Inspirational Quote
The more often we see the things around us – even the beautiful and wonderful things – the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds – even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less.
Joseph B. Wirthlin
The Psychology Perspective
There is much written about the nature of beauty. However, as I have come to see it, beauty is nature itself. If beauty lays in the eye of the beholder, yet we oftentimes become anesthetized by the essence of beauty itself, then as Wirthlin says, we simply begin to assume some perspective that is incapable of seeing the beauty of life for what it is in the moment. We develop the capacity to see ugliness, focusing less and less on the beauty that surrounds us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson drew our attention to the notion that many eyes will wander a meadow, but few would see the beauty within its boundaries. Wirhlin reminds us to remain attentive to the small beauty that we see in our day to day lives. Those living images in the clouds, seeing a lone flower in the winter dew, or even the changing nature of the leaves around us as winter’s night sets in for its Solstice glory.
Oftentimes, our psyche becomes so attuned at tuning out the nature of the beauty that surrounds us. This means your psyche is not open to the beauty that surrounds it. This form of a closed off psyche paralyzes our capacity to grow, making us miss those small nuances in life that will make up our happiness habits. With practice, we can see beauty behind anything we seek to understand.
Have you recognized the beauty in your life today?
©2019 by Dr. Thomas Maples
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