Welcome to Beauty Hunter! Start here.
Welcome to a frontier of inquiry where beauty is the fabric of daily life.
Beauty as something that exalts the senses and expands the mind and spirit.
Beauty as anything you name it to be. Beauty dressed down: call it delight, grit, sadness, fat pink cherry blossoms, the soft blanket against your skin, a waterproof coat in the rain, a stranger’s smile.
How do we expand our notions of beauty and create more, see more of it, experience MORE, even during challenging times?
Beauty Hunter is where we turn toward beauty in everyday life to:
make meaningful changes in our lives
to experience more delight and ease of living
be more playful and engaged
have more fun—not because you think you should but because you’re doing life your unique way
join a community of existential explorers: playmates!
Life gets demanding, the news of the day despairing, yet beauty is unwavering, and the world inherently playful. Having fun continues to be the most effective way to learn and evolve, and great for our well-being. Let’s go all in with Beauty, and see what happens. We’re in this together.
Here’s what paid Beauty Hunter subscribers get
Weekly posts—written & videos—that speak to the human experience and how we can find beauty, love, and humor in challenging circumstances.
Monthly prompts and exercises to help you experience more of life through the lens of beauty.
Monthly Salons on Zoom, a place for conversation, connection, and meeting new people. I’ll provide the conversation starter, and off we’ll go: explorering.
Comments, chat, and community discussions
Access to full archives of posts and videos
Discounts on group coaching offers
Beauty Hunter-Plus memberships get everything a paid subscriber receives and:
One 45-minute coaching conversation—anything to bring you clarity, ease, delight, and more beauty.
Here’s what free subscribers get
Two posts per month—written & video—that speak to the human experience and how we can find beauty, love, and humor in challenging circumstances.
Comments, chat, and community discussions.
Why Beauty?
I started Beauty Hunter after the news of the day—pandemics, politics, polemics, war—took my imagination (and nervous system) hostage.
I walked the neighborhood streets amped up on images of a dystopian future. Bouts of anxiety ensued. I snapped at my loved ones, I cried in the doctor’s office. Slept in, ignored my work and creative projects. Then one day I stopped beneath the canopy of a glorious Western Red Cedar. Caught in a moment of awe, I received a message: Remember Beauty.
Ohhhhhh, yeahhhhhhhh. That.
I started taking the slowest walks past flowering trees, noticing everything; I said Hello to passersby and saw the kindness in their eyes; I stretched myself to see the beauty in my Dad’s final years with dementia and blindness and experienced surprising moments of intimacy and love with him.
Little by little I woke up to the beauty of living, even in the swirl of the hard stuff. My capacity to be with a mix of feelings and experiences increased; relationships became easier, and more playful, and a general love of people blossomed.
Beauty became a portal to awakening and falling in love with life—all of it, the good and bad, happy and sad, bounties and tragedies. And the writer and coach in me had to share it and bring you along on the journey.
Beauty Hunter isn’t about turning away from what’s challenging or confronting, but to keep expanding our capacity; to stay present with the world, people, and our own unique awakenings through beauty.
Imagine a life, a community, a world that turned toward beauty and made its meaning and purpose there?
Let’s start here, together.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves
of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” – Rachel Carson
What is beauty?
I define “beauty” as that which exalts the senses and expands the mind and spirit. I encourage you to come up with your own definition of Beauty and take it for a test drive. Other Beauty Hunters have described Beauty as: Surprise, Comfort, Serving others, and Beauty as a verb. Anything goes—maybe it’s “I’ll know it when I see it.”
Who is Beauty Hunter?
Hi, I’m Tatyana Sussex. Here’s a bit more about me.
Writer & Editor: Personal essays, poetry, fiction, technical, business, blogs. I love the surprise and adventure that writing delivers, the way I can start with an idea or theme and go to places I never imagined. Most recently, I am revising a manuscript about the unexpected thrills and oh-shits of marrying for the first time at 49, Late: A Midlife Memoir, and trying to apply beauty-hunting to process of another rewrite.
Everyday athlete: Swimmer, runner, walker, skier, former triathlete. My dedication to exercise is less discipline, more love, and very much about community. My sports life is where I experience beauty on the most regular basis.
Learner: Primary, Middle, High School, College. Extension Programs, Graduate School, Coaching School. Therapist, coaches, mentors, communities, classrooms. Books, the arts and nature are some of my favorite teachers. The learning is ongoing.
Late bloomer: I married for my first time at 49. In one fell swoop I had a husband, grown step-children, grandkids, siblings-in-law, the works. My grandma name is “T-Sizzle.” My stepdaughter married an Australian; my mother’s Australian. Life is funny like that.
Retired party girl: Some people call this being "sober" but it's such a serious word. I hung up my drinking cups and found a new freedom and happiness in facing myself and using the power of my imagination to manifest the previously unimaginable. The way humans can transform and adapt is the most beautiful act imaginable.
Let’s go there together.