Joy and Awe: Practical Strategies to Improve Well-Being and Community in Medical Education

A growing number of writers and researchers describe the vast benefits of pausing in a frenetic life to intentionally appreciate joy and awe. Designer Ingrid Fetell Lee describes joy as a "momentary experience of positive emotion." Psychologist Dacher Kelter defines awe as the "feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world." Benefits of experiencing joy and awe include reduced levels of cortisol and increased focus, efficiency, creativity, altruism, and sense of community. Joy is universal and has the potential to help transcend hierarchy and polarization. Awe connects the individual to the greater collective, quiets the inner critic, and helps promote a sense of meaning and higher purpose. Burnout among physicians and learners has reached crisis levels, and many medical educators are struggling to sustain their practices and inspire the next generation of physicians. Systemic changes remain critical to address the root causes of burnout. In this workshop, the presenters aim to empower medical educators to incorporate brief practices of joy and awe into work to overcome barriers, improve well-being, and reconnect with purpose as clinicians, educators, and learners. This workshop will explore "moral beauty," "collective effervescence," and other concepts from Kelter's eight-part framework on awe. Participants will define strategies to incorporate awe in their daily work in health care and medical education and practice Lee's "joyspotting" and other approaches to increase connection, purpose, and meaning in clinical and educational lives.