Happier from Noticing
Have you heard of ‘the art of noticing?’
Those are the words that have been circulating in my algorithm lately. If they haven’t reached your screen yet, I’d recommend looking them up yourself, because they genuinely helped me live my life better this year.
I’ve always seen myself as someone a bit insensitive. I forget other people’s problems easily, and for a long time, I thought that was a flaw. But it wasn’t something I was born with. I trained myself to be this way to maintain serenity in my own head: to avoid letting things beyond my control take up space in my mind.
But there’s another thing I’ve been training myself this year: the art of noticing.
I’ll openly tell everyone on this planet that my favorite movie is Perfect Days by Wim Wenders. I learned this practice from that film, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it truly changed my life.
I won’t take too much of your time talking about the film, but somehow, watching two hours of a toilet cleaner living his quiet, mundane life made me cry. You can watch it yourself! Please! I beg you! It might change your life!
Perfect Days aside, I think this year has been my happiest one post-pandemic. Yes, things happened, bad things, worse things, all kinds of things. But what matters more is the bigger lens around them: how I chose to live. This year, I tried to really see my surroundings. And no, it wasn’t people I paid the most attention to (people will disappoint you anyway). It was the smallest, most unimportant things the ones that quietly support you without you ever realizing it.
One day, I was driving my car and passed a narrow bridge. It’s a bad bridge too small, too crowded. I’ve always hated it. But that day, I looked up, saw something, and smiled.
My camera didn’t quite capture what made it special. It was the contrast: the fresh green of the trees, the red traffic light, and the blue sky above them all. You might laugh at me for this, but that simple sight made my entire day.
That was the beginning of all this noticing. I started stopping at rest areas just to look up at dancing leaves, watching people from upper levels, gazing at the moon before stepping into my house after a long day. I noticed trees bathed in sunlight and, my favorite of all, komorebi: the moment when sunlight slips through the smallest gaps between leaves, casting soft, shifting shadows.
If those unimportant things can make me happy, I believe life becomes more manageable. My work can be overwhelming at times, packed with stimulation and constant demands. I get frustrated (of course I do). Last year, I often felt like a loser, someone who kept entertained by the idea of quitting, BUT not this year! And hopefully, not for the rest of my life. All because of this practice of noticing.
I’ve been talking about it nonstop (sorry for the yapping), but here’s why it truly changed my life:
It helped me slow down, stay present and feel more grounded.
Also somewhere along the way, I became a fan of trees and the sky.
They don’t fix everything. They don’t erase exhaustion, disappointment, or uncertainty. But they soften the days, they give me somewhere to breathe when life feels too loud.
Maybe that’s why I feel happier, not because my life is perfect, but because I learned how to notice it.
