Mindful Monday - Noticing Beauty

I've mentioned my gratitude practice of writing five things that I'm thankful for in a journal each night. It's a simple thing to do, but over time the resulting shift in mindset has been profound. It's a way to train myself to watch for good things.

Too often we fall into the habit of doing just the opposite. It's understandable, really. We watch for what's wrong so we can fix or avoid it (or--let's face it--complain about it). There's value in doing some of that. Parents teach children to watch where they are going so they don't step into holes or walk into walls or get run over by trucks.

I'm not taking issue with watching out for dangerous stuff. It's just that, somewhere along the line, in constantly being alert to the things that might cause trouble or need attention, we push what is good and waiting to be enjoyed further and further into the background. If we aren't careful, we can lose touch with it entirely.

Mark Twain once said, "To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail."  We have become a society of hammer-holders, watching for things to whack.

But here's the hopeful part...

Now that fancy cell phones have become standard equipment, most of us also walk around with cameras. Of course, you can take pictures of anything with a camera, but we especially enjoy taking photos of people and things we love. And digital photography makes it easy to take and share many more of these beautiful pictures than would have been practical with film.

The fastest growing social media sites now are the ones like Instagram and Pinterest, which emphasize beautiful photos and other visuals. Twitter has recently done a major overhaul that puts far more emphasis on photos than "tweets" alone. On Facebook, engagement goes WAY up when you post a photo with your commentary, while articles without thumbnails are ignored. The same is true for blog posts. No one wants to read a blog without pictures.

There's no question that our society is becoming more visually oriented (a real challenge for the visually impaired). Wouldn't it be nice if we could become more beauty oriented, while we are at it? How might the cameras, personal recorders, and music players we carry around in our cell phones facilitate such a shift?

If listing gratitudes every night doesn't appeal to you, but paying attention to the beauty that surrounds you does, consider using that device to help you document goodness of various kinds. Snap a photo of at least one thing you like each day, no matter how small, and post it to Instagram. Or record beautiful sounds you hear. You could also use a voice recorder (or pen and paper!) to describe things that feel, smell, or taste wonderful--fresh rain, soft grass, warm sun, sweet peaches--as you experience them. 

The possibilities are endless, but the point is to find ways to be mindful of what is already good in your life, and focus more of your energy there.

I'd love to hear other ways you have found to do this. Maybe gardening, cooking, painting, or reading poetry? If you have an Instagram and/or Pinterest account you'd like to share, please include it in the comments below. (I'm lroseen on Instagram and Lenora Roseen on Pinterest.)

One way or another, let's pay attention to the beauty in our lives.