The little girl had just realized she was lost. She had followed her curiosity, this time onto an abandoned building lot. Just when it hit her that she didn’t know where she was, or how to find her way home, she looked up and there it was. Floating down towards her, ever so slowly. It looked softer than the finest down and was whiter than the wings of an angel. Every time she grasped for it, the breeze danced it just out of reach. She was running after it, tantalizingly close, when she glanced up again. The air was full of many more, spinning and swirling. She had never seen anything more wonderful. She had heard about manna from heaven. Could this be it?

            She followed one of the things to its source and found a long crinkled brown pod which had broken open. Attached to the pod, and layered in what looked like infinitesimally thin tissue paper, were zillions of tiny parachutes. Each had a brown flat scale on the bottom. When the breeze blew hard, it dislodged them, and they rose and swerved and swirled around her. She was so entranced that she forgot all about being lost and wanting to cry. She didn’t even hear the adults calling her. They found her chasing beauty, running wide-eyed and open-mouthed trying to catch the spinning milkweed fluff. 

            I was that little girl, and I’ve never stopped being mesmerized by the beauty and awe that surrounds me. It has kept me going through the death of a loved one, through anxiety and depression, through the rigours of graduate school, and through pain. It has kept me sane, but most of all, it has kept me happy. In the next few paragraphs, I will explain how Chasing Beauty relates to being a Highly Sensitive Person, link it to health and happiness, and help you to Chase Beauty in your own life.

What is Chasing Beauty?

            Chasing Beauty. It is what highly sensitive people do. Chasing Beauty goes by other names i.e.. Aesthetic Sense or AES, Mindfulness, Wonder and Awe. The Highly Sensitive Person ( HSP ) Scale measures three separate characteristic of high sensitivity. One characteristic is Aesthetic Sense ( AES ). Aesthetic Sense is the ability to notice, and feel awestruck about, the beauty in the world. People with a high Aesthetic Sense score are deeply moved by the arts or music, and notice and enjoy fine scents, tastes, sounds or works of art.  Aesthetic Sensitivity is a very positive aspect of high sensitivity. High Aesthetic Sense scores are associated with greater attention to details and better communication than low Aesthetic Sense scores. Individuals with high Aesthetic Sense also have great empathy (Acevedo et al., 2014, 2017, 2018). Since they also respond to the world with wonder and awe, they are able to find gratitude for simple things in their daily existence. These very positive qualities balance out and can often even override the overstimulation related to other characteristics of High Sensitivity.

            I’ve noticed that the higher a person scores in High Sensitivity in general, the more details they are able to observe about their environment, and consequently the higher they are in Chasing Beauty. This detailed level of observation can either lead HSPs to be very mindful (if they are calm and focussed), or very overwhelmed (if they are overstimulated). One of the by-products of being so focussed on the details of our environment is mindfulness. According to University of California’s Greater Good Science Center, mindfulness, among other factors, involves “Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our.... surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens. Being mindful leads to a “virtuous circle”. When we are more mindful, we are calmer, and when we are calmer, we notice more details and when we calmly notice more details we are more mindful …. Rehashing of the past or imagining a horrific future that makes the majority of people anxious and depressed. So, if our attention remains on the details we are noticing in the moment, we feel much more content.

            No matter what you call it, Chasing Beauty makes the difference between being happy and being unhappy. Dacher Keltner, a scientist at the University of California’s Greater Good Science Center even calls it a “pathway to mental and physical health”.  For example, high scores on Awe were associated with finding work more meaningful and having more control over work. Other studies found awe was associated with relief from PTSD. Awe is the positive emotion that most strongly predicts reduced levels of cytokines, a marker of inflammation that’s linked to depression, according to research from University of Toronto’s Jennifer Stellar. That suggests a possible role in health and healing, and may help explain the raft of recent studies that have linked exposure to nature with lower blood pressure, stronger immune systems and more.

            It is easy to see where Aesthetic Sense originates. Highly sensitive people’s brains take in more sensory information from their environment. I am a scientist and conducted a brain scanning experiment that suggested that, compared to less sensitive people,  Highly Sensitive people pay more attention to  visual information. They are also more finely tuned, which makes them more discriminating. A Highly sensitive person’s brain acts like that of a wine expert. The occasional wine drinker will easily taste the difference between a red a white and a rose, but the wine expert will notice subtler differences between the two, such as those in tannin content, acidity, and the body of the wine.

            Chasing Beauty is also associated with creativity. Picture the wild-haired artist who is so intent on creating that they work 24 hours straight without eating. In his autobiography, Keith Richards, lead guitarist of iconic rock band The Rolling Stones, writes that he once worked 9 days straight without sleeping. That feat was accomplished on drugs, but one of the reasons Richards gave for taking drugs was to be able to focus on the music to the exclusion of everything else. Once the HSP brain “sees” something through its senses, it needs to play with that information, to combine it with other information already in the brain in order to come up with something completely new. This is the definition of creativity. My  research (Jageillowicz et al., 2006) on Highly Sensitive Person reports that they are able to combine it with other information already in their brain. Their brains show more brain activity in areas that combine the information coming into the brain from the various senses. This allows more possible ways of putting the information together. In other words, greater creativity.

            From my observations of my HSP clients, I believe that the more highly sensitive someone is, the higher they are on Chasing Beauty (Aesthetic Sense). So, if Chasing Beauty doesn’t come as naturally as you wish it did, or if you would just like to get some more of this natural feel-good method, there are many practical things you can do. You don’t need a lot of time or money, just the ability to withstand a bit of social criticism at times.

How To Chase Beauty and Develop Wonder and Awe

            Chasing Beauty is best done alone. This way, you can focus on what is beautiful to you, without being influenced by other’s judgements of what is socially acceptable. If you find dung beetles beautiful and fascinating you need the opportunity to chase that beauty without being shamed for it.  For HSPs who score at the lower or mid-range of high sensitivity, i.e. 13 – 23, getting to this level of obliviousness to others’ judgements is, I feel, the most difficult part of Chasing Beauty. Extremely high HSPs  (24-27) could not change how they think or feel even if they tried, so for them, it is not worth even worrying about the approbation of the rest of society. So they just go ahead and chase the beautiful and quirky interests that make them happy.

             If people stare at you or make sarcastic comments when they notice you staring at something beautiful, you can throw them off guard by pointing out the beauty to them. The last time someone did this to me, commenting on me picking up fallen branches in a forest, I told them I was a photographer (true), and pointed out the beauty of the colours in the twigs I had gathered. Most people will just leave at this point, and be too scared to say anything more. If you aren’t quite brave enough to confront those who might comment negatively on what you are doing, carry a camera or a pair of binoculars (in the woods) with you. Just don’t use the camera. I will explain why not a bit later in this blog. If anyone asks what you are doing, say you are bird-watching or taking photos.

            Expose yourself to beauty in the form of nature. Find an out-of-the-way spot where you can sit or stand fairly still. If you want to observe wildlife, you will need to wait for at least 15 minutes. It takes that long for the birds and animals to realize that you are not a threat, and to come out of their hiding places. For many of us who are used to a fast-paced life, staying still for even a few minutes can seem extremely boring.  Many times, the reasons people do not see beauty is because they are looking for it at the wrong scale. We look at objects from thir real-life perspective. However, if we stop to admire the objects on a macro level, we may see much more beauty. It is much easier to see beauty when we are not overwhelmed with sensory information. The more cluttered and messy something is the less beautiful.

Compare the landscape scene on the left with the close -up on the right. Which is more beautiful? So, if you can’t find any plants or animals to look at, there is still a lot of nature on a micro level. Go outside on your lunch break and watch the ants carry sand out of cracks in the concrete.

            What happens, however, if you live in the Bronx in New York City, or in a high-rise tower in Hong Kong? Not a load of nature there. If nature doesn’t oblige, stare at the patterns in the concrete, or the shadows cast by familiar objects and buildings. Notice the shapes they make. Notice the texture of the walls of the buildings you pass. Does the texture change from building to building? Notice the shapes, textures and patterns of people’s clothing. Beauty is found in patterns, and noticing patterns is an HSP’s Superpower. Read books for photographers and artists e.g. how to observe ,  https://www.amazon.com/Photography-Art-Seeing-Perception-Workshop/dp/1554079802.  

            Expose yourself to the best aesthetic products that you can afford, whether that be excellent food, fine perfume, great music, classic art, or great literature, video or film. If you don’t have access to a museum, art gallery, or an excellent library where you live, music, art and literature are all available online. By the “best”, I’m referring to classics that have stood the test of time, or prize-winners. Be aware that being on a Top 10 books or songs list just means that many people have read or listened to something. It doesn’t guarantee quality. There is an old meme that says “Have you heard the one about the man who stopped in front of a restaurant and said, “This must be a good eating place. Fifty million flies can’t be wrong?” Award-winning works of beauty (art, music, literature etc. ) are given awards because they are examples of creative works put together in a way to best showcase their beauty. Accessing these creative products does not have to be expensive.  If you search classic photography or fine art, on the internet you will find many examples. You can search “prize-winning” or “award-winning” books to find the best in literature.

            With respect to excellent food, you don’t need to find an expensive restaurant to experience discriminating taste. You can make your own haute cuisine i.e. food made using high-quality fresh, preferably seasonal, ingredients   Preparing haute cuisine is simply the old-fashioned notion of making quality food from scratch. So, exposing yourself to amazing tastes can be as close as taking the time to cook from scratch at home, and shopping for ingredients at your nearest farmer’s market. If you are on a more modest budget than 5 star restaurants will allow, ethnic restaurants often serve phenomenal home-made food. Finally, when you are cooking, don’t become a victim to a recipe. Add herbs, spices, butter, and salt a pinch at a time ,and taste as you cook in order to see how each addition of ingredients changes the flavour. Don’t worry about making something that will be amazing to eat. At first, just experiment with different amounts of ingredients. You can also experiment by substituting ingredients. Think about how each ingredient will change the final recipe.

            If you are feeling brave, move to a more beautiful environment. Find someplace smaller, with closer contact to nature, ideally a place where you can access nature just by going outside your door. If you are not squeamish about the deceased, living near a cemetery can provide a ready-made aesthetic experience. Cemeteries are quiet, often full of trees and they have private areas where you can observe nature. Additionally, gravestones and mausoleums are often very beautiful in their own right.

            Don’t wait till your children are “older” and “can appreciate it” to expose them to beauty. Children are born with a network of nerve fibers that is more connected  than that of adults, allowing them to take in more information and make more unique connections between concepts than adults. Consequently, they are more susceptible to beauty than you are!

            There are many exercises that can help us focus our attention in order to be more mindful about sensory input. The raisin exercise is a prime example. This exercise asks us to observe a raisin with our senses, really taking the time to see, hear, feel, smell and taste the raisin. You can find more mindfulness exercises at https://www.pocketmindfulness.com/6-mindfulness-exercises-you-can-try-today/ (There are many different kinds of mindfulness exercises in these links. For Chasing Beauty, focus on the ones that help you see, hear, taste, feel and smell). For example, mindful listening asks us to choose a music track that you have never heard before. Try not to get drawn into judging the music by its genre, title or artist name before it has begun. Instead, ignore any labels and neutrally allow yourself to get lost in the journey of sound for the duration of the song. Explore the song by listening to the dynamics of each instrument. Separate each sound in your mind and analyze each one by one. Hone in on the vocals: the sound of the voice, its range and tones. If there is more than one voice, separate them out.

            No matter where you are Chasing Beauty, leave your phone at home. Constantly checking your electronic devices is the antithesis of being mindful because it takes your attention away from the moment. Taking photos requires mastering the technology to do so. Fiddling with the settings, or even just situating the phone so you get a nice photo will take your attention away from just observing. Your own eye can isolate specific parts of a macro-scale scene as well as the best camera.

            All of these strategies will help you with Chasing Beauty. By doing so, you will retain the wide-eyed innocence of a child seeing something for the first time. …. And what better way to look at life than with the wonder and awe of a child.

            Love, Dr. Jadzia