Awe is humility without humiliation.

Being made small by something vast feels entirely different from being made small by another person. There is no shame in it, no diminishment, nothing to defend against. You are simply, accurately, one part of something much larger, and the accuracy is a relief rather than an injury. That is what distinguishes it from humiliation, which requires an audience and a judgment.

When you are feeling defensive or inflated, seek out the first kind. Something old, large, or beyond human scale. The correction it offers costs you nothing and does not require anyone to have put you in your place.