Surround Yourself With Beautiful Objects

Originally published July 8, 2021

If you care about your life — if you want to live a better life, you need to care about the objects you surround yourself with.

How does the glass you drink water off look like? How does it feel to your hand? What kind of reflection does it create int the afternoon light?

We can elevate our daily life just by investing in objects of quality and beauty. When our environment is filled with beautiful objects, we can more easily find satisfaction in the small moments of life and fully enjoy our days.

Would you rather drink your morning coffee from a cup that feels uncomfortable to hold and looks just ‘meh’? Or would you prefer a mug that sparks a feeling of coziness and joy every time you merely lay eyes on it? We should pay attention to the design and details of our most used items. Since interactions accumulate, it makes sense to pay special attention to the things that we interact with daily.

One of my favorite possessions at the moment is handmade leather notebook I use for journaling. The covers are so beautiful that I like to keep the journal on sight at all times. In the past, I would perhaps thought that investing in something like a gorgeous notebook would somehow be pretentious, (too “extra”) and most likely not worth the money. I now believe the exact opposite!

A small act like opting for the nicest notebook available, can hold so much power and positive influence over our lives. A quality notebook inspires me to write more, reminds me of the specialness of each day, communicates self-respect and appreciation for my own thoughts and experiences. These days I'm very careful when choosing the items I decide to bring into my home. I’ve also learned to happily spend a little extra money on a things that speak to me.

Of course, wanting to make your life more beautiful doesn’t automatically mean you must always go for the most expensive thing or buy a lot of new stuff. I’ve found many of my dearest items from flea markets and second hand shops for almost free. Beauty does not necessarily equal luxury and money should never be an impediment to building great aesthetics. It’s also worth pondering the millions of forms that beauty can come in; simplicity, natural materials, a vibrant color, character…

Someone might think that putting this much thought into physical objects is somehow materialistic or superficial. I disagree. By arousing the senses, we are arousing thought and spirit as well. Beauty not only please our eyes, it also speaks to our hearts and our souls. Adorning our daily surroundings as one of the greatest opportunities available to us as humans. It’s a chance for us to try to bring our high ideals into the material. To bridge the gap between heaven and earth. To pay attention, to appreciate and celebrate life in the here and now.

And let’s not forget that we live in a material world — for now, materiality is the fabric of our lives.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are the eternity and you are the mirror.
Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931, Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer)

By curating beautiful surroundings, we can enrich our daily life and find more contentment in our days. We can use our environment as a reminder, a guide towards higher, deeper truths of life. Let your surroundings work as a reflection — care about your physical reality down to the smallest detail.