Mindful Photography
It is that part of the semester where I have many final assignments due. Because of this, my post today is an assignment I’m turning in for my Stress, Coping, and Resilience class. Throughout the semester, we have participated in 3 different positive psychology exercises, a three good things exercise, a gratitude letter, and a mindful photography assignment. This is my reflection and response to the mindful photography assignment. We were asked to take at least 5 pictures in one day of things that make us happy in our everyday life.
I appreciated the opportunity to do another positive psychology exercise with our mindful photography assignment. I’m notorious for not remembering to take pictures, so I really had to focus to complete this assignment. I think that I don’t remember to take pictures because 1) I want to stay in the present moment and 2) my photography skills aren’t that great (although I’ve been trying to improve them lately). In trying to remember to take 5 different pictures throughout the day, I found that the exercise itself felt surprisingly gentle and enlightening. I noticed that being busy would get in the way of remembering to take the pictures and so this exercise caused me to slow down and take in the world around me better.
In order to remember to take a picture, something had to catch my attention and cause me to want to take a pause. I was surprised by what caught my attention and I definitely noticed some themes. Most of my pictures were focused on the natural beauty I experience on a daily basis. For instance, the mountains around my home and the flowers in my garden. I experience both of these when taking my regular daily walk. When I take the time to actually look at them, such as when I practice a “beginner’s mindset,” I’m left in awe of their majesty. I feel small and yet somehow still significant. My curiosity led me to acknowledge that there are forces bigger than I can control and yet the littlest details are all part of the ecosystem. When I’m in these moments, time seems to slow, and I feel a sense of gratitude to be able to witness the wonders of the natural world.
I noticed that I didn’t want to keep this sense of awe to myself. The pictures I took, however, could not do the actual scene justice. Because of that, I decided to take my family to those areas to experience the real thing as well. They weren’t as awe struck as I was, but I was still grateful for the moment we took to slow down and look around.
Aside from natural beauty, I also found that I was drawn to taking pictures of things I’ve completed that give me a sense of accomplishment and to take pictures of the different little things my kids do or the faces they make. When it comes to my kids, I know that I like to take pictures of the little things that I most likely will not remember when they get older. As most parents know, time feels like it is slipping away all too quickly and I want to keep mementos of the little things that make up our lives.
This feeling of remembering and capturing is what made this exercise feel particularly worthwhile. I noticed that I wasn’t trying to capture huge, exciting things. The pictures I took weren’t particularly glamorous and definitely wouldn’t go viral if I shared them online. However, because they heralded back to a moment that meant something to me, they hold significant value. I made a promise to myself a few years ago that my social media accounts were going to be something I made for me and that I did not want to be focused on how I was viewed by others. This means, that when I post, it is because I want that post to show up in my memories. I actually check my Facebook memories each morning because of the small little things that I have posted there. I find pictures of my babies and posts where I’ve captured funny little things that they have said. Those memories are so precious to me. I’ve noticed that although likes and comments feel nice, they don’t last nearly as long as the joy of remembering something small from my past. These little things are proof that I’ve lived a good life.
The only critique I have for this exercise is that I wish my skills as a photographer were better so that I could capture what I see in my mind and not just what the phone sees. The picture I take never does the real scene justice. I think this is why I don’t take more pictures. It’s an ability issue that leads to a motivation issue. If I’m reviewing the pictures on the same day, or within a few days that are close to when I took the pictures, I can still feel the magic of the moment. However, give me a little bit of time, and I’ll forget about that moment and can be confused by why I took the picture (mostly because my photography skills can’t recall the feeling that was there). I’ve started taking some online photography classes to try and learn the fundamentals of framing a picture so that I can better record the moments that lift me up, but I’ve got a long way to go.
My little sister, on the other hand, has always been very good at capturing candid beautiful moments. Her pictures show a beautiful way of seeing the world and I’ve said more than once that she captures how I want to be seen. Her best pictures are candid and are rarely posed or prepped. If she isn’t catching you in the wild, she will show her mastery of helping you break out of poses by the things she says or memories she helps you recall. I’ve found that I’m especially grateful for her eye and the innate motivation she has to catch the small moments of everyday life - especially since we’ve lost our mom. She has many pictures of our mom doing ordinary everyday things, such as making breakfast or listening to a toddler recount a story. These pictures are far more meaningful to our family than my mom’s professional “perfect” pictures because they remind us that she was real and that we have had very real moments with her. It wasn’t her accomplishments or the grand gestures that made us love our mom. It was the reality of how she lived day-to-day that matters most and I’m grateful that we have some of those moments captured in picture.
This exercise, along with the other positive psych exercises we have done, has shown me that I can be active in finding ways to remind myself that there is much goodness in my life. It has been an opportunity to catalogue and reflect on good things in my world. If I try to rely on my brain to remind me, that is a faulty system. My brain is going to default to the loudest and most intense parts of my memory. However, in looking for small, good things and finding ways to record them, I can show my brain that the sum of the quieter good things can outweigh any loud bad thing. It all depends on where I’m giving my attention.