Mindfulness has become a pop buzzword but it’s principles are valid. Being mindful means paying attention to what you want to pay attention to rather than having your mind wander like a dog off a lease, from subject to subject.
Attention is the mind’s superpower and it helps to exercise it.
The beauty of photography is how it focuses our attention in a fun, joyful and enjoyable way. Every time you take a shot you are paying attention, even if just for a moment. During that moment, what you see, experience and record is everything. Maybe it only lasts a second or maybe you are in the zone creating a collection of photos or perfecting a single image. When you ar taking the shot you are being mindful, no matter what you are photographing or how. (yes, even selfies).
In a recent interview, Richard Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as well as founder and chair of the Center for Healthy Minds, quoted William James, an early pioneer of psychology who said,
“The facility of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention over and over again is the very root of judgement, character and will.”
That’s what we do when we are photographing. We are slipping into a mindset of pure awareness. Seeing, calculating, framing and focusing. We don’t have to sit in the lotus position chanting to be mindful. We just have to practice paying attention and taking pictures.