Elise Hu

so obvious that this need for rest is integral to being human and the wintering or the hibernation, the peace, that's key to recovering and healing and becoming better.

My favorite part is when she talks about how resistance to pain causes us the most suffering.

And if we were to just take the time to winter, we would actually be able to be alive to the pain, but also heal from that and be more alive to other things like beauty and happiness and good things in our lives.

That was a really profound episode for me and completely blew my mind.

My pick for the most shared tidbit I learned from the show this year goes to Ingrid Lee, because I've been telling absolutely anyone who will listen how the minimalism movement has made us all feel sad and how our brains respond really positively to bright colors, repeating patterns, and just how generally we should be trying to bring more color into our lives.

And after listening to this episode, I went out and bought a very bright multicolored chair and have been trying to wear more colors and patterns in my day-to-day life and have been trying to spread the gospel far and wide.

So thanks, Ingrid.

What I was trying to understand was what makes these things specifically joyful.

And it's

understanding that there are sensorial qualities to those joyful things that are repeatable, that we can find throughout cultures all over the planet.

So things like bright color, round shapes, a sense of abundance and multiplicity, a feeling of lightness or elevation, repeating patterns.

And it's that level of abstraction of being able to understand what is the essence that's actually making this joyful from a neuroscientific perspective.

that allows us to then say, okay, well, what's really doing the work of creating the joy is the repetition, not necessarily the polka dots.

It's the repetition of the circular shape.

And those two things together are what's creating that feeling of joy.

And so we can apply that idea somewhere else, and it doesn't necessarily have to feel so literal.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hu.

For the next week and a half, we are sharing a handful of talks, conversations, and podcast episodes from the TED Archive that spark some inspiration in all of us.

Since we're thinking about the end of 2025 and the intentions and practices we hope to bring into our lives in 2026.