Singing in the rain
When beauty touches us, it awakens our aesthetic response, ranging from contentment and satisfaction to delight, rejoicing, and awe: these modes of experience register our recognition of universal beauty. The most common positive emotions are joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride (paired with humility), amusement, inspiration, awe, and love.[1] As long as positive emotions arise from perceptions that are in the ballpark of reality or from actions that are good, the emotions not only feel good, but they are also essential for our well-being. Moreover, in order for positive emotions to fulfill their mission in us, we must allow them to flourish: when positive emotions begin to dawn, we can take the time to allow them to come forth fully, to permeate, open, uplift, and strengthen us. We can also recycle a negative emotion into a good experience; for that micro-transformation it helps to respond with attention and wisdom in an attitude of faith.
What diverse emotions have you experienced in responding to beauty in the different moods of nature? What happens when you take the time to allow the full experience of positive emotion to come to its flourishing? Do you have a technique for recycling unbeautiful emotions?
If any of you is unfamiliar with perhaps the most loved song-and-dance sequence in 20th century film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ
[1] This paragraph draws on Barbara L. Fredrickson, Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3-to-1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7d/Singin_Rain.jpg/330px-Singin_Rain.jpg
Yesterday, Sunday March 10, 2002 about 10:00AM, I went for my usual walke, and I was
astounded when I looked up in the sky. There was not a cloud in the sky; but the most thrilling
aspect of this was the deep blue color of the sky. Never Have I seen the sky this color of blue. It was so deep, so royal, almost as if it was a painted. This was beauty. I told my wife and my
daughter Tiffany about it so they could see it before it faded. They too agreed it was the most
beautiful sky they had ever seen. I shall continuously look for the color of sky again, for I deeply feel that this most be the way the sky is in heaven. The light just seemed to be coming
from all over the sky rather than one place. But so far I have not witnessed this spectacle of beauty since then.
This picture of the dark royal blue sky evoked emotions of wonderment, joy, hope, and a deep longing. It even stimulated my faith. It lifted me out of myself. I was able to savor these emotions for several days afterwards before they began to fade. I have often tried to recapture that emotional state, but have not been able to capture it in its vividness, though the memory of it remains.
Negative emotions are difficult for me to deal with and I suppose this is in part due to the ever present stimulus that generate them. I do my best to antidote them with positive emotions from positive experiences, and I experience some success, but I am not satisfied with the results. I have learned that it is easier to avoid falling into a hole rather than digging myself out once I have fallen in. This understanding has saved me from experiencing a lot of negative emotions, for some of them I can sense before they become full blown and began to recall those memories of positive experiences that have brought me joy in the past.
Dr Perry
Beloved brother Dr Perry, I rejoice with you over your seeing the deep blue sky in a revelatory perception that infused your mind and soul. With this experience report you are breaking new ground in my understanding of beauty in nature.
I can only attempt to complement your experience by recalling my visit to the home of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who painted each room in his home with a different color corresponding to a particular key; the colors were saturated, vivid, deep, and memorable. Others have associated colors with other dimensions of experience; but in your case it is not just the color but the sky. Universe beauty carries us beyond the limited attractions of particular phenomena.
Thank you also for your priceless reflection on how you avoid having negative emotions come to their natural outcome. Having memories of beauty to look back on does indeed sustain the soul in difficulty. Blessings to you day by day as you tread this segment of your life journey, sharing with us as you do!
Being out in nature (and more so when I’m at my best) I feel many of the common emotions that you described; I feel happy when I see green scenery and colorful flowers, or wrapped in bounty and warmth when I feel the sunshine and a cool breeze on my skin. These emotions soon yield a sense of hope mixed with gratitude. But what I can relate to with more vividness is what I have been doing the past 7 years of my academic career. I have been studying life (biology). The order, thoughtfulness, and harmony in what I see from the structure of a cell to complex cellular and behavioral interactions that make up organisms, continue to impress and inspire me. I feel privileged and grateful to be able to experience a closer and deeper sense of the beautiful workings of nature.
With all said, I think I could certainly do better at consciously allowing these emotions to permeate. I also admit that negative emotions sometimes get in the way of experiencing the positive ones. I would describe myself as a beginner in this regard and would love to hear what others would have to suggest!
Thank you again, Mahtab, for a helpfully articulate sharing. We get to know you and the world better in such writing.
So often I feel like a beginner, too, thrown back to the beginning by some shadow of my thinking, feeling, or doing. I will just sketch a few ideas and encourage others to respond to your call.
First of all, the terms “positive” and “negative” are vague. For someone to feel good in a manner that is uprooted from truth and goodness is “positive” only in an abstract and limited sense. And the most righteous person that I know allowed himself to experience sorrow and to express righteous indignation when it was timely to do so.
Neurologically and phenomenologically, feeling and thinking (often referred to as cognition) are intertwined. When an unwelcome emotion arises, we can learn to recognize its stimulus, learn from it, and re-interpret it in a way that promotes a better feeling. We can enlist humor to help us.
Suppressing emotion can occasionally win a temporary victory, but a real strategy for transformation is found in Jesus’ beatitudes. The list begins with openness in seeking the family of God: Blessed are the humble (translated from the Aramaic that Jesus spoke rather than from the Greek–“poor in spirit”), for theirs is the kingdom of God. Abiding as long as may be needed in that openness, you receive divine assurance; and that divine assurance enables you to trust the further promises regarding righteous and happy living. Of course in particular situations there is a lot more to say.
That was very insightful and helpful. Thank you!
I think I’ve experienced the whole range of emotions because of beauty. My heart is touched by the beauty of a child’s face or a master work of art. I’m deeply moved by a song beautifully sung or a poem beautifully written. However, I’m especially moved to reverence, awe and ultimately worship by the stark and overwhelming beauty of nature. For me, humanity is able to capture a piece of this, God’s majestic craft, at times, and we succeed in our own way, but the beauty of God’s creation that is abundant everywhere is the source of all human inspiration.
I’m glad that beauty can elicit a wide range of emotions from you. Sometimes we respond to beauty through stereotyped, cliched emotions, like kitsch on the wall; or we take a quick picture rather than immerse ourselves long enough for the image to remain permanently in us. It takes me a good fifteen minutes with a scene for it to penetrate.