Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.
What happens when you linger and look closely at a piece of art? Nathalie Ryan, an educator from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., guides us through a slow looking practice shown to help deepen your sense of awe, presence, and connection.
How To Do This Practice:
- Choose an image to focus on: Pick a piece of art, photograph, postcard, or even a recent photo from your phone that captures a natural or urban scene. Don’t overthink it—choose something that draws your attention.
- Begin with a few slow breaths: Take a moment to settle into the present. Deepen your inhale, lengthen your exhale, and allow your breathing to slow the pace of your day.
- Let your eyes wander slowly: Scan the image without rushing. Notice the light, colors, shapes, patterns, textures, and details that begin to emerge as you spend more time looking.
- Imagine yourself inside the scene: Engage all of your senses. What might you hear, smell, feel, or taste in this place? Allow yourself to step into the environment with your imagination.
- Notice how the scene changes: Picture the image at different times of day and throughout the seasons. Reflect on how the light, colors, atmosphere, and activity might shift over time.
- Reflect on what arises: Pause to notice any emotions, memories, thoughts, or sensations that surfaced during the practice. Consider what changed when you gave yourself permission to look more slowly.
Today’s Happiness Break Guide:
NATHALIE A. RYAN is a Senior Educator at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where she has led programs for educators, families, teens, and the adult public since 2002.
Related Happiness Break episodes:
How To Ground Yourself in Nature: https://tinyurl.com/25ftdxpm
Pause to Look at the Sky: https://tinyurl.com/4jttkbw3
Experience Nature Wherever You Are, with Dacher: https://tinyurl.com/mrutudeh
Related Science of Happiness episodes:
Cities of Awe Series: https://tinyurl.com/2vyhxvny
How Cities Can Make Space for Awe: https://tinyurl.com/yr7m2zb5
What Humans Can Learn From Trees: https://tinyurl.com/48te84ps
Follow us on Instagram: @ScienceOfHappinessPod
We’d love to hear about your experience with this practice! Share your thoughts at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap
Help us share Happiness Break! Leave a 5-star review and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap
Transcription:
DACHER KELTNER: Many artists spend years– sometimes decades– working on a single piece, refining and perfecting until it finally feels complete. And yet, the average museum visitor spends only about 27 seconds looking at a work of art before moving on.
What happens when we slow down, and really allow ourselves to take it all in?
I’m Dacher Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, a series by The Science of Happiness offering research-backed practices to give you a boost in your day, all in under 10 minutes.
Last week we explored the research behind "slow looking" at art. How it can increase our perception of its beauty and complexity, and foster feelings of compassion and moments of awe. Today we'll be guided in this slow looking practice by Nathalie Ryan, an educator from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., where she and her team guide thousands of museum visitors to pause and take a closer look at the collections.
Here's Nathalie.
NATHALIE RYAN: I'm Nathalie Ryan and thank you for joining me today for this practice of slow looking.
So before we begin you want to choose a work of art to give your attention to, you can click on a link to look at a work of art from our collection. I'm suggesting a landscape scene for this particular practice, you can choose a photograph or a postcard. Maybe open up your phone, a recent snapshot you took.
Don't overthink your selection. Just find an image of a natural space or urban scene, just an image that captures a place. And for a few minutes, we're just gonna pause. Give our attention to this image and be open to what it offers you.
We see best when we're fully present. So in order to harness the present moment, I want to invite you to begin with a few intentional breaths, perhaps deepening your “in” breath. Lengthening your “out” breath.
Really just allowing yourself to find a gentle breathing pattern that brings calm to your body. This practice is about pausing the busyness of our day that's filled with doing, doing, doing, and finding a place of just being.
Being with the image before you and your own thoughts and feelings as they unfold. So focusing your eyes on the image before you, just allow your eyes to scan wandering slowly over the surface. And if your eyes feel like they're rushing, just allow your gentle breath to slow the pace of your looking. So turn your attention to noting and noticing some of the specific features of the scene before you.
The light source, the quality of light, finding the horizon, and considering what's near and what's far. Noticing the color palette and allowing your eyes to trace lines, find shapes, rhythms, or patterns throughout the scene. And as you're taking in this place before you reflect on the relationship between humans and the natural environment. To deepen your connection with this place, take an imaginative leap into the scene. Try to see this place, not just with your eyes, but with all of your senses. What can you hear, smell, feel, taste? Really engage your entire sensory experience of this environment.
And then take a moment to imagine how this scene appears throughout the day from sunrise to twilight as qualities of light change and daily life unfolds. And then try to imagine how this place changes throughout the course of a year. From summer to autumn and into winter and spring. How do the colors change? What details shift?
And as you sit with this place, just notice what thoughts and feelings have come into your mind during this practice. Thank you for pausing to look at a work of art with me.
Comments