Just as we’re starting a new year with new resolutions, a new emotion has been announced.

First, let’s take a look at the old emotions. In 1980, after years of studying emotions, American psychologist Robert Plutchik proposed his Wheel of Emotions, a graphic depicting 27 emotions. Dr. Plutchik listed eight primary emotions as the foundation for all others: joy, sadness, acceptance, disgust, fear, anger, surprise, and anticipation. Over the years, a consensus has built as to most of these primary emotions. Plutchik grouped these emotions into a wheel of polar opposites, and proposed variations of each emotion based on intensity. For example, joy is counterposed to sadness. Variations of joy are ecstasy and serenity (more intense and less intense, respectively), and similarly grief and pensiveness are variations of sadness. Plutchik also proposed emotions that are at the intersection of two related emotions. For example, optimism sits between anticipation and joy.

So what’s this new emotion? It’s called kama muta, a term from Sanskrit, which means “being moved by love.”

In 2012, Alan Fiske, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues Thomas Schubert and Beate Seibt, both now at the University of Oslo in Norway, wondered why we start crying at films with happy endings, since tears were considered by most psychologists as a sign of sadness.

Their research found that this emotion is often described in terms of motion, such as being “moved”, “stirred”, “transported” or “elevated”. Secondly, it was accompanied by specific physical sensations, including teary eyes, goosebumps, a brief pause in breathing and warmth in the chest. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it seemed to intensify social relationships.

Examples came from those attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings who found the feeling often arose from the unconditional acceptance offered by other members. It arose during religious devotion such as prayer, where someone feels a strong connection with a deity. It is a common response to communal events like sports matches, where you may feel enormous admiration or pride for your team after a struggle for victory, or during a memorial where you recognize people who sacrificed their lives for your country. It may arise during concerts, thanks to the beauty of the music and the feeling of unity, and from reading or watching love stories, or even watching cute cat videos. This feeling also seems to be common across cultures. During one study, participants from the US, Norway, China, Israel and Portugal were shown a clip depicting intense moments of connection when a lion is reunited with its former carers, which often triggered kama muta.

To measure people’s experiences of kama muta, researchers use the Kama Muta Multiplex Scale.

On the Plutchik Wheel of Emotions, there are two emotions that have some similar characteristics to kama muta–love, which is at the intersection of joy and trust, and awe, which combines surprise and fear.

Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt were among the first psychologists to examine and define awe, Awe is considered to be a complex, powerful emotion felt in the presence of something vast or extraordinary (like nature, art, or human achievement) that evokes wonder, reverence, and a sense of being small yet connected, shifting focus from the self to something greater. Einstein called it “the fundamental emotion.”

There are some differences among these emotions–awe, love and this new kama muta. But all “self-transcendent” emotions help us gain more perspective on our lives, make us more altruistic and prosocial, and even improve our mental and physical well-being.

So what does all this have to do with us as lawyers?

There is evidence that, as Psychology Today puts it, feeling awe can be “tied to reduced stress and a reduced tendency to engage in rumination, a key feature of depression and anxiety.”

Unfortunately, lawyers experience depression and anxiety at record rates compared to the general population and other professions.

When was the last time you experienced awe, love or this new kama muta?

Maybe this year you can schedule more moments for outings in nature, for viewing spectacular art, reading inspirational books, listening to elevating music, connecting closer to loved ones, and experiencing other spiritual or uplifting feelings. They’re good for you.