Your brain has a very hard time holding fear/stress and wonder simultaneously. Joe demonstrates this with a tiger visualization: you’re running from a tiger, terrified—and then you wonder how much it weighs. The fear dissolves instantly.
This isn’t just a trick—it’s a neurological reality. When we’re in wonder, in awe, our stress response diminishes. This is why wonder-driven questions (“I wonder what exercise would be most enjoyable?”) produce better solutions than stress-driven commands (“I have to go to the gym”).
“It’s really, really hard to be stressed out and full of wonder at the same time.”
“Wonder is the thing that opens up the aperture to life and it solves the problems that you think you need to resolve when you’re under stress.”
The practical application: when stressed, write down 15 things you don’t know about the stressful situation, then form “how” or “what” questions about each. This shifts the brain from fear-based constriction into wonder-based expansion, naturally generating action items and reducing stress.
Related Concepts
- Wonder eliminates defensiveness
- Fear limits optionality
- Binary thinking signals fear
- Wonder is the antidote to fear in uncertainty
- Listing what you don’t know dissolves stress and reveals action