One thing I try to do every day is to seek out moral elevation, which is the warm, fuzzy feeling we get in our chests when we witness or reflect on someone else’s extraordinary behaviors—for example, their kindness, courage, humility, or self-sacrifice. Research shows that moral elevation doesn’t just feel good; it actually changes our perspective on the world. When we witness someone defy our understanding of what humans are capable of, it cracks open our imagination of what is possible for humanity overall and for us as individuals.

One of the people I profile in my new book, The Other Side of Change, is Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was sentenced to nine years in an adult prison for a carjacking he committed as a teenager. He mourned the loss of a once-promising future and feared who he might become behind bars. Would he develop a drug addiction? Become violent? Start gambling?

But a serendipitous experience of moral elevation expanded Dwayne’s sense of what was possible for him. One afternoon, he met a fellow prisoner, Bilal, who violated many of Dwayne’s assumptions about what it could look like to be a prisoner. “How Bilal dressed, how he carried himself, his care for young people even when allegiances in prison could get you killed—he was making this choice to say, ‘This is my identity,’” Dwayne told me. Dwayne realized that perhaps he wasn’t destined to become a certain type of person just because he was a prisoner. Perhaps there were promising futures available to him.

It was with this more empowered mindset that Dwayne encountered a book of poetry a few weeks later. Upon reading a poem about the experience of a young Black boy in prison, Dwayne, for the first time, conjured up an alternative future for himself: one in which he was a poet who used his words to dignify the experiences of incarcerated young men and boys of color. He began feverishly writing poems from inside his cell, using thread from a torn-up sheet to bind together the pages to create a book.

Fast forward three decades, and today Dwayne is a world-renowned poet, a Yale Law School graduate, and a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. He credits his success to Bilal’s moral beauty. Moments of moral elevation are all around us, if we’re just willing to be present and notice them. They might show up in the form of the barista at the coffee shop who shows extra kindness to a customer who is obviously having a bad day; or at your child’s playground, when you witness a kid standing up to the bully; or in quieter moments, like when you see up close your coworker’s resolve as they care for an ill spouse.

Being more open to these moments and allowing them to subtly change my perspective has filled my life with so much more hope. I hope it does the same for you.