Find Your Purpose & Live a Meaningful Life Today with the #1 Happiness Expert

You want to know one of the hardest things in life? It's figuring out your purpose.

Why are you here? What are you supposed to be doing with your life? Can you create a good life and live with more meaning when the world is so overwhelming or the problems that you're facing, feel insurmountable? Is that even possible? Well, Dr. Dacker Keltner, who is the founder and director of the Greater Good Science Center is here to tell you, yes, you can live a more meaningful

“life and when your life is challenging, that's exactly the moment when you need to anchor in on”

your purpose even more. By the end of this episode, you will have answered two questions that are

proven to help you discover your purpose and you'll also understand the six common ways people

find more meaning and purpose in their lives and that's going to help you zero in on yours. You will also master a one-minute habit that reduces depression, anxiety, daily stress and will make you feel more purposeful and it's free and you can practice it tonight and even if you already have a strong sense of purpose, today's conversation is going to help you go even deeper because that's exactly what happened to me as I was talking to Dr. Keltner and if you're feeling totally lost,

you're in the exact place you need to be because what Dr. Keltner is here to share with you,

“it is easy, simple, it'll make you feel better and could be completely life-changing.”

Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. I am so glad that you're here

with me, it's an honor to spend this time together with you and if you're new or somebody shared this episode with you. I just want to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins podcast family. Today, you and I are talking all about how to find purpose and live a meaningful life, even when the world is overwhelming. Our guest today is Dr. Dacker Keltner. Dr. Keltner is one of the world's leading experts on the science of meaning and purpose and the

tools that he's about to share with you are based on over 40 years of research on how to live a meaningful life. Dr. Keltner is a distinguished professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center, one of the world's leading research center studying the science of happiness and connection. Dr. Keltner has published over 200 scientific papers written six best-selling books on the science of a meaningful life, including his most recent book,

awe, the new science of everyday wonder and how it can transform your life. Please help me welcome Dr. Dacker Keltner to the Mel Robbins podcast. Dr. Dacker Keltner, welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. Dr. Dacker Keltner, it is so good to be with you and I'm really excited for our conversation because I'm very, very familiar with your work and I use it and it's exciting to be with you because your energy is extremely grounding. I'd love to have you speak to the

person who's here with us and just share a little bit about what your extraordinary research might change in their life if they were to take it and apply it just day to day in the simplest ways.

“Yeah, I think that the central message of today, hard one by science, we have such strength inside of us,”

we have such a sense of how to make the world better, we can find beauty around us, we have a sense of calling and a way to improve the lives of people we just need to feel that and to sense that in ourselves. This is free, it's in us, it just takes a little bit of inquiry and then we just have to put it into practice a few minutes a day and it will lead you in good directions. I'm going to feel better despite the state of the world after everything you're going to do. Yeah, I mean this is a time

of crisis for a lot of people, people a lot of people are struggling, a lot of people are very tired. So, grounding in that, you know, what we're going to be talking about today is how do we find purpose, how do you find a sense of calling, no matter what you're doing, how do you find the simple beauties and people around you and all? It's the perfect thing that we all need to be talking about learning about right now, so I'm grateful that you're here. Thank you. You know, Dr. Keltner,

you founded the Greater Good Science Center. Yeah. You've been doing research for the last 25 plus years on what makes for a meaningful life purpose happiness. We're going to talk a lot about

life based on the research? I mean the science of happiness just exploded, you know, the past 30,

“40 years and I got swept up into it as a young scientist and we have learned a lot, you know,”

we've learned that money matters a little, you know, so your context matters. It's great to be in a democracy as opposed to an authoritarian culture, right? It's good to have a healthy body. But what my field psychological science is really interested in is, what can we do in our minds? You know, what can we do right now? What can we do with the people around us? And, you know, we know one thing that really matters is just little moments of joy and beauty and laughter and gratitude

and awe and love kindness. Just find those little moments, five minutes a week, where you're savoring a moment of beauty or thinking what you're grateful for. It's a time of hardship right now. There's no doubt about it. You know, I've been following data for 35, 40 years and stress is higher, younger people are struggling. It's hard to know where we find meaning in life, the climate crisis, the political crisis, et cetera. So you got to figure out a moment or two each day

where you just pause and slow down and find some peace. It might be the sunset, it might be peace of music, it might be how you journal. It might be listening to your show, find a little piece

in face of stress. And then, you know, I'm an introvert and I always struggled with the

connect to everybody. I was like, ah, you know, I like solitude, you know, but alongside moments of joy and just finding peace is just find little moments where you're connected to people. I love this new literature on micro social interactions, little bit of eye contact, saying hi to somebody, you're going to a farmer's market just a little moments where you're like, I'm part of humanity.

“So that's what I teach students, a little bit of joy, find a way to get calm and then just connect”

a little and you'll be on your way. I'm just speaking on behalf of the person who is with us, and maybe they're exhausted. Yeah. And as you just said, there's a lot of reasons to feel beaten

up by life right now, a bit resigned and sad about the state of the world or the state of your

family or your job or bank account. So if they heard you say, just find five minutes, little moment to joy or kindness or micro connection. And I can almost feel them rolling their eyes like, oh, for God's sake. Dr. Keltner, seriously, like five minutes a week is going to say, what does it do? Like when you look at the research, because I believe this. Yeah. But you also have decades of research about why these micro moments of peace can actually help you through

very challenging periods in your life. We have worked with high schoolers in really under resource high schools, you know, where it's tough. And there's not a lot of hope and they're looking at a different kind of job market. And if they feel a little bit of hope or find a little bit of awe, they enjoy their studies more. You know, we have worked with veterans who twice the rates of PTSD as the average civilian in the United States. And little moments of awe, right, reduced PTSD

32%. We work with healthcare providers. Doctors and nurses during COVID chaos, right, under-resourced, under-staffed. And we just ask them, like, find one minute right now of what's wonderful or awesome about life. And they're in a hospital, fluorescent lights, people are dying, they're working 14 hours a day. And they're like, you know, that woman who had a terminal diagnosis was so gracious and grateful to me and gave me a big hug. And that was remarkable human character,

right. So what this tells us is, this stuff is deep in us. We've lost sight of it. Our culture is making it hard to get to. So we got to take action and just find a couple of minutes

“of it each day. Why do you think it, like, booze you up so much, particularly in a moment like this?”

Because I know how resigned and discouraged people feel. Because I read it, comments online, I feel it when I look at the state of the world or the headlines, the sweerness. But why do you think this does not only give you a sense of hope, but it's a very important thing to be proactive about especially right now? When you're stressed, a part of your brain, the amygdala's activated, you're seeing threat everywhere. You're overestimating uncertainty,

cortisol, the stress hormone is pulsing through your veins. Your body is acting as if you're being chased by a big predator, right? Yeah. That's exhausting. And even if you have all the

the energy to take on the things that face you. What's amazing, Mel's, you know, these emotions of

like gratitude and beauty and practicing a bit of kindness, activate an energizing part of your nervous system. The vagus nerve which calms your body and makes you feel strong and makes you feel open. It regulates your immune system in a healthy way. It activates dopamine, right? So you get this dopamine which is like energy and purpose. You practice a little love or you give some resources. You volunteer for someone and you help them out and suddenly it's like, I feel powerful. You

“have to be like, this is who I should be. And that's why we should be practicing this stuff,”

just a few minutes a day. It doesn't cost you anything and man is a good for your body and good

for the exhaustion that's so many of us feel today. I think oftentimes you can go through extremely

challenging periods in life. We all do. Yeah. And we have words like I feel lost. I feel stuck. I feel frustrated. I feel sad. I feel heavy like the sense of despair. But when you look at the research that you've done, how would you define purposeless so that the person who's listening might be able to go, oh, that's what it is. Or, oh, that's what my daughter's dealing with. Purposeful is, you know, you have a really sharp focus mentally. Your mind is, I know the

12 things I need to do to get this task done or to help my teenager, you know, think effectively about what to do next. So you have a sharp focus. Purposelessness is really diffuse and vague, right? And your mind feels kind of unfocused. You know, and when you're feeling purposeful, you're moving forward. You've got that dopamine energy. It's kind of purposeful behavior you're feeling empowered and purposelessness is, you know, feeling listless and you don't have

a lot of energy. We feel a deep sense of purpose when we feel like the things we do

“are connected to things that are larger than the self. I remember interviewing you, me,”

Kendall, who's this chelest. I refer to the Philadelphia Symphony, one of the great chelest in a friend of mine. And I was like, man, you know, being a musician's hard, you know, make a lot of money, work all the time. It's super competitive. There was sexism in the field. And so forth, but she said, you know, every time I play my chelot, as the notes go out, I feel connected to the audience. And I feel like I'm connected to the history of music. And that's purpose, right? What I'm

doing right now is connected to something larger than the self. And when you feel purposeless, you're unaware of how you were part of a bigger story. And we need that. Dr. Kildner,

I just want to pause right there because here's what I found to be insanely helpful.

Well, because you hear the word purpose. And for decades of my life, I always thought that purpose was a thing outside of me. Yeah. And it was something to find. Yeah. And what I love about your distinction between this feeling of purposelessness versus waking up and living in a purpose full way is you just located all the power within us. Yeah. And I've never heard anybody describe it that way. Yeah. That purposeful is a way you can move through your day. Yeah. And

purposelessness is a way that you can move through not only your day on your weeks and your months and your years. Yeah. But it's very helpful to think about it that way because it somehow demystifies that there's some magical thing that is going to change all of this that's outside of me that I somehow have to find versus actually I could access being more purposeful today. And

“that might change things. Am I tracking correctly? Yeah. And it's so important and you're getting it”

exactly right and it's you know for any age person. Okay. Think about, you know, a person in the middle of their career and their nurse and they're working long hours right and they're it's exhausting. Yeah. That kind of work. High pressure. You think about a teenager facing our world today. Like what is their purpose going to be for the next generation? You think about somebody in the last quarter of their life and Amy was new skit at Yale had this idea called calling and she said

as long as you locate within you like this is who I am. This is what I want to serve in the world. Some larger thing. If you can figure that out, right, you might be a carpenter on a project or a roofer or a nurse in a hospital or a school teacher if you start to see that in yourself. For me, when I realized my purpose is to teach. I come from a long line of teachers. I didn't

this action. You'll find purpose and it gives us a lot of power in some sense in agency to find that.

Could you for the person listening give some examples of how you might flip your mindset to this moment and two day and what would be an example of flipping from feeling purposelessness to saying, okay, I know I'm tired but I'm going to be more purposeful for the rest of the day. What would that look like? Yeah, I mean, I had a very point and experience of that when I lost my younger brother. I am a hardworking person like a lot of people listening and

and had a lot of purpose and then somehow the grief kind of dislocated me and I felt just profoundly exhausted and without the sense of inspiration that he provided me and purposeless is how it felt.

“And I think that what you really need to do is you need to just kind of pause and reflect and think”

about what are the moments of purpose in this day. And for me, what was clear is I have a commitment

to orienting with kindness to other people. That's not a radical idea. Almost every great ethical tradition thinks that's where we should begin from Confucianism to the Abrahamic traditions to contemporary philosophy. It's like practice kindness, practice it. When you're walking through a city, practice it, when you're helping somebody get across a street, practice it in your daily work life. And then you know, you 30 to 40% of Americans volunteer. It's really good when you're

really exhausted to return to this great tradition of our culture. Like who can I volunteer for right now? And so those little moments, those little small steps of purposeless in this really matter.

You also mentioned calling. Do you have any guidance for us on how you can begin to find

your calling? I think this is going to be one of the central challenges of the next 40 years. It begins with like having people think about what their core strengths are. Think about what you really care about. Think about the communities you want to be with. You want to think about who you want to serve, right? As calling. And once you know, Amy with Newsgate Yale has this famous example of one of the people who's literally cleaning out bedpans in a hospital said, "This is such

vital work because I keep the place clean." And you knew he was serving people. So you start asking those questions. I think things will clarify. Could you speak directly to the person who's listening who is really struggling with trying to figure out their path in this really confusing moment in time?

“This is, in some sense, the biggest question in life is like, "What will my philosophy of life be?”

How will I find meaning?" I think you have to think about your core concerns, what you really care about in life. And really think about the ways they present opportunities in your daily living. It might be that you really love taking care of nature. And then build that into as much you can, your, your off-hours you work and so forth. People have moved out of the church and are finding spirit and a sense of higher purpose in yoga, meditation,

40% of Americans find it in nature. So you want to be thinking about what is my soul? You know, what is a higher source of meaning? I love the work on what's called the social biome. What is that? Social biome is just like, we know connection matters, but it's can be exhausting and hard and, you know, I gotta leave. Getting all these texts and you know, what do I do? And it just, it just offers some simple ways to like say high to some strangers

and strike up a conversation and make sure you got one good friend you can talk to, you know, and that that's about all you need. And so think about what your ideal social environment is. So this is a challenge of our times. It's to, in this time of crisis to like, figure out how to find meaning again. Well, it ties back to all of your research and your guidance

“telling us that you need to, or the opportunity. Yeah. Is to develop a mindset and an attitude”

about your own life for your more purposeful. Yeah. And it's very clear based on what you just shared based on all this research that it begins with an inquiry. It does. You think about 67 years ago, 90% of Americans went to church. And you go or send a dog or whatever your practices. And you would go in. And that's inquiry. You know, how do we think about these big questions about life and existence, life and death and what's divinity, et cetera. And we, in some sense, lost that. And

central question in life, your philosophy of life. There are a lot of tools out there. I can't

“package something to you and give it to you. You got to discover it. And, and then there are some great”

forms of guidance to follow to get there. You know, it's magical that you're sitting here because as we were driving over this morning, my sister in law Christine is also our chief operating officer. We were just kind of chatting about what we were doing this weekend because I live in Vermont. She lives outside of Chicago. And she was saying, I went to church and I just love going to church and she said, I love going because it just gives me a chance to step out of the busyness of life and to

sit quietly and to contemplate bigger themes and to be reminded that there is something much

larger in life than the things that are going on in my life. She said, you know, it makes me very sad that so many people have left places of worship for good reason, you know, a lot of people leave and don't have the ritual of being in contemplation and being in community and really reflecting on larger themes about life that remind you that it's not about you, that there's something bigger going on that connects us all. And I know we're going to get into the research around this,

but you do keep bringing up church. But I know that you're not bringing it up to say that you need

to go to church. You're basically saying there are places and structures that used to be

in our day-to-day life that got weeded out because of productivity and work and travel sports and, you know, disenfranchisement with what was happening in the leadership in some of these places. But we've lost something. So if you take the church or the synagogue or the mosque or the actual kind of secular nature out of it, what is it that we've lost that you want the person listening to really get purposeful about? Oh, Mel, what a wonderful summary and every now and then you're

just awestruck by an observation or in the insight and Jane Goodall who's one of my heroes, you know, that who studied the chimpanzees and fought for their protection and she really felt as Charles Darwin did that chimps had a sense of wonder and awe and she even said spirituality. She said, which is really very simply being amazed at things outside of yourself. And that's where purpose comes from, is I have this self and I'm going to navigate the world and meet my needs. But as humans and as mammals,

I am able to connect to things in a service-filled way that are outside of me, right? And we used to find that in church and that is one of the fundamental strengths and it forms of empowerment in church. And now we're adrift of that and like you said, the productivity emphasis and the emphasis on writing code as opposed to reading a novel and thinking about what does it mean to fall in love? You know,

“what do I, how do I think about life and death has really we've lost it? And I think it'll return.”

I think people are starting to wonder about that. And I don't bring up the yoga example as a silly example. It's very serious, which is it has this structure that you talked about of on with people. We're breathing together, we're quiet together, we're reflecting together, we're doing these ancient practices. And there's a lot of that that we can find in our lives. So Dr. Keltner, I can tell, especially given that you've been a professor for decades,

that you're very worried about the state of the world and you're worried in what you're seeing and what the research shows, which is, you know, when I think back I'm 57, when I think back, however many decades that I was in college, you were like a little acorn ready to crack open and that grow into a mighty oak and full of wonder and oh my gosh, and it's discouraging to hear your observation that you're not seeing that. Yeah. So what is it that you think every

20 something needs to hear? And what I really started to emphasize in my teaching,

“I teach happiness to 500 students each year is the most important thing that I want you to get”

out of this class is for you to inquire, figure out what's meaningful to you and start to develop a philosophy of living. Like, what do you care about? What's your sense of ethics? What are your core moral passions in you that you want to be alive at every step of the way in life? When you're

Those are all questions about what's a philosophy of life. We have had millennia of efforts to

teach this. This used to be the core of an education. Who are you and what do you want to give to the world? And we've lost it. I also use the word soul a lot. I'm a scientist. I couldn't measure this soul. I don't know what it is, but it's intuitive. It's like there's something sacred in me

“that is what life is about for me here on earth. And they should feel that in their youth and”

find it. And that's what I asked them to do. And then the rest is easier, right? Once you figure out, like, I love serving young kids. Then your job's going to come. You know, you'll know how to sort of volunteer things come more easily once you ask those big questions. What is your definition

of happiness? Happiness is if you feel like you're doing the things in the world that you're

supposed to do, they give you a sense of purpose. Give you the goosebumps as you're approaching the day. If you see it in other people and they're doing it with you, you tear up. Like, that's why I'm here. And within the scientific literature on happiness, we call that meaning. You know, right now, I think we're in a narrow of meaning that you've been pushing me on now. Like, hey, put aside this, you know, pleasure and ease. It's how do we really handle the exhaustion and purposelessness of

our times? And it really is finding meaning. And that's when you feel like I'm doing what I'm here on earth to do. I want to make sure, as you're listening, you're picking up on this in what Dr. Coutner's teaching us. You have not attached career, job and money to the thing that is your calling or your meaning. Yeah. Yeah. And you just gave me goosebumps. Thank you for saying that. Goose bumps are a source of awe and a recognition of what's important in an idea, a big idea

that you just floated. Yeah. You know, where there is no doubt, you know, it's harder to pay bills for young people. They're looking at affordability issues, new kinds of salary structure. We know AI now is going to hurt younger jobs, right, which is not a surprise. So it's stressful.

“No doubt. But I think we're going to be in this era and the upside AI is it could enable this,”

which is to find your calling, your purpose, what you care about and express it out there. And I think we're going to move out of this era of perfectionism that you may have seen it around you, you know, and man, it's tough and like allow young people if they want to be a struggling actress. That's a good thing. That's where their purpose is. If they want to be a carpenter, like my dad was, that's a wonderful career, right? We want to encourage all of the kinds of work

and not just the perfectionistic type work. And then to really broaden out and think about what's your service, what's your form of creativity, and see if we can cultivate that. Dr. Kalner, thank you for explaining it that way. I need to take a quick break to give our sponsors a chance to share a few words, and I also want to give you a chance to share this episode with someone in your life who really deserves the gift of Dr. Kalner's research and this perspective shift

of being more purposeful in your day-to-day life. Stay with me. We'll be right back. [Music] Welcome back at your friend Mel Robbins. Today you and I are learning from Dr. Kalner. We're hearing all about the science of all 40 years of research on meaning and purpose, and how to start living more purposefully today. I love this conversation so much Dr. Kalner. I want to just stay

right where we were. If you're feeling a lack of purpose and meaning right now, what's the first step

you can take? It begins with asking yourself questions like, "What really inspired me is a child?" And for me it was like encountering dinosaurs when I was five. I was like, "I love evolution of dinosaurs. What inspired you is a child? Who inspired you in your life?" You know, and you think

“about those people. And you know, Mel, what those questions get to is, "What's inside of you?”

What are your core strengths?" And we know from this really interesting, inspiring science and practice of virtue. It's age old. There are six or seven core strengths that we can be thinking about. Each of us is different and they speak to us in different ways. So it might be knowledge. Right? You might love crossword puzzles and, you know, studying things and learning about music or burning or the like. It might be courage. You might just find great inspiration and sort of

a sense of purpose in doing courageous things, getting out and taking chances. Kindness is just a

you know, who could use your nine years old and you could use that drive to the supermarket.

There are the justice people and they're around us, you know, and man, they will find their purpose if they get a chance to fight for what they think is fair. There's a kind of strength that's more transcendent like meditation and spirituality and just finding the questions about divinity or whatever form it takes. And one of my favorites is the creativity ties. They love humor and stand-up comedy and they're going to do spoken word or, you know, write their

short story or join the book club or whatever. And there is just like creating. And what I love

about these ideas is this isn't about your career or how you make money. This is just what you're

“going to enjoy on the weekend and what you should prioritize in your life to find a little”

bit more purpose during these times. What I love about those core strengths that you just listed off and you said knowledge, courage, kindness, justice, transcendence which to me felt like just seeking deeper connection and creativity is as you were talking Dr. Kelter and I'm glad you said this isn't like what you do for a job. I almost thought to myself, you know, if this is your core strength, it doesn't mean you're good at it. What it means is you come alive. You cannot

help but feel like yourself when you are either doing something that's creative or you get lost in some sort of poem you're reading or you are arguing with people because fairness is just something that just you just get, it's almost like this is so core to who you are that you are the only one that can block yourself from this. Yeah. Is that a fair thing to say? Yeah and you just gave

“me goosebumps because what you said it's so important, you know, this isn't about your career,”

this isn't about what you do, this isn't about how you label yourself. This is where you come alive. This may not even be the thing you do most of the time but it gives you so much meaning. Your wonderful description made me think about my own life. Personally, and I was raised by my mom, thought literature, my dad was a visual artist and I was no good at the arts, you know, and I couldn't write fiction to save my life. And even though I wanted to, but I will tell you, Mel,

like being in a museum, seeing plays, reading fiction, hearing fiction, I am most alive in the arts, creativity, right, and beauty and yet it's not how I make my living. It's not what I necessarily great at but wow, do I come alive for reasons I can't describe to you and just knowing that. It's like if I want a sense of purpose, I go see a movie, you know, if I want a sense of purpose, I will go to a play, right, and just take it in. It'll give me all this insight about life as art

does because that's something core to me that is what really matters. You also Dr. Keltner talked about two questions you were talking about, you know, whether thinking about childhood or any moment

your life were inspired. And then the second question was who are the people or the people in history

that have inspired you? As you answer those questions for yourself, and you think about your core values, what do you then do with those insights? Because it gives you data about what makes you come alive, but how do I then apply it in my life right now? Yeah, and you know, this is merging a couple of really rich literature, Mel, you know, the narrative psychology of like, we are stories, we're almost like books, we dack are as a novel in some sense. So there are these early inspirations

and people who move me, and those forms of inspiration point to like, this is what I care about. And I remember when I was on a panel with the Dalai Lama in 2003, he said, kindness is a basic state of human nature. And I was blown away. I was like, wow, that's so rich is an idea as a scientist. And it's also rich is an idea how to live life. It's like it's so basic. That's all we have to do, practice kindness. His quote, if you want others to be happy,

“practice compassion, if you want to be happy, practice compassion, that insight coming out of”

someone who inspires me, taught me a lot. And then you start to take these insights through this inquiry to use your word and like, okay, I have a free weekend. What should I do? Well, maybe I'd like to volunteer inside a prison, which I did. Maybe I should volunteer in the parks

So from the inquiry and once you get a sense of like, I care about justice, you know, well,

“this is the book I'll read, I'll read to kill a mockingbird, you know, and then I'll”

have this conversation with people. So they're just guides, they're good campuses to friendships and to volunteer work, to what we want to pursue, what we want to enjoy as a film. So they're good ways to go about the life. And I want to make sure, as you were listening to Dr. Keltner, you heard the genius of the instruction. He didn't say quit your job and pursue something else. He didn't say you need to have some 17 step morning routine. He said,

once you ask yourself these questions, when have I been inspired? Who inspires me? What is my core value here? He's instructing us to insert something that feels like that this weekend into your life. And that's how you start to remind yourself of who you are. That's how you start to reconnect with the parts of yourself that you have forgotten or that have been buried under the tattoos and the business and the headlines. It's by remembering what made you come alive and remembering

“what matters and then finding small ways where you are right now to do something. It's so important”

and you make it sound so simple. Dr. Keltner, I'd love to dig into your incredible research

around awe. What is awe and why did you decide you were going to study it and write a block busster bestseller about it? We've been talking about brief moments of really important meaning in purpose and awe is an emotion you feel when you encounter things that are most typically vast and you don't understand. You see a lightning storm or you hear you're at the YouTube concert and it's incomprehensible how music could be so powerful or you are witnessing somebody who is

giving away all their resources to a stranger, right? And you're you're awestruck, vast and mysterious. As an emotion it moves into our body and we tear up and we get goosebumps and our heart

“feels warm, right? It changes our neurophysiology and then awe really is as Jane Goodall said”

when you're amazed at things outside of yourself. You want to give to it, you want to promote it, you want to create community, it really brings out the better angels of our nature. And as I got interested in awe, I was raised by, I was raised in a kind of a wild context of the late '60s and by an artist and a literature professor and Laurel Canyon, you know, crazy times, very awe inspiring times and I was lucky enough to develop scientific tools to study it.

How do you study awe like what you do? You have people listen to music. We take people outside and they look at big trees. We have people think about someone who inspires them in a really life-altering way. We've studied people in national parks. We've studied people the great wall in China. We've had them look at big views. You know, there are other scientists who've gone to mosh pits and concerts, you know, so it's actually a pretty easy emotion to study.

We've done research and art museums, you know, and you can get people feel off. They slow down

and look at a painting in a really powerful way. And then you measured, you asked people how you feel,

you measured the brain, you measured the goose bumps, you measured activation of the vagus nerve, turns out even though people think you couldn't study it. It's actually pretty tractable and easy to study in the lab. Dr. Keltner, I am so happy that you're here. Thank you for being here with us and I just hate to do this. But I got to hit the pause button so we can give our amazing sponsors a chance to share a few words. But while you're listening to our sponsors, don't go anywhere because

a little bit later, Dr. Keltner is going to teach you this one minute habit that based on 40 years of research will reduce depression, anxiety, daily stress. It makes you feel more purposeful, it's free and you can practice it tonight. Trust me, you're going to want to know what this is. Don't go anywhere. We're going to be right back. Welcome back to Children Mel Robbins. And today, you and I are getting to learn from Dr. Keltner.

And we're talking all about how to find your purpose and live a meaningful life based on 40 years of research. Okay, Dr. Keltner, I want to stay right where we were. I'd love to have you walk me through. Okay. What is happening in my brain and body when I have a moment of awe. And I'm thinking about this because I'm taking a bucket list trip three days from now going

in the planning. And I know every time we come around a bend, I'm going to be like,

you just did part of it. And so what happens? I even feel all like I'm that crazy person and

“our family that around us. I'm like, shhh. Can you hear the Bartow? Can you hear the Bartow?”

Because they're now, you know, doing their who cooks for you? Who cooks for you? Like they're calling right now to each other. And so what is happening in you in a moment of awe? Yeah. What wonderful descriptions? So when you encounter things that are way beyond your frame of reference, like in the river and the Grand Canyon or a symphony of bird song that you hear, or sunset. Sunsets, the colors and the changing colors and time. It's only like, wow,

this is different. How I ordinarily perceive reality. It's beyond my frame of reference.

And I can't classify it. And then what happens is a part of your brain called the default mode network. Quiets down. It deactivates. And the default mode network or DMN is where the ego. And the self relevant processes take place. My checklists and my to-do list and my goals and ambitions.

“That quiets down. And that's very much akin to when people out at nature at the YouTube”

concert or wherever they feel like their ego is no longer hassling them. They feel like I'm free of my ego. So that that part of your brain deactivates. Then these regions of your nervous system, the vagus nerve, this big bundle of nerves wandering through your chest,

calms your heart rate, opens your chest, makes you feel connected to other people. That's activated.

A little bit of evidence showing oxytocin is released. This kind of like, we're all one being, you know, your immune system is functioning better. And then very importantly, you get quiet. Your mind opens and expands. You see how you, as male or attacker or listener out there, are part of larger things, right? And suddenly when you're feeling all you're like, wow, I'm part of, everybody is listening to this podcast. I'm part of these people

quietly meditating. I'm part of an ecosystem. I'm listening to bird call and bird song. And it sounds like human song and music. Wow, and part of this big thing, right? And then you have this sense of deep meaning and purpose. And that's so central to our conversation. Like, you know, when I have all out, backpacking, which, you know, which I do every summer, it's just with my daughter, Natalie and friends. And it's just so reliable. And it's like, you know,

I am the small species in a member of a big species. But we're just part of this ecosystem. You know, I'm part of the trees and the rivers and the fish I see in the rivers and the changing light of the day. I'm just part of this life, right? I'm part of life. Darwin called it endless

“forms, most beautiful is what life is. And that's transcendent, right? As that's when you're like,”

all these individual concerns I have, the stresses, the exhaustion I feel fade away. And you find something to devote yourself to. I think you just explained why I am an absolute sucker for a documentary about wildlife. I watch all the earth series and I sit there. I'm like, oh my gosh, those penguins. Yeah. Oh, look at the magic of the seals swimming through the sea kelp and you're right. You just feel connected to something outside of yourself and magical that you're

has nothing to do with your to do with yourself criticism. What, what if you found in the research Dr. Keltner in terms of how making it a habit to purposefully have moments of daily all how does that improve your health? Yeah. You know, Mel, as I was doing this work and big lab, like lots of people working on this, we're heading into the mental health crises, the loneliness epidemic, if you make Murphy had called her attention to. And I faced a lot of skeptics,

like, wait a minute. If depression's rising out of COVID, you think, oh, the answer. And we actually found, like, if you practice a minute of all day, you feel less depressed. And so what we found makes me feel bullish. And when I'm in front of a thousand doctors and giving a talk, which I do routinely to MDs and nurses and health care providers, other health care providers, I say there's nothing better if you're mind and body than a minute of all a day. And what we know

is a minute of all a day reduces depression, reduces anxiety, reduces the daily stresses, makes you feel less exhausted and more energetic. Makes you feel more connected, less lonely, more purposeful, is good for your heart, is good for your immune system, reduces inflammation in

and you watch the colors change and your body starts to feel as Emerson said, like, there's nothing

“nature cannot repair. So yeah, it's a battle cry in some sense for me, which is that we have data”

showing money gets in the way of all. You don't need any money to find this. What we need to do is just look around us, think about an opportunity for all and go get it. Dr. Kelner, can you walk us through how you do one minute of all because after you gave that long list? Yeah, I want that. And I know the person who's listening once at, so how do we do it? After we started to document these health benefits of all, we started to test it. Like can this benefit people in systematic ways? And we've

got good evidence for that. And what I tell people is really simple, which is pause, put away your

devices, open your mind, take a deep breath, and then you know, mel and our research from around the

“world, we found these eight wonders, right? That really helped us put on a practice. So find it in nature,”

right? So go outside and look at the sky. I do this with my undergrads, they're like, oh my god, look at the clouds. You know, so take a minute to look at the sky. Moral beauty, think of somebody who inspires you, right? And just feel that in your body. Think about collective movement. Is that what you're doing in your yoga studio or at a, the red socks game or at a concert? Think about a visual opportunity for all. Some people love paintings or visual patterns. Think about music. Music's one of

my favorite, you know, mel. We forget how powerful it is, how much it can give to us. So find a piece of

music that gives you some tears and just listen to it for a minute. And then a couple of the other wonders or, you know, think about ideas you care about. And really provocatively is the life cycle, just think about this cycle of life. We only have a little time here on Earth, right? It's just a fundamental truth. The people we love have this sense of cycle and just reflect on what that means to you. So I want you to help me and the person who's listening to experience awe right now.

And my team has this extraordinary bouquet of flowers. And it has been sitting next to me this entire time kind of under the table. And so I'm going to grab it and put it on the table and front of me. And then I'm going to have you walk me and the person who's with us through an experience of how we can feel. Wonderful. Oh, as a beautiful. These are stunners. Yeah. To my right is a gorgeous bouquet of flowers in this cool glass jar. And imagine jewel tones, like it's an explosion of spring. And

if you love flowers like I do, we have a tree panion and an enemy and garden roses and snap dragons and Lyanthus and Queen Anne's lace and some greens. And it's like a very English garden

“style bouquet. You're incredible. Are you ready? Yes. You're going to be a subject in an experiment?”

Yes. Let's do it. All right. For the listeners out there, I'd really encourage you to either at this moment or into the sky or if you're outside or into some trees or when you have a chance to pick a place in nature that really speaks to you. The important point is either take a moment to just take in some of the sensory experiences of nature, whatever it may be, could be flowers, it could be trees around you, a forest, the sound of rain, etc. There's all

research on this. If you are inside an office with there's no nature, pause for a moment and think of a place in nature that really means a lot to you, right? It could be a campsite that your family goes to a place you like the backpack or a garden that you may be growing things in. Most of us have that thing. So we're going to do that. And Mel, what I'm going to have you do is I'm going to have you kind of slow down and focus on this bouquet and we're going to walk through the senses and

then I'm going to ask you some all related questions. So what I like you to do and this is good for any off-practice is just to let your gaze move through the flowers, zero in on the really fine details of flowers and then move out and look at the broader patterns of the flowers.

I want you to let your gaze move around the bouquet and just look at the different colors and the use the different colors. What comes to mind when you look at the shapes of the flowers,

“smallness and the vastness and then the colors? Where does your mind go?”

Well the first thing is just how shocking it is that something so intricate and beautiful could come from what was once either a tiny bulb or a seed and the diversity of the shapes like the flat open petals of the anatomy versus the layers and layers and layers and layers of petals in these garden roses and how different that is from the teeny tiny little blue. I don't know if those are cornflowers or what they are and then the snap dragon. The snap dragon are like these

puffs of popcorn up a stem and then you look at the Queen Anne's lace and it's so crazy fine that you would almost miss the fact that it looks like a piece of lace but it's made up of these tiny little flat things that are like the size of a dime that each have another 25 tiny

little flowers on them. Incredible and so when you see them in a field they're like four or five feet tall

and that's like a white blanket but up close you realize how intricate and delicate it looks.

“You're ready for the next step? That was awesome. I think we have 12 million receptors in the”

nose that take in fragrances and tell us what things are. We navigate the world through our sense of smell. So if you can just move over and smell a few of the flowers whatever it wants you like and mail I want you to engage in a stream of consciousness like where does your mind go? Okay, you're in there. When you smell things, what comes to mind? Okay so I just smelled a rose and it just reminds me of weddings. Like there's something about the

rose smell that just is wedding wedding wedding. Okay that P&E does not have a smell. Let's go over to this one. Lyand this doesn't have much of a smell but it reminds me of cutgrass. That's a nice smell. Yes that's a cutgrass for me is a big one. What's it making you think of? My dad because he was

always outmoin long. Oh this one's really good. This rose is a different variety. It reminds me of my

grandmother. And what about your grandmother? Like just hugs, spells warm, familiar, spells like summer too. Beautiful. Yeah, scent is awesome. You know just it can transport us in time like that. All right close your eyes. Final awe prompt. You know our awe experiment here on the mill robin show. You know we have all these incredible receptors in our hands that help us understand what things are

“through touch. Just sort of move your hand over the flowers and just touch and what do they remind you of?”

What's the touch feel like to you? There's lots of different textures. It feels oh my god it reminds me of being a kid. I grew up in western Michigan and tiny town and I spent so much time laying in my front yard staring up at the sky and it reminds me of just touching grass as a kid. All right so that it's just been a couple of minutes and what we've done are three different sensory accesses if you will to awe which is you know scent and vision and then tactile contact. Nature is one

of the most powerful sources of all around the world. No matter where you are just trees and rivers and

sounds and birds song and skies and flowers and the natural world mountains etc. And I think that the key and what we do in all of our research is like pause, put things away, calm down and then take in this whole miracle in some sense of the small intricacy of the design, the vastness and then where does your mind go? You appreciate it. So as you look at the bouquet now, what comes to mind? The anomalies are insane. There's like these teeny tiny little like I don't know what the words

called of the little pedally things around the center that the bees come to and they're like purply blue and and I'm focusing on that because like the actual crazy amount of detail, the verigation on the leaves, the difference of all the petals. It's right in front of you and

for a second to just be present with a bouquet and notice all the difference you could tap into this inside and it also on a deeper level just makes me think about my parents because my

“parents are massive gardeners and my love of gardening comes from them and I think about my husband”

Chris who four years ago built me some raised flower beds boxes for Mother's Day because those damn bowls kept eating all my tulip bulbs. So you know now I go out in the garden every night and I cut flowers and I inspect what's coming up and there's so much around you that you're missing that you could slow down and drop into everywhere. Yeah and that's the lesson of all right

is there are these incredible systems that we're not aware of and once you listen to a piece of

music and then you take the time just to think about where it came from and what it means suddenly it becomes richer you know for me because I've studied so much emotional behavior and expression in the face in the voice if I just slow down and look at all the ways in which people are cooperating with each other in a daily basis. On a street corner at a daycare center you know at a university campus it just almost makes me cry and it's the same thing you're seeing

“the miracle that is always there and that's what all it's and it's in some sense it's and I love”

your parents and your grandmother's recollection because it reveals what we've been talking about which is it's part of your bigger story of life. I'm gonna move that down otherwise I'm gonna be so distracted by the flowers. I'm not gonna be able to ask you any additional questions. Dr. Kelter what is an aww walk? Humans are a walking species. We walk on our two legs, our two feet chimpanzees don't. We have meandered to all the continents on the earth.

We are a itinerant species it's just part of what we do and walking is great. They're all these great traditions of walking. There are often in spiritual traditions forms of pilgrimage where you walk and most people who are probably listening to this have a walking tradition and that's good news. It's very good for your body and your mind and so what we decided to do Mel when this was a Virginia storm is we added a little awe to your regular walk and it was exactly

like what you did with the flowers. We asked people take a walk once a week and in our control condition go out and enjoy your walk in our aww walk condition look around to the small in the vast the little bark on the tree and the full bark patterns on the tree the cloud the patterns of clouds the rain drop the full storm go from vast to small go to places that are filled with child like wonder which we've been talking about like whoa the swing sets my daughters used to swing

on et cetera and just do that you can do that anywhere go on your walk slow it down just look around you and look for small things you know vast things and then go to places where you might feel a little curiosity and wonder and what we found is in that study it made elderly people or 75 years old or old or feel less pain in their bodies and more recently we have a paper

under review showing greater brain health six years later which is amazing and what's interesting

Mel I love how your mind went on a journey with the flowers which you were like suddenly you got a bigger picture of your relationship to flowers my husband Chris and the flower beds and my clipping them each night and the holes in my grandmother and my parents suddenly you had a map

“on where to go and that's what they all walked it as well once you start doing it you start practicing”

all walks wherever you go I do all walks in the airport you know I'll be like come really tense I flight anxiety let's look at the moments of goodness here and it you can work you know I have a little twist on this okay because every time I walk I'm doing an all walk because the thing I'm purposeful about is I play a game to see if I can just see a naturally occurring heart shape oh in the vast clouds or in a oil stain in the concrete or a leaf and then when I see it

because I now always see them everywhere it's awesome I just take a moment and really kind of

saver that that was put there for me and it's killer and so now our family group chat is full of

your research and added a little twist to it that's a wonderful twist you know Dr. Keltner I see this quote floating around that the amount of good in your life depends on your ability to see it

“yeah I love Tic-Nathan this Buddhist practitioner who said so much of our life is oriented towards”

fear and of course you know there's a lot to be fearful of you know there's climate crises and

economic issues and war and and of course but that's part of the story that is always part of the

story and if you just pause and open your mind you have the chance to see the miracles of life in his words of you can smell the flowers you can hear you know young children laughing you can see the light in somebody's eyes just a little instant so that is always true and for skeptics out there this is a hard time but time and time again people who are facing the hardest times I learn this from prisoners inside prison you talk to veterans like the toughest times in combat

they return to these fundamental truths that there's also beauty and there's also awe and I think we just have to take the time like this podcast and conversation with you Mel like let's remind ourselves of these beauties because they are powerful and they're they're there to guide us you know Dr. Keltner if you had to distill everything that you shared with us today

so the most important thing for the person listening to do as soon as the episode is finished

yeah what do you think that is I hope your audience appreciates I was genetically wired to feel a lot of anxiety panic is everywhere in my mom's side of the family losing my brother really deep grief and I had to find my way through answering the question you asked and for me Eleanor Roosevelt every night when she went to bed she had this prayer where she said I want to see the simple beauties all around me and be aware of the hidden leveliness of people

that they ordinarily hide and for me that that those two words simple beauties and I believe that I believe that anywhere there are beauties in the people around you in the natural world and the music you hear and the things that bring us awe you know they wonders that we've talked about and so to me this is one of the our great strengths as a species is to be able to notice the beauty in the

glass of water or a conversation or the eyes of somebody or memories of the past and we always have

that capacity no matter where we are doesn't cost a dime you don't have to move a step and the

“simple beauties are there to access anything that's why Eleanor Roosevelt said it and it's mental”

out to me well Dr. Keltner you mean a lot to me no and I know you mean a lot to the person who's listening and your research and your work is a treasure for all of us so thank you for what you do thank you for hopping out of plane even though you're anxious about flying flying across country I've got my tricks to share all of this research and wisdom with us and I am forever a fan and grateful thank you mill I've had many goosebumps during our conversation for good reason it's been wonderful

me too and I also want to thank you thank you for taking the time to listen to something that will not only help you find awe and beauty in your day-to-day life I truly believe that if you apply everything that Dr. Keltner taught you today it will help you find your calling and a deeper sense of meaning and this one incredibly amazing life that you get to live. Alrighty in case nobody else tells

“you today as your friend I wanted to be sure to tell you that I love you and I believe in you”

and I believe in your ability to create a better life and creating a life that has a deeper sense of meaning and being more purposeful is clearly the secret to doing that so go do it. Alrighty I'll see in the very next episode. I'll welcome you in the moment you hit play. What do they call it? Stanum? What are those things called that the bees land on? Do you know what they're called them? And this is called Lyanthus. What's called something like that? I mean look at this bad boy

this is almost like giving birth. It's kind of a vlog. I don't know. We don't need to we don't need to feel finger the flowers. I'm forgetting that I'm supposed to ask you a question. Does I'm hanging you on a big word? I mean and so I forget like because I'm just so busy listening and taking it all in. I don't know. I got to ask you another question. You caught me off guard, Mel. That's okay. You're

by by seeing all the work. I mean all. That's it. Great job everybody. Oh and one more thing and no,

“this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know what the lawyers write and what I need”

to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just

your friend. I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute

“for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional.”

Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.