A photographic meditation

Photography saved my life.

At a time when I was drifting and searching and feeling that life was missing something, I picked up a camera for the first time and realized I had everything I needed.

I don’t know why I felt compelled to start taking photos, but I do know what compels me to keep doing it. The reason is quite simple: it makes me feel good. It’s the thing that I can turn to anytime, even on difficult days, and know that I will feel better even if I just take one photo. Yes, photography is now how I make a living, but it runs much deeper than that. It is my job. It is my passion. It is my heart. It is a cleansing breath. It is my meditation.

As I mentioned in my last post, it’s time to treat ourselves with kindness and look for what’s right with our lives instead of always focusing on what’s wrong. When I first started blogging (before I was a photographer), I created something called “Slice of Life Tuesday.” I knew that come rain or come shine (and here in Seattle, it’s mostly rain), I was going to post at least one photo from my everyday life on my blog every Tuesday. At the time, I didn’t feel like I had much to photograph. I was going to work, coming home exhausted, making dinner, and going to bed. (Sound familiar?)

I realized very quickly that Slice of Life Tuesday was less about what I photographed and more about the act of photographing. I didn’t want to paint a false picture of my life. Instead, I chose to celebrate the simple things – quiet times with my husband, the way the light hit my coffee cup, even the mess in my life. It was all important.

Photography began to change my life in ways I wasn’t prepared for. Instead of striving for the future and replaying the past, I was appreciating the present – just the way it was. Photography became a practice in appreciation. Photography was a visual gratitude journal. In a similar way that yoga or meditation help people stay “in the moment,” photography became my refuge. It was my calm in the storm.

I have since opened up Slice of Life Tuesdays to everyone who wants to participate and have created a related e-course, called the Slice of Life Project. My mission is to share this approach to life and photography with as many people as I can. The amazing thing is that anyone can do it! It doesn’t take a lot of time or fancy equipment. So many people have cameras on their phones now that taking photos is a lot more accessible than it used to be.

So today, I’d like to share my photographic meditation. Here are a few ways you can bring presence, awareness, and gratitude to your life. Grab your camera (any kind of camera) and follow these steps:

1. Stop what you are doing. Put down your iPhone/Blackberry/laptop/etc., close your eyes, and take one deep breath. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, close your eyes and breathe.

2. Quiet the noise in your head – the incessant to-do list, the thoughts of what you should be doing, the worries about your children or your spouse. Just breathe.
3. Slowly open your eyes and notice what you see. Even if what you see is mess and clutter, without judging yourself or your surroundings, just notice.
4. Dig a little deeper with curiosity. Look at your surroundings as if it was the first time you’d ever seen them. What catches your eye? Find something that makes you happy, reminds you of someone you love, or brings back a positive memory. If it doesn’t come quickly, dig deeper. What does the light look like in the room? Who is in the room? What colors are in the room that you like? If you see clutter or piles of toys, notice the textures and shapes within those things.
5. After you’ve found one thing that catches your eye, take a photo of it! Photograph it in different ways, from different angles, from closer and further away.
6. Take a step back and find one or two more things in the room that catch your eye. Really push yourself to find something else in the room that conjures a positive emotion or is visually interesting and photograph it.
7. Notice how you feel after taking those photos. More relaxed? More centered? More appreciative?
8. Repeat as often as you can. Try to make a practice of it. Do it once a week or once a day or even once an hour. Try it in different locations – in different rooms of your house, at work, at the grocery store. You’d be amazed how interesting the world looks through the lens of a camera!

The other way to go about photo meditating is to just pick up your camera and start shooting. I do this all the time. When I’m feeling stress or exhaustion or just need a mental break, I grab my camera with no particular plan of what I’m going to photograph and I just start taking photos. Sometimes I take my camera for a walk around the block and sometimes around my living room. This forces my brain to turn off the things that were stressing me out and focus on what I love about my life. It forces me to stop taking myself so darn seriously, to lighten up, and to see the amazing things that are right before my eyes.

The other lovely thing that happens after a photo meditation is that you have those photos to return to later. You can look at them and be reminded of that peaceful moment and of all of the beauty in your life.

Give this exercise a try and let me know how it goes for you. If you’d like to share the photo results of this experiment, leave a link to your blog or Flickr page in the comments below. And if photography isn’t your thing, pick something you love to do and try the same exercise. Maybe it’s a drawing meditation or a writing meditation or a painting meditation. Turn on some music and boogie for a couple of minutes. Do what works for you. The point is that in the midst of our messy, busy lives, there are moments of true beauty. It’s up to us to slow down and notice them.