I first heard this phrase from a fellow Enneagram coach who recommended reading K.J. Ramsey’s book The Lord is My Courage. (Highly recommend it, BTW.)
I think he said “Stop. Breathe. Look for the Beauty.”
I’ve changed it up a bit and added Look Up. We often stop, but we forget to look up so it’s my reminder to myself to look up and change my focus.
Why is it vital we pause throughout our day, breathe deeply, and look for beauty?
In The Lord is My Courage, K.J. Ramsey writes “….we need beauty to bring us back to hearing Goodness and Love calling our name…..Stress releases its grip on our bodies when we notice the presence of goodness.”
She goes on to share about how nature was made to soothe our stress. The sights, the sounds, the scents…all can bring us out of a stress state and back into a balanced state.
Pausing, taking a deep breath and looking for the the beauty can be healing for our nervous system. It help us move us from a sympathetic nervous system state to a parasympathetic state which has major implications on our physical health. The pace of the culture we live in now keeps us in a hurried and rush state. We may not even realize the stress state that could cause for our bodies.
It also helps us “just be.” Our spirits and minds need time to just be without striving toward a goal or an ends. I’ve talked about taking time to “just be” before. We are human beings not human doings and pausing to breath, look up & find the beauty around us helps us get off the treadmill of tasks and accomplishments for a few moments or a few minutes. It reminds us our worth is not dependent on what we do and accomplish.
We were made to notice. When we find the beauty around us, we invite more of that in our life.
Noticing the beauty of nature reminds us that we don’t have to be perfect. Our minds need reminded that perfection is just an illusion.
What we focus on multiplies. I want to multiply the beauty I find in my life! Don’t you?
I want to smell more flowers, listen and watch more birds playing and singing, watch more sunsets, gaze at more stars and planets, and more.
Physically, mentally, and spiritually, I need and want to find more glimmers of beauty throughout my day.
That beauty is always there.
It teaches us how to grow.
It teaches us how to thrive.