I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is A Little Happier.
When I wrote my book Life in Five Senses, I did many experiments with my senses of seeing hearing smelling, tasting and touching.
Of everything I tried, more than anything else I did.
I was most transformed by my decision to visit the Metropolitan Museum every day for a year.
By establishing my daily visit, I used my love of discipline to give myself a break from discipline.
Scheduling time for recess gave me the chance to wander.
I loved this practice so much that I never stopped it, and I still visit the Met every day.
I've chosen a museum, but of course, someone else might choose a different place.
A park, a route through a neighborhood, a front stoop.
The place doesn't really matter.
With familiarity and repetition, the world reveals itself in an unexpected way.
As for me, I chose the Met, and there I measure myself against a different scale.
I feel myself rise above the trivialities of my daily life.
As I read the placard's calm references to disaster, from the sack of Rome to the death of a beloved dog, my own worries recede.
Works of coral rock crystal burr walnut porcupine quills, gold leaf clay, feathers and jade transport me with their sublime transformations of nature.
Awe is an intensely gratifying emotion.
And also research shows that people who experience awe more frequently show more humility and more creativity, have a greater sense of well-being and desire to connect with others, and even have better immune health.
Awe decreases anxiety and stress.
But I don't care about these utilitarian arguments.
I visit the Met for pure joy.
I feel happier from the moment I walk through its doors.
It's a paradox.
I feel more deeply inside myself, yet I also feel able to slide outside myself and connect to the world.
The Met has become my playground, my treehouse, my snow day.
I often feel a bit guilty about grubbing through the museum in my usual yoga pants and running shoes.
In his student days famous esthete Oscar Wilde caused a national sensation when he remarked I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.
I feel the same way.
I stand in front of the stern pure, God-horse-protecting King Nectonavo II and think how can I be worthy of it?
How do I rise to the beauty of the world?
The best way is to reach out with my senses.
No one else can visit my Metropolitan Museum.
There, nothing flashes, nothing refreshes.
Everything waits for me to come to it.
As objects become more familiar, and as I learn more about them, they become more beautiful.
So the Met slowly transforms itself beneath my gaze.
And the Met is so huge and reshapes itself so often that I know it will never seem stale.
When I returned for the tenth time to Borgiani's self-portrait as a painter with palette and canvas, I discovered that it had disappeared.
I was happy that I'd looked carefully at the painting while I'd had the chance.
On one unforgettable visit, as I was walking past a row of sunlit marble statues, I suddenly realized something obvious about my visits to the Metropolitan Museum.
The Met was a metaphor for my entire undertaking.
When I started my project around the five senses, I'd yearn to outgrow the accidental limitations of my nature to experience more deeply this life, my only life.
My visits to the Met were my attempt to reach the places in me that I hadn't yet discovered.
There I found my visible storage, my masterpieces set in illuminated cases, my neglected stairwells, my fountains, my postcards, my stoned vases filled with flowers.
I am the laboratory, I am the notebook, and I am the museum.
I'm Gretchen Rubin, and I hope this makes your week a little happier.
Hi, Gretchen, Craig Robinson, and my little sister Michelle here.
We host a new podcast called IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
We know you're the queen of giving advice, so we wanted to get a few tips from you.
You know, Gretchen, a lot of our listeners are going through some major life changes.
What advice do you have for folks who are trying to stay grounded in the midst of major life transitions?
Craig and Michelle, I am so happy to be talking to you.
Here are a few questions that might help us gain perspective.
So consider questions like this.
What activities take up my time but are not particularly useful or stimulating for me?
Do I spend a lot of time on something that's important to someone else but is not very important to me?
If I could magically change one habit in my life, what would I choose?
And here's a question.
Would I like to have more time in solitude restorative solitude or would I like to have more time with friends?
You know, just thinking about questions like this can help us start to figure out how we might make our lives happier.
With greater self-knowledge, we're better able to make hard decisions that reflect ourselves, our own nature, our own interests, our own values.
In my own case, I found that the more my life reflects my nature, the happier I get and the more grounded I feel when I'm going through a period of major change or transition.
For more great advice, search for IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson wherever you get podcasts.
You can listen to Issa Rae on letting go of certain friendships, Kiki Palmer on why disappointment is actually the key to career success, Seth and Lauren Rogan on caring for aging parents, and so many more.
