How (And Why) To Find More Beauty in the Everyday
The Science of Happiness
PRX and Greater Good Science Center
4.4 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2024
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when we intentionally look for beautiful things in our day-to-day lives? We explore a lab-tested practice shown to help you feel happier.
Link to Transcript: http://tinyurl.com/yretvrkp
Episode summary:
When was the last time you witnessed a beautiful moment? Maybe it was a striking sunset, a kind exchange between strangers, or a hearty laugh between two friends. Beautiful moments surround us, and research suggests that taking the time to admire them can actually benefit our health and happiness. For our show, restorative justice advocate Darnell Washington looked for 9 beautiful things each day and reflected on them. In doing so, he recognized how admiring different types of beauty from nature to the goodness of others, can have a powerful impact on his own humanity. Later, we hear from the psychologist who created the practice, René T. Proyer, about how making it a point to notice different kinds of beauty benefits our happiness and reduces depression.
Practice:
Every night for at least one week, set about 15 minutes before going to bed to think about nine beautiful things that happened during the day, 3 each in the following categories.
Write down three beautiful things in human behavior (morally, positively valued behavior, ie good deeds).
Write down three things you experienced as beautiful in nature and/or the environment.
Write down three beautiful things in general that you noticed during the day (referring to aesthetics, like art, music, architecture, etc).
Note why you found each of these nine things beautiful.
Today’s guests:
Darnell Washington is a formerly incarcerated restorative justice advocate from California.
Listen to Darnell’s Ted Talk: http://tinyurl.com/cujz79fk
René T. Proyer is a professor and researcher at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
Learn about René’s work: http://tinyurl.com/4sa9vye9
Follow René on Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/3x5986u6
Resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
Finding Beauty in the Everyday (The Science of Happiness Podcast): http://tinyurl.com/2w2ht55h
Why Seeing Beauty Matters, Even in the Midst of War: http://tinyurl.com/4zy436xk
How Nature Can Make You Kinder, Happier, and More Creative: http://tinyurl.com/d2vzpsaj
Finding Awe in the Ordinary: http://tinyurl.com/aavr2pkv
More Resources on Appreciating Beauty:
BBC - The neuroscience of beauty: What your brain finds beautiful – and how this shapes your thoughts: http://tinyurl.com/47s6zcre
TED - Nature. Beauty. Gratitude: http://tinyurl.com/upnrzthc
CNN - It’s the little things: Why animals, sunsets and coffee make us happy: http://tinyurl.com/yckephaf
We want to hear from you! What beautiful moment have you noticed recently? Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
Help us share The Science of Happiness!
Rete us and share this link with someone who might like the show: http://tinyurl.com/yfsx9zwp
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I watched one guy walk down the street and he was pulling his hand out of his pocket and some money drop. |
| 0:10.0 | And so this other guy he was about to walk by seeing it. So he referred him back that he dropped the money. |
| 0:17.0 | So the guy goes back and he picks up the money. |
| 0:20.0 | And as he picks up the money,'s a house person walking by he handed him the money |
| 0:27.3 | This is what people are about you know, it's just things like that. I can carry to my children and grandchildren and |
| 0:33.7 | tell him about the moral standard of what he did and he was grateful and his |
| 0:39.0 | gratefulness made him he chose to do a grateful act as well. |
| 0:43.8 | And this is what it's all about in life. When's the last time you were inspired by beauty? The beauty of leaves on trees, the clouds in the sky, laughter of children or a song, or just the minutia of everyday life. |
| 1:08.3 | This is Dacker Keltner, welcome to the Science of Happiness. |
| 1:11.7 | On each episode we explore a practice to help us feel more joy, |
| 1:16.2 | compassion, and connection to ourselves in our natural environment. This week we're going |
| 1:21.6 | to learn what happens when we go searching for beauty. |
| 1:25.0 | Research shows that when we make an extra effort to see beauty around us, |
| 1:29.0 | it actually supports our health and happiness. |
| 1:32.0 | Our guest is a restorative justice. supports our health and happiness. |
| 1:33.4 | Our guest is a restorative justice advocate and my longtime friend, Darnell Washington. |
| 1:39.0 | For our show he tried to practice where he identified nine beautiful things each day and what's so |
| 1:44.5 | inspiring is that when he did it he was able to appreciate beauty even more as a |
| 1:49.2 | result. Later in the show we hear about how exactly this practice helps from the scientist who created it. |
| 1:56.2 | Our expectation were that the number of depressive symptoms, so like problem sleeping general feelings of sadness and so on they would |
| 2:08.5 | be reduced. All that after these messages from our sponsor. Are you looking for ideas to make your life happier, healthier, more productive and more creative? |
| 2:25.0 | Listen to Happier with Gretchen Rubin, a weekly podcast hosted by two sisters. |
... |
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