 Photography is the physical manifestation of mindfulness. This video is going to help you to be present in the world through the medium of photography, even if you have never picked up a camera before. How's it, how's it? I'm Alex. Thank you ever so much for being here. The exercise that I'm going to share with you today is going to help you bring these mindful things literally into focus. Not only are you going to find an exercise to improve mindfulness, you're also going to improve your photography by helping you to cut through all the visual noise. For years I suffered stress and anxiety. I found it hard to close off my mind and just be present in the moment. It was photography that managed to open a door to a place where I could find focus. That I was able to slow down and find joy in all the things around me that were able to lift up my spirits. And that's why I'm making this video for you. I want to help you to also to be able to tap into that quiet joy that photography gives us. There are three steps to helping you practice mindfulness in your photography. To begin with I would like you to start to working up towards taking regular time out of your day, like about 20 minutes or so, to take photographs. This can be done with a camera or phone. It really doesn't matter. The point is that you just take photographs. The goal within these first photographs is to just spend that time noticing what is around you and to appreciating the visual elements. See beyond the house and the tree and the car and look for things like colors and shapes and texture and light and shadow. At this stage remind yourself that just as you can't force mindfulness, trying to force photographs is harder. Don't worry if you can't see anything at the moment. This is visual practice, it's visual exercise. It'll take you a day or two until you start seeing the things you're missing. The beauty of doing this is that photography gives us a way to connect with the world around us and to find our own meaning in the things that everybody else sees. If you're new to photography then you may be a little bit disappointed when you look at the photographs you've taken and they're not quite what you expect. It's okay, this doesn't matter. Don't worry because they are simply a reaction to something that you have seen. The goal for both people practicing mindfulness and for photographers trying to become more in tune with the world around you is not to create art but to look at the things without judgment. To help us to realize that different people see the same things in completely different ways and to be completely comfortable with it. How does photography help us to prepare for mindfulness? Now if you speak to any landscape photographer they will tell you that a great proportion of their time is spent just sitting in the landscape waiting, sometimes for hours for everything to align with the vision that they have in their minds for that photograph. This act of being one and in tune with the landscape is a wonderful way to disconnect from the stresses of modern life. For somebody like myself who is a visual person rather than an auditory type being present in the moment when looking for photographs is a far more useful tool than something like meditation. By using photography for mindfulness I am able to find moments of connection with people whom I love to see the beauty of nature and to take pleasure in the quiet things that I enjoy because of that. I hope this video will encourage you to pay close attention to the varied sources of meaning in your life to photograph the things that appeal to you both large and small and to help you reflect on what they mean. After you have been photographing for a week or so in practicing being present in the moment and I would like you to slow down slow down even further and stop taking so many pictures right in the modern world we have the capacity to take lots of photographs and quite often we do. Slow down take one shot at a time. Photography and mindfulness are not a race there is no finish line it is an ongoing lifelong process that will bring you joy and it will bring you peace it will help you connect in a deeper way with the world around you. There is a renowned meditation instructor and passionate photographer who likens the practice of photography be mindful in photography like a spiritual practice one which is formed over a lifetime capturing in his words moments of grace in the endless stream of experience. I think that is an absolutely beautiful sentiment. Often we get caught up in the idea that photographers should only photograph certain things and I did talk about this in a previous video which I believe will help a great deal if you're struggling with the idea of what to photograph. In 2013 there was a study that looked at photography and how it can enhance meaningfulness and meaning in our lives using the steps that we are looking at here. College students had been instructed to take photographs much like we are going to be doing in this exercise of things they thought were meaningful and then to write about what it was that they felt what these images meant to them and they reported that they got more meaning in their lives. They had a greater you know lighter life satisfaction and a more positive emotional outlook on image you know on life than before and I can't think of a better you know benefit of picking up a camera and taking photographs than that. From my own perspective the ability to take myself out of the everyday stresses and strains of modern life and to to hold in my hand albeit briefly the peace and the quiet and the mindfulness you know that it makes my photography remind me how lucky we are to have this tool at our disposal. Step three is really you know this is where we're going to look at the photographs and we're going to not look at the technical aspects not worry about what other photographers think about them but think about why you took that photograph. What is it about that thing that you reacted to in a positive way that encouraged you to take a picture of it? What was what was the world telling you? What did you react to? This is this is the whole point of this exercise is to be in tune with the world around you in a way that we don't often do to filter out the noise to be mindful and I keep using that word but this is what this is all about this is all about being mindful for the opportunities and the the the the quietness that is all around us. That's what those college students were doing they were looking at the photographs and thinking about how that image connected to them and when you do that it reinforces the connections that all of us feel when we are just willing to listen to the moment. A great stumbling block in photography is thinking about what to photograph what is it makes a good subject and especially if you are new to exploring mindfulness and photography you may be struggling with this idea so I put together that video which I mentioned earlier and I'm going to link to it here for you to go and have a look I think that will really help you get to grips with you know this this thing that holds so many people back. Thank you ever so much for giving up your time to be here today I really appreciate it.