Imagine life as a jar you want to fill with fruits. I\u2019d guess that the number one fruit you\u2019d want to drop in that jar would be berries of happiness.<\/p>\n
It often takes a long time\u2014a lifetime, sometimes\u2014to try and fill that jar. The desire to keep filling it doesn\u2019t stop. And a lot of life\u2019s energy is spent trying to find and pick those fruits, again and again. We often walk several miles to pick a couple of berries, or sometimes, to realize that there are no berry bushes along the trail we\u2019ve been walking on for hours.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re humans, after all.<\/p>\n
What if there was an easier and more efficient way to pluck and relish those berries? What if the berry bush was always beside you, at each moment of your hike along the trail of life?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis moment.\u201d Those are two precious and powerful words. They\u2019re part of a sentence that has transformed my life in ways I never expected: I\u2019m finding beauty in this moment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Beauty, according to my definition, is anything that brings joy, peace, growth or nourishment in life.<\/p>\n Often, finding happiness gets postponed to later: <\/p>\n It\u2019s reasonable to postpone or skip things sometimes. However, if you look at this from a wider perspective, if you\u2019re not finding beauty now, then when? Later? Several moments (or minutes, days or years) will go by, and \u201clater\u201d will be \u201cnow.\u201d If \u201cnow\u201d is ignored, how often will \u201clater\u201d keep getting pushed forward, always eluding you?<\/p>\n In this moment, how you behave will alter what you crave. And if you\u2019re able to fill your jar with the beauty you find in the moment, you may not have to walk so far for so long.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every time I find and pluck those berries of happiness, this brings beauty to my life. Over time, the jar keeps filling up way faster than I anticipated when I first got started with this mindfulness practice. <\/p>\n Two of the most significant ways in which the practice has helped me include: <\/p>\n Paying mindful attention to what\u2019s around me has boosted each of those three aspects of happiness. There have been moments when I found myself crying because of the overwhelming amount of happiness I felt while partaking in seemingly simple experiences.<\/p>\n For instance, it was a sunny June afternoon, and I was on a hike in Washington, along the Columbia River. I saw a Camellia tree basking in the summer sunshine, with butterflies dancing beside it. The smell of the flowers, the sight of butterflies buzzing around, the soft warm sunlight, the leaves blowing in the breeze, the sound of the river flowing by\u2014it all added up to a point at which I had tears dripping down my face. I said out loud, \u201cThis is too much. I don\u2019t know how to handle so much joy!\u201d<\/p>\n I could\u2019ve taken a photo of the tree and kept moving past it. That was what I did when I noticed beautiful things on most of my earlier hikes. But why should I miss out on an amazing gift that\u2019s inches away from me, by getting out my phone? <\/p>\n When I thought about it later, I realized this was one source of happiness berries, and there are countless other places and experiences from which I can harvest those fruits. The key starting point is paying attention to what\u2019s beside me.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve stopped running after things: goals, passions, \u201cI-want-this\u201d lists, and so on. Nonetheless, this doesn\u2019t mean my entire life is blissful because I found joy in the act of seeing a squirrel dancing in the front yard, and now I don\u2019t need to do anything else.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not discarding my desires and responsibilities. They absolutely matter a lot to me, and I will get things done. But the key word here is \u201crunning.\u201d I\u2019ll work on achieving my goals, but I won\u2019t be running like crazy after them. Why? I know I have enough already.<\/p>\n When you have $100,000 in your bank account, you probably won\u2019t work on weekends just to add a couple hundred more to it. You may still continue to work on weekdays, but you\u2019ll do it with a sense of ease, confidence and clarity, knowing that your jar of fulfillment is filling up at an amazingly high rate\u2014one that you\u2019ll feel grateful for.<\/p>\n Aside from gratitude, I now have an extra amount of energy that otherwise would\u2019ve been spent on running after stuff. I\u2019ll save that energy and use it for other purposes (some of which might include developing a better plan to achieve those \u201cbig\u201d goals, rather than tirelessly running after them).<\/p>\n This mindfulness practice may seem like some complex ritual that requires you to sit down, close the curtains and take deep breaths, five times a day for 10 minutes each time. Those are great things to do, no doubt, but mindfully appreciating beauty doesn\u2019t require all that. A simple starting point is paying mindful attention to your surroundings. The rest of the magic builds up with practice.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s one example of when I found beauty in what otherwise might have seemed like a chore, and as a follow-up, how I used the energy from that experience to fulfill my \u201cbig\u201d goals:<\/p>\n I was shopping at a grocery store, and one of the first things I bought was green leaf lettuce. As I was picking it up and putting it in a bag, my fingers pressed on a leaf. I paused. <\/p>\n I looked at my fingers, hands and arms and felt a stream of awe drifting into my mind. I thought about how many soft petals my lovely fingers have touched, how faithfully my hands have helped me hold things and how many challenging items my arms have lifted (not just bags of lettuce!). <\/p>\n The list went on, leading me to a point at which I couldn\u2019t help rising in grateful love with my body and mind. What joyous gifts I\u2019ve been bestowed with!<\/p>\n I moved on, buying a few other things before stopping at the fruits aisle. I picked up a nectarine and was trying to see if it was ripe enough. As I was looking at it, I noticed its orange and red colours intertwining. I was curious how that happened: What determines how much red there is and how much orange? Does red indicate ripeness? <\/p>\n I had no answer to those questions, so I did what I usually do in these situations: make a note on my phone to read more about it later. I moved on to the next aisle, feeling good about continuing to cultivate a growth-oriented mindset.<\/p>\n Soon after that, I wrapped up the purchases and was waiting in the self-service checkout line. It was a long line, and I felt a bit annoyed about it. That\u2019s when I got a notification that a package was just delivered to my doorstep. I felt worried about it: What if someone picked it up from the porch? It was going to be an hour before I\u2019d get home. <\/p>\n Worry and annoyance started dancing in my mind as I waited. A few minutes passed before I realized that all I could do was turn on the security camera by using my phone and hope for the best. And regarding the long line? Not much to be done, aside from being patient. That mindful pause and acceptance of the situation brought me back into the present moment by easing my mind, pushing aside worry and letting in peace.<\/p>\n When I reached home, the package was on the porch (great!). As I was placing food in the fridge, I felt a sense of confidence and ease. Once I was done with the grocery stuff, I opened my laptop and started writing a plan for self-publishing my book about gratitude.<\/p>\n Why did I come up with that plan? Because I felt enriched by the mindful experiences I had in the grocery store. They reminded me that I have a strong and healthy foundation within myself, and that strengthened my confidence and my desire to achieve a goal.<\/p>\n\n
How mindful beauty helps me <\/h2>\n
\nIncreased levels, sources and frequency of happiness<\/h3>\n
Enhanced clarity and efficiency about goals<\/h3>\n
Finding beauty in a grocery store<\/h2>\n
\n5 steps to getting started with the practice<\/h2>\n
\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/cdn.shortpixel.ai\/spai\/q_lossy+ret_img+to_auto\/eadn-wc05-103229.nxedge.io\/cdn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/mindful-beauty-eat-apple.jpg\" "\\"MINDFUL")