Year of beauty, how was it?

Tero A. Laiho
Nov 1 · 3 min read

I started my year of beauty on the 17th of June 2018. For a one year, I would try to post one beautiful picture a day on Instagram with a hashtag #yearofbeauty. My aim was to turn my attention towards the beauty that surrounds us every day. In turn, this should make me a happier person.

The first change was that I started to look around me to find beauty. And there was so much to find. Beauty is truly everywhere when we look carefully. We can find it and it affects us. It felt like the first time I really saw what I looked at.

What about the followers you ask. I cannot deny that follower count is meaningful to me, but it was not the aim of this experiment. My aim was to teach myself to experience the beauty all around me. And if other people are interested in what I find that is great. But even if no-one but I and my mother like my pictures the pictures are still valuable for me and they make me happier. In fact, I thought a lot about making my account a private one during the year. But still, I wanted to keep the experiment the same for 365 days.

And finally, my eyes were open. I was astounded by the wet greenery next to my commute, got lost in the red edges of the dried up leaves. Lift my head from my smartphone in the cafe and experienced the world around me. It was just where I left it many years ago. I was alive again. After finding the world again I felt much less desire to take pictures and put them into Instagram. Why would I upload them when the beauty was here and now right in the front of me? Still, I continued to upload in order to continue the experiment.

At first, I used a lot of hashtags but during the year I felt less and less need for them. Why bother. For a while, this worked but after a while, I lost my interest even in taking pictures and uploading them. The world was full of beauty and it became hard to differentiate between the beautiful moments. And I felt a strong urge to just quit both the challenge and Instagram.

In retrospect Q&A

  • Did you get more followers?

I think not. Actually, I don’t know. In the start, it felt important. I felt like this would be a good way to build up a following and make me famous. However quite soon I started to see the beauty and the need for the followers vanished.

  • What did you learn?

To see beauty. I admit that it is possible that there is a place on earth that has nothing beautiful. However, I haven’t seen a place with no beauty for a year. And now my eye has been trained for finding beauty. No need to take and share pictures all the time as beauty is all around us all the time just waiting to be seen.

  • Are you now a happier person?

Yes, I am.

  • What next?

I have a couple of ideas. One is to start posting my kanji mnemonics. In order to with the others who make them. Another idea is to start a year of black and white pictures. Year of shapes and shades. Yes, a year of shades of grey.

Tero A. Laiho

Written by

This is the Golden Age of #UX and I am living it to the fullest. Using #UX, #VR/#AR, #Robotics for a better tomorrow. #日本語 もOK www.linkedin.com/in/terolaiho/

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade