One Friday afternoon, while multitasking to the six o’clock news, I consciously made an effort to stop and watch the space shuttle Atlantis lift off. Before Awe, I would never have done this. And what happened during the final countdown scared and exhilarated me. My eyes welled up with tears, and I felt chills and the calming realization that the laborious week I had just completed was so much less significant than the moment I was experiencing in front of my television. It was totally freeing. I was in awe. I attribute this moment to what I learned while editing Awe.Finally, a book that helps me prioritize, de-stress, find security, and reacquaint me with myself—all of the things that so many self-help books that have come before Awe claim to help us do.

Neuropsychologist and bestselling author Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., contends in his signature anti-self-help style that the meaning of life is exposed to us every time we experience awe. In his book Awe, Dr. Pearsall explains that humans are hardwired to experience awe, and that awe, if experienced and interpreted correctly, can save us (literally) from a state of languishing and launch us into a much-needed state of flourishing. He’s right. I could’ve continued to languish in my Friday night multitasking mode, but because of Awe, I now have the ability to not only stop and see what’s going on around me, but possess the consciousness to recall the feelings of that awe-filled moment when I need them.

This book is filled with proof and justification using philosophy, religion, politics, sociology, neuroscience, mythology, and psychology that awe is, indeed, a primary emotion that we do not know enough about, and thus, do not know how to experience to its fullest potential.

Just as authors before him delved into the mystery of living in the moment Dr. Pearsall teaches that “the moment”—whether tragic or triumphant—is only worth living “in” if we are willing and able to be in awe of it.

I hope you enjoy Awe as much as I did and believe in its powerful message, as I do.