Photography can be a wonderful part of your gratitude practice
1) Reward
2) Pause
2) Capture
4) Revisit
FRAMEWORK
1) Reward
The awareness of imagery is part of living" Oskar Kokoschka"
Reward what media images make you feel good. If you see a beautiful image on social media that reminds you of how amazing this world is, make sure you like it, leave a comment, or tag a friend. Consider following a positive hashtag.
If you see a body-positive advertisement. Commend the brand.
Every engagement helps tells algorithms and advertisers to keep producing positive images. Vote with your engagement.
2) Pause
Change your mental imagery, and the feelings will take care of themselves." Maxwell Maltz
Are the images you take in every day via phone, billboard, magazine, or a YouTube ad detracting from your mental health? If so, pause them...literally put them on mute.
Social media can make you feel bad. It can bring you down and make you spend stupid amounts of money on “things” you don’t need. But remember—you are in the driver’s seat.
Mute people on Instagram:
Did you know that you can control what your feed shows you? If something makes you feel bad mute them. Don’t worry, they won't know that you made them disappear. At their end, you're still besties. However, they can no longer make you feel like your life is dull because you won't see their photos in your feed anymore.
Here’s what you do:
a. Open the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android.
b. Pull up the profile of the person who you'd like to mute by either tapping on their username in your feed or searching for them via the search option (the magnifying glass second from the left at the bottom of your screen in the app).
c. Tap the ellipses (“…”) in the top-right corner of the screen next to their username to begin the process of muting them.
d. A list of options will pop up at the bottom of your screen. Tap "Mute."
e. Toggle the slider to the right of "Posts," "Stories," or both, to mute the person's respective content. When the slider turns blue, you've successfully muted their content.
Mute images the algorithm sends your way:
If you see a photo on the explore page which makes you feel like you eat too much chocolate, you can mute him/her too. All you need to do is tap on a post on the explore page and tap on the three dots next to it. Next, you should choose the “See Fewer Posts Like This” option; it guides Instagram not to show you those posts anymore.
3) Capture
“To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.” Henri Cartier-Bresson
When capturing a gratitude shot, even before you click the shutter you must centre yourself. A very simple breathing exercise will do it. My favourite is a Yogic breath philosophy called Pranayama, but feel free to choose or invent your own.
Mentally, Pranayama helps calm the mind by releasing stress and helping you become more positive. It’s based on the fact that if you breathe in and out at a certain ratio you are guaranteed to exhale all the carbon dioxide.
Pranayama is practiced through abdominal breathing at a ratio of 1:2. For example, if you inhale to 4 counts, you exhale to 8 counts, or double. When inhaling, your abdomen expands like a balloon, and it deflates when you exhale, thus emptying the lungs of carbon dioxide.
Take three rounds of breath, noticing the landscape, the child playing, the delicious meal, etc. Then…click.
4) Revisit
"Time will never stand still and those moments that bring us such joy become memories in an instant. To capture such a moment and record it forever is truly monumental."- Joshua Atticks
The most important part of this process is to revisit. I completed a Masters of Art Therapy at the University of Western Sydney. This amazing degree made me understand the sheer power of imagery.
No matter what your life experiences have been, photographs are one of the only things we have left to revisit our life. Accolades, travel, youth, beauty—it all slips through what we call time. I learned that as you get older (if you are blessed to do so) a photograph can remind you, bring a smile to your face, and take you back to that moment, even if just for a minute. Don't leave those images hidden in the cloud.
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