The eclipse was good for your health
A daily drip of awe can do wonders for the mind and body politic.
A former colleague of mine described watching the eclipse as a “brief moment of what it would be like if everyone was on half a Xanax.” For the uninitiated, he added, “It’s like a longer lasting chamomile tea.”
In other words, the total solar eclipse that crossed North America on April 8 chilled people out and warmed people up. Strangers became allies in awe as the moon passed in front of the sun, casting a metallic grey light onto the Earth. In an age of polarization, the eclipse ushered in unity. Sure, totality was just four minutes, but that collective feeling of wonder and appreciation can last longer if people nurture it. And if they do, science says awe promotes good mental health and prosocial behavior.
Awe (noun) : a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Awe “serves a vital social function,” according to a 2015 study published by the American Psychological Association. “By diminishing the emphasis on the individual self, awe may encourage people to forgo strict self-interest to improve the welfare of others. When experiencing awe, you may not, egocentrically speaking, feel like you're at the center of the world anymore,” said the study’s lead researcher Paul Piff, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine.
Piff’s team included Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkley, who published one of the first major academic studies about awe 21 years ago with psychologist Jonathan Haidt (
). Keltner has described awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world.” Religion, music, art and nature can all evoke this.I found awe in my backyard during the eclipse. I’m not much of a planner, so while friends used telescopes and drove across state lines to experience the darkness of totality, I wandered outside with a colander to watch its shadows change shape on the ground. A stranger wearing eclipse glasses passed by, and I asked if I could peek. She said she had another set and disappeared for five minutes, sacrificing precious viewing time to retrieve the spare. A gift, she said, upon return. I popped the glasses on and emailed my neighbors to tell them I’d lucked into a coveted pair. We grew into a crowd of seven.
The mood was magical. Adults became kids again, squealing as we took turns with the glasses and gasping as the temperature dropped. I hadn’t seen such widespread glee in ages. When a sports team or political party wins, there’s always a loser on the other side.
The power of awe
The eclipse temporarily cleansed the fear-mongering and division clogging America’s political pores. To make sense of it, I texted my friend Florence Williams.
Florence is the author of The Nature Fix and Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey. After a gut-wrenching divorce, she wanted to know why some people recover from setbacks easier than others. She found answers in the humbling, awe-inspiring beauty of nature.
I texted her: “What is the one thing you want people to understand about what’s possible for them individually and collectively when they seek awe?”
Florence had watched the eclipse in Bogata, Texas, where she “traded some Syrah for a Coors Light and a couple who traveled all the way from Spain to the middle of nowhere shared their telescopes and invited us to visit for the 2026 eclipse!” She said she was in a good mood the whole day, despite getting stranded in Atlanta on the way home, “usually a form of hell.”
“We are wired to seek transcendent experiences, and the yearning may have evolved precisely because it does enable us to — however briefly — lay down our individual swords and feel our collective humanity enough to work together,” Florence texted me. “I think as a species we used to experience awe frequently, mostly from the natural world, and it helped us feel good about each other and helped us feel like we all belonged. Now we need to make more of an effort, but the rewards are worth it.”
Measurable benefits
The rewards are measurable, too. A few years ago, Keltner teamed up with psychotherapist
and pain management specialist Michael Amster to study the effects of accessing awe for less than a minute. As Florence reported in Outside Magazine last year, “the study showed that awe microdosing not only helped alleviate physical pain, it also reduced symptoms of depression by 35 percent and anxiety by 21 percent. The effects were similar to those from meditation, but the practice, said Amster, was easier and more accessible.”How? Awe activates the vagus nerve, which sends signals to the brain, heart and digestive system. Keltner and affective scientist Maria Monroy note that the effects of awe can include a slowed heart rate, deepened breath and an increase in the hormone oxytocin, creating a sense of calm and connection.
Not only can awe inspire people to become more invested in the greater good, it can benefit their physical and mental health, too. If ever there was a time for this, it is now.
Before the last presidential election, 68 percent of Americans said the race was a significant source of stress in their lives. And according to a new poll, most Americans say democracy is important for American identity, yet only about 3 in 10 believe the country’s democracy is functioning well.
A daily drip of awe could help. No eclipse needed. Awe can be found in thunder, a baby laughing, the way light bounces off one’s phone onto the wall. When you catch a glimpse of awe, focus on it. Savor it like a cup of chamomile tea. Then take a deep breath and pay attention to what you feel.
It’s okay to need practice. Most of us do.
Hi, I’m Kate!
I’m a journalist and filmmaker formerly with The Washington Post, where I won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with colleagues covering the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. I also pioneered a mental health column and managed a short documentary film unit. Deeply affected by the insurrection, I realized I was addicted to a job that made me sick. In 2024, I left The Post and founded Invisible Threads to embark on an ongoing exploration of the connections between the health of our minds and our body politic. With a mission to nourish individual and collective wellbeing through a more informed, compassionate public, Invisible Threads pursues its journalistic and educational goals through film, speaking, teaching and this Substack, which features new columns, expert interviews and resources on mental health and democracy every two weeks.
What bowled me over…
The eclipse, clearly. Send me your pics! I’ll post some in the next Invisible Threads.
(Photo: Self-portrait of colander head floating above partial solar eclipse as seen from Washington, DC on April 8, 2024. Credit: Kate Woodsome/Chelsea Cole)
What I’d invite you to explore…
Stuck at Home? How to Find Awe and Beauty Indoors — A pandemic-era how-to from Michael Amstel and Jake Eagle that’s still relevant today.
To recycle your eclipse glasses — Donate to Astronomers Without Borders, drop them off at Warby Parker, share them with kids in Latin America for the October event by mailing them to Eclipse Glasses USA: P.O. Box 50571, Provo, UT 84605, or toss the lenses and recycle the cardboard frame.
Pilot study shows ketogenic diet improves severe mental illness — From Stanford Medicine News Center
A Brief History of the Future — The new PBS series hosted by futurist
dares us all to imagine a better future by delving into potential solutions to our existential threats. It’s an optimistic act of imagination produced by Drake’s creative studio DreamCrew and philanthropists Kathryn Murdoch and Wendy Schmidt.What I’d love you to do…
Please share Invisible Threads! Email it. Restack it. Post it on social. This ongoing exploration of the ties between mental health and democracy isn’t a whim. It’s my commitment to nourishing individual and collective wellbeing through a more informed, compassionate public.