How To Enhance the Joy of the Smaller Things In Your Life.
The first thing I ever wanted to be when I was a kid was a comic book artist. I loved superheroes and the grand stories told when I was a child. Even at eight years old though I could recognize that my drawings weren’t very good. When I came into middle school I was so excited to have an elective for the first time — a choice. So I signed up for introduction to art class. What I wanted more than anything was an art teacher to teach me what I didn’t know with concepts and methods how to do myself. I was ready to be a true student and enjoy the creation of art. But my happiness was short-lived.
I still remember the first assignment my art teacher gave me. It was to draw triangles, circles, and squares and then color them differently using red, yellow, and blue colors. I don’t recall any training on the matter as I did the assignment. I do, however, remember getting back the assignment as a C- simply because I shaded the colors in a circular motion rather than the proper technique (which I don’t recall was ever taught to me). That judgment and that first exposure to the academic side of art made me hate art and snuff my creativity. It made me give up on my dreams.
Flash forward ten years and I was in my senior year of college and in order to graduate I had to take an art class that I had avoided all the way up to my senior year. I believed I had nothing to offer it and it had nothing to offer me. Up to that point I looked at artists of formal art as snobbish aristocrats that paint kindergarten-style art where some get paid ridiculous amounts of money by the idiots that love pictures that appear as throw up on the wall. Luckily, my professor was far better than my middle school teacher. She opened up my eyes to the philosophy behind artists and their methods. It turns out that they weren’t aristocrats at all. They were rebels, innovators, inventors, and even activists.
For the first time in my life, I began to understand not just art methods, but the spirit of art. It opened me up again to something I had shut myself off to for decades. As I have begun to study art in its various forms I have grown to develop an appreciation for what it is because of this training. I, like many others, was trying to figure out what the art is when it is more edifying to figure out what the piece of art means to you. I have learned to experience the art over understanding it.
What really increased my enjoyment of art was relieving my ignorance of with with education. When I wasn’t trained and learned in art I didn’t appreciate it. As I read books, articles, and talked to art enthusiasts I was on a journey to see the ideas and the methods behind the work. Finally, I had arrived at the point where I could stand in front of an abstract painting and get lost within it. I realized that this technique spilled over into different areas in my life such as enjoying the beauty of the mountains I pass by each day more.
“Big things are often just small things that are noticed.“— Ed Kennedy
When we are trained and learned in a particular area it can greatly add to our enjoyment of the task. That combined with mindfulness really can brighten up our day where small tasks become big joys. Seeing a play through the eyes of a student of acting can touch the soul much deeper than the average viewer. Watching advertisements as a professional marketer or advertiser can create a sense of awe and inspiration where others may just find annoyance. Creating a table and chairs for someone trained in the fundamentals of furniture could be pure bliss compared to others that see pure work.
Too often, like art, we try to understand what something is and means over experiencing it. In order to really enjoy the little things in a big way we first have to be open to trying it and then we need to focus on the experience over the outcome. Perhaps the table that you created really does look awful, but while you were making it something awoke inside you that made you feel more connected with yourself and with the world around you. With your interest and passion on the subject you will often find the drive to get better at it whether it is for your work or a hobby.
So the question is what are you interested in whether it be work or leisure? Would you be willing to learn more about something or learn something completely new? Could you do it with mindfulness — as if that is the only thing in the world that matters?
Learning to do something for the learning and for the sake of doing it is largely rewarding on a daily occurrence that yields large scale impact on your happiness. If you can train yourself and control your focus you can find greater joy from the doldrums of life. Insignificant tasks and insignificant days can become new breaths of life adding vibrant colors to your dreary world. In the end, it looks like ignorance isn’t bliss after all.
