Awe, Well-Being, and The Natural Paradigm

I’ve described the magic people feel during biomimicry workshops as experiencing their Natural Paradigm. It’s a wonderful feeling. 

Since then, I have been exploring how you can increase your well-being, or the well-being of your employees, by intentionally operating from the Natural Paradigm. 

A recent article by Richard Sima called Why it is awesome that your brain can experience awe describes how seeking awe-inspiring experiences can improve our well-being. I believe it also makes the case for why we should shift from the Conventional to the Natural Paradigm — and how to do just that.

It is clear that you cannot experience awe when you believe in a world that values scarcity and individualism, competition and greed, resistance and fear. This worldview is narrowing and paranoid, places man above Nature, and inhibits deep and meaningful connections with others.

By contrast, awe is a common experience when you believe in a world that values abundance and systems, synergies and trust, resilience and curiosity. This worldview is open and expansive, recognizes humans as a part of the beautiful system of life, and supports connections with other people as well as the non-humans with whom we share Earth. 

Wonderfully, seeking experiences of awe can also help us let go of the Conventional Paradigm and enjoy the benefits of living from our Natural Paradigm.

According to the article: 

Research has repeatedly found that experiencing something extraordinary may make us (and our worries) feel small. And not in a bad way.

By becoming less attuned to ourselves and more attuned to the rest of the world, awe helps us re-contextualize ourselves, said Paul Piff, an associate professor of psychological science at the University of California at Irvine. “It helps make you feel like there’s more going on in the world than just you. And it gives you that sense of being a part of something much bigger than yourself,” he said.

Emerging research shows that experiencing awe may make us more curious, creative and compassionate people.

Awe leads people to feel more connected with others and identify with more universal categories such as “a person” or “inhabitant of earth,” as opposed to more individualistic, limited ones.


If you’d like to experience the awe of your Natural Paradigm, I invite you to download the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which will give you tiny peeks into the “Conventional Paradigm” and the “Natural Paradigm”, and then a tiny experience of intentionally living from your Natural Paradigm.