or you'll build a meditative practice 15 seconds at a time, a minute at a time. That's not what you're saying and that's not what we're saying. What we're saying is, but these moments that we can actually do are pathways that allow us to build habits. Because if we are successful, we'll do it more and more and more. And that's how with repetition, we form neural patterns and increase. You know, you tell somebody, go do a 15 minute meditation, they'll probably do it for three days. They'll hate the three days because they're constantly the first. Anybody who starts meditating goes, I don't know, I'm doing it right. And I judge my myself because my mind is all over. That's the nature of the mind. But I love about this is anybody can find awe in five to 15 seconds. And by the way, for those, I just want to add a little bit, Michael, to what you highlighted here because there will be a lot of people who'll say, what's so awesomeness about making pancakes? Right? Why, Michael, did you experience all? And you know, for me, I'm like, this is true about everything in our life. And that's what's amazing about these moments. If we start to tune to them, that pancake batter, all the people who are involved, right. Hundreds of thousands of people who were probably involved in you in that moment to be able to make that pancake, from the people who planted the grain to the people who milled it, the people who kind of actually created it and was bought by whoever the company was that made the pancake mix, to the retailers who sold it, to all the people who transported it magically. Then in your moment, in that moment, right, to be able to make that, cook it at home. Like, I mean, we take all of this miracles for granted, all of these interconnections. We don't think about how many things had to go right in that moment for you to be able to make that pancake.

But I think that's what's fascinating about this, though, is I don't think we ever pause. I mean, I'm gonna go back to that. Right, right.

We just.

It's all about go, go, go. Like you ask anyone. Hey, do you have a few minutes to. No, I'm sorry, I'm too busy. I've got to. And it's like, hang on a second. We're talking 15, 20, 30 seconds. And not only pausing, but just being in that moment. Ashish, to your point, just thinking about all those interconnected pieces, starting from that pancake, that's getting solid, to the people, the flour, the farmers, the, you know, the transport, the shopping, whoever put that packet onto the shelf, like, just everything that's involved, just that moment. I mean, it's another way of expressing gratitude because all those pieces came into play so you could have that beautiful pancake. Just take that 30 seconds and not feel like you have to rush through life and miss that. All it takes is that initial pause.

So, Michael, where can listeners find more information about you, this amazing work you're doing? Connect with you online? Just share with us, because I'm sure you're gonna have lots of people who are gonna be trying to find awe in these moments, as they should. It's a big gift to the world.

Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. So you can find us on our website, thepowerofaw.com we're also on Instagram and on Facebook with the same the Power of Awe. On our website, we have extended practices of awe. So in our book, actually, we have 30 of them that people really enjoy reading and learning about, and we have a taste of those on our website. We have a free awe meditation and ebook as well that's downloadable so feel free to reach out to me. Also, my email is michael@thepowerofaw.com I love hearing from people who have any questions or inspirations or stories you want to share. And one neat thing we also have on our website is what we call a moment of awe page. And I shared earlier about how awe is contagious. Well, we have on our website a place where you can post your moment of awe or you can read other people's moments of awe. So it's really inspiring when you, you know, you see what inspires people that you can post a photograph or share a story. And it's a really beautiful way to connect with people all around the world that are, you know, growing their awe muscle and sharing awe with each other. I know we don't have time to share more about the book today, but I will just kind of close with. You know, we did talk a lot today about the personal benefits of practicing awe, but really we see this as a bigger call to action because awe changes communities and it will change the world. You know, if you live in awe and you see the miracles and the beauty of everything around us and the sacredness, you know, how can you kill somebody or hate somebody because of the color of their skin or because they speak a different language or they have a different word for God? You can't, because when you're in awe, you feel connected to everything and you love everything around you. And the emotion of awe makes us more open minded and more curious of the world around us. And likewise, we can't destroy the planet. When you're in awe of the natural world, you want to protect it, you love it, you care for it. And so more than ever we see this as a calling. It's not the solution for all of our global problems, but it definitely is one piece that we have lost this gift that we have been created to experience awe as the most powerful of all positive emotions. And so just really excite myself to share this with everyone and hope that people reach out if they need any support in developing their own personal awe practice.

We'll have you back, Michael. By the way, believe it or not, we are such kindred spirits. One of my, I get this question back all the time. People ask me how are you? And literally my response, nil is he's awesome. That is literally my like, it is awesome because I live in awe of like, you know, the amazing things that are all around it. And I love it. Something which Is so present for you, is, you know, you're transparent to it. I love it. I love what you just shared. Because when we are in awe, we are interconnected. We fundamentally are connected. How can you right to everything else? And it might not be the full solve, but it's definitely the step that we can take. By the way, it's 100% in your control. Oftentimes the other thing we are experiencing in the world right now is people feel, well, I can't make a difference. Yes, you can. You can start right now. 15 seconds. If you start to wire for awe, you will give energy out and your actions will change. Right? That will start to make a difference. And if all of us collectively do that, that wave of ripple, that wave of awe will truly make a big difference. So I love your overall mission. I love that this is, by the way, not about don't do it just for yourself, it's fine. But I think there is a bigger thing that we can collectively do it. And I loved also I do a lot of organizational work. Michael, if it's okay with you, I would love to actually introduce this practice to my clients and say when you kick off a meeting, I have them usually start with a one minute of mindful breathing. And I just tell them, just truly arrive here. But I'm actually gonna tell them not just to truly arrive here, but find something in this context that makes you feel, oh. That you truly value connect with it. And let's see how that changes the meeting. Let's see how it changes how you interact. So thank you for that gift. It is incredibly helpful. And we're trying a new format and I'm going to have Anil lead us through it. And it's a rapid fire question format. So for our listeners, this is going to be new, but we're going to have this in all of our podcasts. And we just have a list of questions for you, Michael, that Anil will throw your way.

All right, so, Michael, it's gotta be the first thing that comes to mind. Here we go. The first question, what is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is seeking greater happiness in their life?

I would say seek awe and gratitude.

Awesome. Number two, what's the last show that you binged that brings you joy?

I'm blanking out of the name right now, but it was the really funny show I saw during the pandemic with the the rich couple that moved to upstate New York.

Oh, yes. Oh, I'm blinging on it too. Okay.

I lost everything. They're like these. These rich New York people that got stuck in New York.

It's some listener out there. Help us out. Come on. No. Okay, we're gonna. Okay. Asha should look it up while I go to the next question. Number three.

Hilarious. I laugh so much.

Oh, my gosh. I know what you're doing. Okay. Ashish is on it. Number three. All right. What is your favorite book on happiness?

The first book I got introduced to on Happiness was How we choose Happiness, and it was written by mentors of mine who I really adore. Rick Foster and Greg Hicks. They were the early authors probably over 20 years ago that wrote one of the first books on happiness.

Awesome.

I think the name of the show was Schitt's Creek.

That's the one.

Creek. Yes, that's it. Schitt's Creek. Yes.

I've only watched the first season. Okay. I'm going back to it to finish it off. Here we go.

It's really good.

Oh, man.

Oh, that's brilliant. And they won a number of awards too. All right.

Yeah.

Okay. Number four. What is an ordinary moment in your life that brings you great joy?

Spending time with my dog. And especially Frisbee with her.

Love it unconditionally.

In awe and joy with her. Her ability to do. She literally can do 360s while catching a Frisbee. She spins around and does these crazy tricks.

I remember there was a story that you'd actually shared, I think, on your site or about a moment of awe you had looking into your dog's eyes. So that. That's. That's one that did stick with me From. From an example you had shared previously. Right. And here's the last one. What is one thing that you are deeply grateful for right now?

I am deeply grateful for my daughter who is graduated from college this weekend.

Congratulations.

Yes.

Yeah. So I'm just feeling a lot of gratitude right now for her accomplishments. And all the family's coming into town this weekend, so I'm just feeling really excited about that. So a lot of gratitude for that.

Well, Michael, this was amazing. I am grateful for you. Thank you for this beautiful work, for sharing this practice with our listeners. And we'll be in touch. We'd love to help pollinate this everywhere in all the work we're doing within our community, between our program, the work I'm doing with clients. Thank you for the gift. Thank you for this amazing work that you've done. I'm blessed to have you in my life. Thank you.

Oh, thank you, guys. I feel so equally blessed and so grateful and just really thrilled I got to meet you personally today and your audience, your community. And please keep in touch. Reach out if you guys need any support in any way. I can help you all and I look forward to coming back. And I think Jake, my co author, would love to be on your podcast as well. You would just love conversations with him. So we'll make sure that happens.

Thank you.

All right, listeners, you heard it here. He's coming up next. So hey Michael, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for what you've shared with us. Ashish. Likewise. Hey from my side, big hugs and lots of love.

Take care. Bye.

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