Taking in the Good

I’ve been reading another book by Rick Hanson, called Hardwiring Happiness. In it Hanson talks about a practice he calls

Taking in the Good

I am finding the book a highly accessible and sensible read based on what we now know about how the brain works and how we can do small things in our lives to add to our happiness and joy.

The best way to develop greater happiness and other inner strengths is to have experiences of them, and then help these good mental states become good neural traits. This is taking in the good: activating a positive experience and installing it in your brain.
― Rick Hanson, Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

As I read Hanson’s description of taking in the good I realized that my photography practice has been one that has encouraged me to take in the good. Because of my love for photography, I began noticing beauty in unexpected places, treasuring the light at certain times of day and realizing that the more I paid attention to beauty the happier I felt.

Stay with the positive experience for five to ten seconds or longer. Open to the feelings in it and try to sense it in your body; let it fill your mind. Enjoy it. Gently encourage the experience to be more intense. Find something fresh or novel about it. Recognize how it’s personally relevant, how it could nourish or help you, or make a difference in your life.
― Rick Hanson, Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

The more you practice the easier it gets

Now I find myself basking in the light of sunset even when I’m not making a photograph of it and noticing things like the shadows on the ice-covered pond, of the tree that fell into the pond last summer, in the harsh midday sunlight.

You can practice taking in the good before bed by focusing on one thing that went right that day or making a list of things you are grateful for.

Just before bed, your mind is very receptive, so no matter what went wrong that day, find something that went right, open to it, and let good feelings come and ease you into sleep.
― Rick Hanson, Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

This Thanksgiving week might be a good time to start your own Taking in the Good practice. I challenge you to start a gratitude journal and list 3 things each day that you are grateful for.

May you walk in beauty.

May you take in the good.

Note: I started the watercolor painting at the top of this post at least a week ago but when I decided that I wasn’t happy with the sky I put it aside and didn’t work on it again until yesterday. Then figuring I had nothing to lose, I sat down and played with seeing how close I could come to expressing what I saw in the photo I had based it on. When you’re learning something new it’s easy to get side-tracked in self-criticism. I don’t know any way around it except to keep on coming back time after time after time, and to focus on the joy of the activity instead of the results (something I’m not always good at doing).

Here’s the reference photo that I used and some other photos from that trip that I rediscovered today.