I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is a little happier. When I wrote my book Life in Five Senses,

I did many experiments with my senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.

Of everything I tried, more than anything else I did, I was most transformed by my decision

to visit the Metropolitan Museum every day for a year.

By establishing my daily visit, I used my love of discipline to give myself a break from discipline.

Scheduling time for recess gave me the chance to wander.

I loved this practice so much that I never stopped it, and I still visit the Met every day.

I've chosen a museum, but of course, someone else might choose a different place, a park, a route

through a neighborhood, a front stoop. The place doesn't really matter. With familiarity and

repetition, the world reveals itself in an unexpected way.

As for me, I chose the Met, and there I measure myself against a different scale.

I feel myself rise above the trivialities of my daily life.

As I read the placards calm references to disaster from the

sack of Rome to the death of a beloved dog, my own worries recede. Works of coral, rock crystal,

burr walnut, porcupine quills, gold leaf, clay, feathers, and jade transport me with their sublime transformations

of nature. Aw is an intensely gratifying emotion, and also research shows that people who experience

awe more frequently show more humility and more creativity, have a greater sense of well-being and desire

to connect with others, and even have better immune health. Aw, decreases anxiety and stress.

But I don't care about these utilitarian arguments. I visit the Met for pure joy. I feel happier from the moment I walk through its doors. It's a

paradox. I feel more deeply inside myself, yet I also feel able to slide outside myself and connect to

the world. The Met has become my playground, my treehouse, my snow day.

I often feel a bit guilty about grubbing through the museum and my usual yoga pants and running shoes.

...