Mindful Photography: Turning Your Gaze Outward

Noticing thoughts and feelings through mindful photography

Last night we went for a little walk, and it was so beautiful. The nature around us, this floating dock forming a silhouette against the water. The ripples on the surface, the red sunset. It does me good to look at this. To look outward, to take my gaze away from the feelings and thoughts inside me and turn it outward instead.

This is what it means to be mindful, and to practise mindful photography. To have this alternation between inward and outward — to feel how we are on the inside, and then turn our gaze outward and ask ourselves: “What do I notice now?” What do you feel when you meditate inward, and what do you feel when you meditate outward? Can you notice the changes inside you?

Training yourself to observe your feelings

I have trained myself to sense and observe the feelings inside me, and to notice how I react in different situations. What I experience is that when I turn my gaze outward and take in what I see, I receive impulses that can give me something good inside — provided that what I see is good. And last night, the beautiful sunset made me happy.

Mindfulness exercise: being an observer of your inner life

Imagine that you are seeing yourself from the outside, that you are an observer checking in on your own thoughts and feelings. This is what you do when you meditate: you notice what is happening inside you.

You can notice whether you are carrying happy feelings, sad feelings, angry feelings, or feelings of another kind. You can also notice your thoughts — how they come and go — and notice that the thoughts you think create different feelings in you.

You can observe what is actually happening in your body, too. You can notice your breath, the sounds around you, your pulse, and whatever else is moving through you.

When you learn, over time, to notice everything that stirs inside you — emotions, feelings and thoughts — you can gradually take charge of it. You can decide when you want to let a thought go, and when you want to follow it further, and notice what that does to your feelings.

Mindfulness exercise: looking outward instead of inward

Stand, walk or sit outside in nature. Look around you and notice what you see. Notice whether what you see affects your feelings. Notice whether happy thoughts arise, or other thoughts and feelings. Notice what it does to you to look outward instead of inward.

Then ask yourself: Can you combine the two exercises? Can something you see make you happy? Can you gain a different perspective when you look outward rather than inward? How does your perspective change?

A still and peaceful morning

Today, as I write this, the water lies still and blue under a cloudless sky. That, too, makes me happy to experience. Completely mirror-smooth, and the white boat is reflected in the water. It is peaceful, and it is good.

This is what mindful photography is: taking in what we see, and noticing the feelings that arise in us. When the pictures we take give us happy feelings, we can print them out and hang them on the wall — or carry them in a pocket and look at them when we feel we need to.

I wrote about something similar in Finding Comfort through photography in uncertain times

When hard things happen

Life can sometimes hand us experiences that are shocking, sorrowful, difficult to cope with. We can be bombarded by thoughts about an event. We can feel guilt, shame and anger.

One way of meeting such feelings can be to look outward — with a camera to help, if you like — and to find the light out there in nature. Light that can be reflected into our hearts. It doesn’t have to involve a camera at all, but on this blog it is partly about using the camera to work through trauma and difficult events in life.

Take your camera or your phone with you on a walk this week. Stop at something that catches your eye, and check in with yourself before you press the shutter: What is happening inside me right now?

What do you see when you turn your gaze outward? Feel free to share in the comments.

Articles and useful reading on mindful photography

Embracing the Moment: The Shift to Mindful Photography – seeing pictures as gifts