It’s okay to feel small.

I am small.

At the foot of an ancient redwood.

I am insignificant.

At the edge of the boundless ocean.

I am trivial.

Under the vast night sky, adorned with stars.

I am overwhelmed.

By the journeys before me and all that is yet to come.

I open my eyes wide and I am in awe.

I am idle.

As the mosaics of life unfold before me.

I am small because I am full of awe.

At Ailyak, we want to make the world feel both small and accessible while reminding people of its vast and overwhelming nature. Our goal is to inspire exploration while encouraging appreciation. According to researchers Paul K. Piff, Pia Dietze, Matthew Feinberg, Daniel Stancato, and Dacher Keltner in their paper “Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior,” experiencing awe can lead to a diminishment of the individual self and an increase in prosocial behavior. This behavior includes greater generosity and a willingness to help others. Additionally, feeling awe can reduce anxiety and stress. From the book titled Awe, by Dacher Keltner there are eight wonders of life that inspire awe. Those eight wonders are moral beauty (such as witnessing acts of kindness or great courage), collective effervescence, nature, music, visual design, spiritual & religious experiences, stories of life and death and epiphanies. While we can’t guarantee an epiphany, we have listed a place where you can experience each one of these wonders of life. Awe can be found in your every day life if you take the time to look for it and open yourself to it, but sometimes it is easier to be knocked into that place when you are seeing something for the first time. If a trip is in your future, here is a list of our favorite places to experience each wonder of life.