Wonder Is Actually Good for You: The Science of Staying Open

By Hank, Graduate Gemologist & Professional Spell Caster | Crystal Conjure Magic

We've said twice now that it's worth staying open to the magic of the world — the wonder in an ordinary morning, a river, a sky, the people you love. Lovely idea. But maybe part of you files it under "nice, if you have the time."

Here's the part that changes things: it isn't just nice. Being open to wonder is measurably good for you — for your body, not only your mood — and there's twenty years of hard science saying so. Openness to wonder isn't naive. It's one of the healthiest things a person can do.

The Feeling We're Talking About

You know it already. The night sky when you're somewhere dark enough to actually see it. A piece of music that raises the hair on your arms. Standing at the edge of the ocean. Holding a newborn. A cathedral, a canyon, a storm rolling in. That feeling of being briefly small in front of something vast — a little hush, a little chill up the spine, the ordinary noise in your head going quiet for a moment.

Scientists have a plain word for it: awe. And for the last twenty years they've been measuring what it actually does to a person. The findings are, frankly, kind of astonishing themselves.

The Science: Wonder Changes Your Body

The person to know here is Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at UC Berkeley who has spent more than two decades studying awe — he runs the university's Greater Good Science Center and wrote the book on it, literally (Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder, 2023). What he and his colleagues found is that wonder isn't just a pleasant mood. It leaves marks you can measure.

In one well-known study, Keltner's team found that people who felt more awe had lower levels of a body chemical called IL-6 — an inflammation marker tied to heart disease and depression. And awe was the strongest predictor among all the good feelings they tested, beating out joy, contentment, even pride. As one of the researchers put it, the things we do to feel wonder — a walk in nature, losing yourself in music, standing before something beautiful — have a direct line to our health.

It doesn't stop at inflammation. Across the research, regular experiences of awe have been linked to lower blood pressure and stress hormones, a calmer nervous system (it switches on the body's "rest and connect" mode), less anxiety and rumination, more generosity toward other people, and higher life satisfaction. It even changes your sense of time — people who've just felt awe report feeling like they have more of it, less rushed, more present.

Read that back. Less inflammation. Lower stress. A quieter mind. More time. More kindness. A more satisfying life. That is not the payoff of a personality quirk. That is what being open to wonder does to a human being, and it has been measured, replicated, and published.

You Don't Need the Grand Canyon

Here's the part that matters most for an ordinary week, because you might be thinking this requires plane tickets and mountaintops. It doesn't.

Keltner found that most people feel awe two or three times a week — and rarely at famous landmarks. It comes from what he calls everyday wonders: someone's unexpected kindness or courage, a piece of music, light through leaves, a night sky, a big idea that rearranges your head, the ordinary miracle of a growing thing. The whole benefit is available in your own life, this week, for free. The only requirement is that you actually stop and let it land instead of walking past it with your phone out.

Which is the entire point of staying open. Not because openness is a virtue you're supposed to have. Because the wonder is right there, all the time, doing real good for anyone who lets themselves feel it — and quietly passing by everyone too hurried to look up.

This Isn't Being Gullible

Somewhere in here a cautious voice says: isn't this just talking yourself into things? Being soft-headed?

No — and it's worth being clear about it. Being open to wonder is not the same as believing anything you're told. You don't have to switch off your good sense to feel the pull of a night sky; the stars are genuinely, factually enormous and ancient and mostly gone by the time their light reaches you, and knowing every fact of it makes the feeling bigger, not smaller. Wonder isn't a failure to understand the world. It's a full response to actually seeing it. You can be the most clear-eyed person in the room and still be floored by what's in front of you — in fact, the people who notice most tend to be exactly the ones who kept both their wits and their sense of wonder switched on at once.

This Is What We Mean by Magic

People sometimes ask us what we really mean when we talk about magic, given that we're professionals who take this seriously. Here is a large part of the honest answer.

We mean this: the world is genuinely astonishing, you are briefly alive in the middle of it, and the person who stays open to that — who lets the wonder in instead of ruling it out — lives a measurably better life for it. That's not a metaphor and it's not wishful thinking. It's in the bloodwork. The open person really does walk out of an ordinary day carrying something the hurried person walked right past, and it turns out that something is good for their heart, their mind, and their years.

So keep the door open. Not because we told you to, and not because you owe it to anyone. Because the evidence is in, and it turns out the people who kept believing there was wonder worth looking for were right the whole time — and healthier for it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there really science that wonder is good for you?

Yes, and quite a lot of it. Psychologist Dacher Keltner at UC Berkeley has led more than two decades of research on awe. Studies have linked frequent awe to lower inflammation (notably IL-6, a marker tied to heart disease and depression), lower blood pressure and stress hormones, a calmer nervous system, reduced anxiety, greater generosity, and higher life satisfaction. In one 2015 study, awe was the strongest predictor of low inflammation among all the positive emotions tested.

Do I need to travel somewhere amazing to feel awe?

No. Keltner's research found people feel awe two or three times a week, mostly from everyday sources — a kind act, a piece of music, light through trees, the night sky, a big idea, a growing thing. The benefit is available in ordinary life, for free. The only requirement is slowing down enough to actually notice it.

Isn't being open to wonder just being naive?

No. Openness to wonder is not the same as believing whatever you're told. You can hold every fact you know about the world and still be moved by it — in fact, understanding a thing often makes it more astonishing, not less. Wonder is a full response to actually seeing the world, not a failure to understand it. The most perceptive people tend to keep both their good sense and their sense of wonder switched on at once.

What does this have to do with magic?

A great deal. Much of what we mean by staying open to magic is exactly this: the world is genuinely astonishing, you are briefly alive within it, and the person who stays open to that wonder lives a measurably better life for it — lower inflammation, less stress, more meaning. It's not wishful thinking; it's in the research. Wonder is real, it's good for you, and it's available now.

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Listen to the Podcast

We go deeper into the science of awe and wonder — what it does to your body and mind, and why the people who kept looking for it were right all along. This is a conversation about the research, not a reading of the post.