Taking awe walks has transformed my wellbeing—here’s why a health psychologist thinks you should try them too

Walking is beneficial for both mental and physical wellbeing.

It helped me rebuild my cardiovascular fitness and lower body strength post-caesarean section, and was also an essential part of my recovery from postnatal depression.

Four years on, I was still walking every day, but it had begun to feel monotonous. This coincided with the onset of winter last year, which in Yorkshire in the U.K. can be particularly brutal—with short days, freezing temperatures and bitter winds.

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I also suffer from seasonal depression, and once the New Year festivities were over, I wondered how I would keep up my walking habit. I own a walking pad, but I find the mental benefits of walking in fresh air and the physical challenge of mixed terrain beat walking indoors.

During a visit to my local bookstore in January, I came across How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Dr Kari Leibowitz, who is a health psychologist. The book chronicles Leibowitz’s research into how mindset can change how someone experiences winter.

One of the chapters that most intrigued me was on something she called awe walks. The idea is to engage all five senses during walks so that it becomes a multisensory experience.

Mentally slowing down and being contemplative during a walk allows you to take in your surroundings and find things that inspire awe, which, over time, should improve mood.

So, I put it to the test. The results have been transformative for my mental health.

What happened when I started taking awe walks

My usual route had become a repetitive walk around the same houses, same busy road, same grey skies, and the same town center where nothing ever happened. But putting the principles behind awe walks into practice slowly transformed the experience. My perspective began to change and I noticed something new every day.

I saw hand-painted murals in alleyways, which I hadn’t noticed before. I marvelled at the architecture of beautifully preserved Victorian-era buildings. I paid close attention to nature, observing week by week how bare tree branches slowly developed buds before blossoming.

Noticing small details on my daily walk—from the birdsong on one particular corner of my street, the sun’s rays breaking through marvellous cumulus clouds in a light blue sky, to the coolness of a breeze rippling over me—did inspire awe.

I’ve continued with this walking habit throughout the winter and spring, and can feel the mental health benefits. There’s an increased serotonin release, for sure.

What is the science behind awe walks?

I shared my personal experience with Leibowitz, who told me that scientific research backs up my findings.

“In my book I mention a landmark study by Dr Virginia Sturm at UC San Francisco in which participants take awe walks twice a week over eight weeks,” she says.

“What researchers found was an increase in self-reported mood and positive emotions, not just while participants were walking but also when they weren’t. People were better able to manage the stresses of everyday life.”

Leibowitz says the researchers also asked participants to take selfies during their awe walks. Over time, they noticed that the participants’ smiles were getting wider, and that they were including more of the background in their selfies.

“This signaled that people felt more connected to the world around them, reflecting a positive small sense of self,” she explains. “Overall, people had greater joy, greater pro-social positive emotions and larger decreases in daily distress when they were taking awe walks.”

You don’t have to live near rolling green fields or in close proximity to nature either. Leibowitz confirms that awe walks can also be helpful in built-up cities.

“While we know that nature is a pretty reliable way to induce awe, it doesn’t have to be nature. You can use whatever is around you to inspire feelings of awe,” she says.

“It’s not better or worse to feel awe in response to nature versus anything else. Whether you get awe from a cityscape, or from meeting up with friends for a drink at the pub and then walking home and thinking about how magical it is that you are alive at the same time and have found each other.

“There are so many of these little miracles of being alive that if you can let yourself dwell on them sincerely, they can inspire feelings of awe.”

How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Dr Kari Leibowitz is out now in paperback.