Reading Time: 2 minutesNotice the Beauty in Life Every Day This Week
Simple Instructions:
- Each day take a photo of three things that strike you as beautiful.
- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you think something makes the world a more beautiful place, it counts.
- Any camera you want to use is allowed.
Watch this video for an explanation of this Well-Being Practice from Whole Life Challenge co-founders Andy Petranek and Michael Stanwyck.
Why Is This Practice Important?
Like so many of the other things we might rush past, beauty is one of those things that doesn’t typically wind up at the top of our priorities. There’s a reason people say, “Stop and smell the roses.” We don’t often do it!
But the world is as beautiful as you make it.
By taking the time each day to notice the beauty in the things around you, you get to live in a beautiful world. Your appreciation of something is what makes it a beautiful thing.
And beauty can be found in the simplest things.
This is not a practice in aesthetics. This is a practice in getting in touch with what touches you. By setting out to capture beauty every day, you’ll put yourself on the lookout for it. You may also find that your camera roll becomes a place to look back and appreciate what you have created.
For More on This Practice
This week on the podcast, Andy spoke with Peter Himmelman — singer, songwriter, composer, painter, and author. Andy brought Peter on to talk about creativity, since he’s mastered it in his life and has written a book full of exercises to help others learn to foster it in theirs. For Peter’s thoughts on the relationship between “seeing the beauty” and finding our creative side, click through to the podcast and jump to 46:08.
He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.
Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.
He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.
