June 3, 2026- Looking for beauty

But when we look for the good in others, we start to see the best in ourselves, too.

~Jay Shetty

Confirmation bias is a phenomenon in which we start to see the things we are expecting to see. We begin to believe those things are more prevalent than they really are. This will cause us to notice every car that matches the make and model of our own, while we readily dismiss the cars that don’t match. There’s far too much for our brains to take in around us, so they prioritize what we notice and what we dismiss. This is where confirmation bias comes from.

We tend to be biased toward criticism. We look out for errors, for mistakes. This does help us improve our performance on many tasks, as it allows us to notice what needs to be fixed. At the same time, it creates a confirmation bias toward flaws. We begin to think they are more prevalent than they really are.

What if we were intentional about looking for good and looking for beauty? What if we created a confirmation bias to make ourselves think beauty and goodness were more prevalent than they really are? We would not be required to ignore the flaws we do see, but we would not have to always go out looking for them. We could start to see how much good there really is around us, and how much good there already is inside of us. Let’s start looking for the good and finding it.