Feeling awestruck may actually boost your health. That’s the conclusion of new research that suggests the emotion may invoke positive feelings that lower inflammation — tied to a variety of health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

The findings, published in the journal Emotion, are based on experiments by University of California-Berkeley that focused on college freshmen, The New York Times reports.

For the first part of the study, the researchers asked 94 students to fill out questionnaires about how frequently they felt various positive and negative emotions, like hostility, enthusiasm, and inspiration.

The students then supplied saliva samples, which were analyzed for interleukin-6, — known to promote inflammation throughout the body. The results showed those who had experienced more positive emotions had lower levels of IL-6 than those whose moods were more frequently sour.

For the second phase, another 119 students completed questionnaires about how often they experienced seven specific emotions: awe, amusement, compassion, contentment, joy, love, and pride. The students also provided a saliva sample.

The results showed the strongest correlation was with awe; the more frequently someone reported having felt awe-struck, the lower the IL-6.

“There seems to be something about awe,” Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology and the senior author of the study, told The Times. “It seems to have a pronounced impact on markers related to inflammation.”

The take-home message: Seek out awesome experiences to boost your mood — such as watching the sun rise or set, attending a political rally, catching fireworks displays, or simply watching children play.