Awestruck
How the moments that make us go “Wow!” can make lasting and positive improvements to our health, relationships, and everyday lives.
What do you feel when you gaze up at the Milky Way, see a beautiful rainbow, or stand before a mountain that seems impossibly high? Often it’s a profound sense of awe, the overwhelming feeling we experience when we encounter something vast that transcends our understanding. Awe-inspiring moments are all around us, ranging from the grand to the commonplace, and can hold a key to a happy, meaningful, and healthy life.
Awestruck serves as a guide to help you tap into the powerful, life-changing benefits of awe. Beginning with a comprehensive explanation of the emotion, Jonah Paquette introduces us to the power of awe and how it can help alleviate struggles in our modern life, including stress, social isolation, and time pressure. Continuing with over 60 practices, this book provides an accessible and tangible path to bring more wonder into your everyday life. Awestruck shows us how to reclaim space for moments of reverence and ultimately find more joy and fulfillment in our lives.
"Writing with grace and heart, Jonah Paquette brings together fascinating science and practical suggestions to help readers enjoy the benefits of awe in everyday life." —Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Resilient
"An awesome book! It will elevate your experience of day-to-day events and help live the ordinary as extraordinary." —Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD, author of Happier
"The emotional experiences of transcendence and vastness are absolutely essential to a rich and fulfilling life. Jonah Paquette teaches us why they’re so important and how to find more awe in our lives." —Tim Desmond, author of How to Stay Human in a F*cked Up World
"As our lives become more hurried and hectic, it’s so easy to get lost in all the doing and miss out on the magic of being—being in awe of so many small and huge, ordinary and extraordinary moments, sights, and experiences of life. Jonah Paquette’s book is both a call to action and an inspiring guide to help you live with more awareness, gratitude, awe, and joy." —Nataly Kogan, author of Happier Now
"An eloquent call to restore more awe and wonder to our lives, and a powerful reminder of the potential for ourselves and our species when we give ourselves over to something larger." —Christopher Willard, PsyD, author of Breathing Makes It Better
"Jonah Paquette’s wonderful book on the profound experience of awe brings together a rich blend of ‘awestruck’ stories with cutting-edge research. This book not only entertains but is also full of great insights from the new science of positive psychology." —John Arden, PhD, author of Rewire Your Brain and Mind-Brain-Gene
"Awestruck is an inspiring invitation to cultivate experiences of wonder as gateways to less stress and time pressure, and more gratitude, meaning, satisfaction, and well-being in our daily lives. The suggested practices are immediately useful; the effects are life-changing and lifelong." —Linda Graham, MFT, author of Resilience
"Jonah Paquette provides a map for us to cultivate the awe that is possible in our lives. He helps us understand it and keeps us wanting more. Awestruck is a true gift to us all." —David Kessler, author of Finding Meaning
"A clinical psychologist makes the case for why—and how—experiencing awe can improve nearly every aspect of daily life." —Shelf Awareness