Designer, bestselling author, and founder of the School of Joy. I help people find more joy in life and work through design. Join more than 40,000 readers who receive our weekly treasure trove of science-backed tips, delightful discoveries, and inspiration for living a better life.
Counting pigs
Hi Reader,
In CJ Hauser's essay The Crane Wife, she tells the story of how, days after breaking off her engagement with a man who cheated on her, she went on a scientific expedition to study the whooping crane on the gulf coast of Texas. This moment is one that plays over and over in my head.
How many times do we bet low in life because it's all we think we can have? All we think we deserve?
In hard times, in bad relationships, in seasons of lack — we shrink our desires so as to make them fit within the sphere of plausible outcomes. We tell ourselves we don't really need weekends off, or to be told I love you. After awhile, we almost believe it.
And in the rest of this edition: a dose of medicine for your chromophobia and a study that shows artworks featuring this one particular color sell for higher prices at auction.
Joyfully,
Ingrid
One Thing
How do you know what you really want? Well, when was the last time you asked?
Get a clean sheet of paper or a fresh journal page and give yourself 5 minutes to free-write an answer to the following prompt: I want ___________.
Let the answers flow without judgment. If a critical thought arises ("I shouldn't want that." or "I'll never have that.") notice it, and just let it go for the moment. When you get stuck, just come back to the prompt and keep exploring what's at the other end of the sentence.
Excerpted from this workshop, which is available on demand.
Mood: Spells to ward off chromophobia
As I mentioned last week, we are finally getting ready to bring a little joy to our home, and that starts with color. But even the most devout color-lovers aren't immune from the occasional bout of chromophobia.
I've spent the past two weeks painting big swatches of colors and putting them up on the wall where we can walk by them multiple times a day. Sometimes I feel my heart leap! At others, a little fearful voice: "Uh, that's a LOT of color!"
So, I'm trying to conjure up some bravery by soaking in images of fearlessly colorful spaces. Find more on my instagram here.
Images top to bottom, left to right: Aller Dorset cottages; Laure Joliet; North Farm Durham; Paul Massey.
Research Highlight
What color artworks are most expensive? A recent, cross-cultural study aimed to find out. Researchers looked at art auction prices and uncovered that paintings featuring the color blue, and to a slightly lesser extent, red, command a significant price premium (10.63% for blue, 4.2%) over the average.
Why do these colors command higher prices? In laboratory studies, the researchers tested a range of variables and found that it's simple: artworks with these colors bring joy! Pleasure drives people to bid more and ultimately pay more for these works.
My biggest takeaway? We pay more for art we love, not because we think someone else finds it valuable. And isn't that how it should be?
Source
Quote of the Week
“To be different is a negative motive, and no creative thought or created thing grows out of a negative impulse. A negative impulse is always frustrating… No negative impulse can work, can produce any happy creation. Only a positive one.”
— Eva Zeisel
Note: This newsletter may contain affiliate links to products mentioned, which means that if you choose to purchase an item, we receive a small percentage of the proceeds. We only reference books or items that we have specifically chosen out of personal interest, and there is no pressure whatsoever to purchase. We never include paid or sponsored links.
The Joyletter
by Ingrid Fetell Lee
Designer, bestselling author, and founder of the School of Joy. I help people find more joy in life and work through design. Join more than 40,000 readers who receive our weekly treasure trove of science-backed tips, delightful discoveries, and inspiration for living a better life.
Hi Reader, When things get good in your life, does something bad always seem to happen? I used to think that this was just bad luck. But recently I've realized that this pattern can be a sign of something called an upper limit problem. The idea, coined by psychologist Gay Hendricks, is that each of us has a certain tolerance for happiness. When something happens to exceed that threshold, we often engage in unconscious, self-sabotaging behaviors to bring our happiness back down to a more...
Hi Reader, Do you ever wish there were a "bad day" vaccine? Alas, no one is immune to bad days. (Yes, that includes those of us who study joy for a living.) In the past, when I found myself in the midst of one of those no-good-very-bad days, I would throw my hands up in despair. But when I learned about how even small moments of joy can shift our moods, I realized that no day is ever a lost cause. Joy is possible even on the worst days. It may only be a flicker, but it can change everything....
Hi Reader, If there's one truism about happiness that gets bandied about more than any other, it's got to be "money can't buy happiness." This old saw has taken on the mantle of fact since 2010, when researchers Angus Deaton and Daniel Kahneman published a study that suggested that money's influence on happiness plateaus at an income of about $75,000 a year. This number always seemed somewhat arbitrary to me, but who was I to quibble with a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist? Until this year....