Beauty is Everywhere. Here's 3 Ways to See It:

Beauty is, for me, an essential ingredient in maintaining our mental health and wellbeing. At the same time, we can often lose sight of beauty, to the point where we start to believe there is no beauty… at all! That can be devastating to our mental health. So, here’s a short article about beauty, what it is, and how to see it more often in your life!

What is “Beauty”?

So, this that kind of question that could take a whole book, if not many books, to answer. For now, I’d simply like to suggest that beauty is not, as we normally think, an object. Actually, beauty is a view. Beauty is a way of holding an object in mind that involves an appreciation of it’s presence.

To appreciate the presence of a thing, is, simply, a “wow” moment. The experience of beauty, then, is as much a feeling as a visual experience. We feel into the thing, into the moment, and an appreciation of that moment arises, and we realise “wow”!

Three Ways to See More Beauty!

So, if seeing beauty is a way of holding something in mind, then seeing beauty is dependant on our state of mind as much as, if not more than, anything objective that we’re looking at. Whether or not something is aesthetically well-designed, for example, if we’re not in the right state of mind, then we’re not going to experience that object as beautiful.

First, Look!

OK, so this sounds obvious. If you want to see more beauty, then you’re going to have to look! Still, looking at what you can see is, for man, easier said than done! For many, looking at the world is made difficult because we have a habit of looking at other things, like our thoughts. We end up in our heads, to the point that we lose sight of the world. Ever walk to work, only to realise that when you get there you haven’t any memory of what you could see on that walk? That’s because you didn’t really look. You were in your head, probably looking at your thoughts. People with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), or Chronic Worry, can really struggle to get away from their thoughts. For that, I’ve written an article on How to Find A Better Way to Pay Attention!

So, if you want to see more beauty, you’re going to have to look!

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Second, Train your view!

So, apart from developing A Better Way to Pay Attention, there can be a few specific ways of training our attention, or view, that increase the chances of experience beauty, and they are practising external focus, and practising gratitude.

External Focus

External focus is a technique that trains our attention to focus less on our internal thoughts, which can distract us away from the moment we are in, to thoughts, often negative, about the past and future. External focus instead pays attention to external stimuli, what we can hear, see, taste, touch, and smell. Not only can this technique reduce our tensions, low mood, and anxiety, by giving us respite from often chronic negative thoughts, but it can also help us better engage with the complexity and wonder of the presence of the present moment around us.

For those who find focusing on external stimuli particularly difficult, or simply for those who might enjoy a more focused way to practice the exercise, I have created an audio guide that leads you through a 10 mins practice of this technique. It’s available here for free, or if you want to own it, you can Download The External Focus on Sound Guide Here for £1.99. Though this guide focuses on sound, you can easily convert this practice to focus on any external stimulus, including sight, smell, touch, and taste!

I’ll be doing more of these guides soon, including one on sight, so subscribe to my YouTube channel below, or sign-up to the newsletter of this website for updates on my new videos and articles.

Gratitude

Another, perhaps surprising way to increase your chances of experiencing a moment of beauty is to practice gratitude. This exercise is pretty simple, but requires dedication and consistency to really reap the rewards.

Here, we simply note, at least once a day, three or more things that we appreciate, or are grateful for in ourselves and or our lives. These things might be big, like feeling grateful for our children, or the job promotion we just got, or they might be small, like expressing gratitude for the things we can come to take for granted, like having a roof over our heads, or access to clean running water. They might be external things, like appreciating having a car, or job, or they might be internal things, like appreciating the courage it took to say “no” to our boss, or the kindness we expressed when we helped a friend out today.

Consciously acknowledging each of these things, internal or external, big or small, grows our ability to see the good, the valuable, in things around us. This opens up our mind to seeing the good and the beautiful in our lives. The more we train ourselves in this capacity, or see the good, the more likely we become in seeing the beautiful.

To learn more, watch my video on How to Practice Gratitude!

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Third, Get Out There!

Now that we’re engage with the external world, and training ourselves to appreciate what we engage with, what can really help is to get ourselves out into the world and immerse ourselves in different contexts. This can be going anywhere new, or different, but here are some ideas to get you going:

Museums:

Museums are great to practice beauty-spotting. The context encourages us to engage without our external environment and appreciate the details of what we can see. Try it out!

Nature:

Nature is another great place to start. It’s peaceful, so we can relax and just witness, and there are often lots of things to explore if we give ourselves a chance.

Cities:

Cities are surprisingly beautiful if you look at them from a different angle. Try going for “a pointless walk”, without a goal, and just have a look around. What can you hear? What can you see? Maybe bring a camera to encourage yourself to see things from a different angle.

Now, Go Forth & Witness!

So, go forth and experience more beauty in your life using the practices above. They may take some time, but from my own personal experience, they’re worth it.

And feel free to let me know how you got on with the above in the comments below. Or, go to one of my accounts below and share examples of anything beautiful you encounter. Sharing such moments helps remind others that beauty is still out there!

Instagram: @john_mental_health
Facebook: @johnbristoltherapy
Twitter: @mcguirk_john

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