Humans have always been drawn to beautiful things. Whether it's a sunset, a landscape, or a beautifully crafted object, the emotion they evoke is deeply embedded in our psyche. Our tendency to keep things we deem beautiful stems from our instinct for preservation. In this article, we'll explore why beautiful things trigger our instinct to care for them.
The sense of beauty
While the very definition of beauty may be changing, we are unanimously more drawn to what is beautiful . Beauty is a source of comfort and self-esteem because it encourages us to listen to ourselves and trust what we feel.
Although beauty retains an element of subjectivity, it appears that we are significantly more attracted to and receptive to symmetrical shapes and perfect proportions. These have even been theorized using the golden ratio, a mathematical formula used since ancient times in architecture and art.
On the other hand, the meaning of beauty can vary from one individual to another because it depends on personal experience. What we like most is often what brings us back to an imaginary life linked to our aspirations. By possessing an object, we aspire to the life that goes with it.
Our opinion on beauty, our relationship with beauty, evolves over time. Influenced by the evolution of our aspirations and our environment, the evolution of our sense of beauty can also be explained by the plasticity of our brain.
Art and beauty arouse sensory reactions. And not only that!Arousing emotions is the essence of art. Whether we like it or not, the emotions we feel when viewing a work reflect the role our senses play in perceiving our surroundings.
This interpretation of our environment by our body creates an emotional connection. Through touch, sight, or smell, our body memorizes all the information it has and thus creates sensory and emotional reactions.
This phenomenon has a scientific explanation: when we see a sculpture, a painting, or a piece of music, our brain secretes dopamine. This hormone, associated with desire and pleasure, is also called the love hormone. Thus, like love, art contributes to our well-being, making it more of a necessity than a luxury.
Researchers at University College London have successfully identified the part of the brain that corresponds to the sense of beauty . Their experiment involved showing different types of sculptures to a sample of people. Opinions differed, but when the sculpture was considered beautiful, it was always the medial orbitofrontal cortex that reacted. This part of the brain is very flexible and changes very easily with experience, which explains our ability to familiarize ourselves, develop a taste for, and train our eyes to beautiful things. Our sense of beauty is developed over time, through experience, and through the variety of our environment.
Our desire to preserve the objects that inspire our sense of beauty is therefore completely natural and physiological. The beauty of the things around us creates an emotional response of attachment and well-being, so why part with them?
An instinct for preservation, as old as the world
From our earliest days, our brains were programmed to seek out safe and healthy environments to protect us from potential danger. Environments that show signs of deterioration or danger, such as dirt, decay, or darkness, can be perceived as threats to our safety. In contrast, environments that show signs of life, prosperity, and beauty are considered safe and healthy. Our instinct for self-preservation was therefore already closely linked to our sense of beauty .
Our need to preserve, even collect, objects is also quite ancient. Within all civilizations, we find objects invested with a duty of memory or representation. This notion is at the heart of the emotional relationship we can form with the objects around us, through this ability to deposit parts of ourselves and our memory in them. They are special to us because they evoke a special moment, the memory of which is revived with each glance. The loss of an object can also be heartbreaking because of the loss of the memory it represents.
Our instinct for self-preservation helps us better cope with feelings of loneliness. Being surrounded by objects fills a void and reassures us. Our small daily vulnerabilities can be softened by these precious objects, bearers of memory and with whom we create deeply personal bonds.
At Hyléria, we tap into this instinct for preservation by creating our bottles like we would a piece of jewelry. Designed to accompany you in your moments of well-being and comfort, our products aim to protect not only your skin but also the nature that surrounds us.
A Hyléria case is another item to add to your wellness collection.