This Is Soul Therapy

15. Reframing Gratitude: Embracing the Art of Mindful Photography for Deep Joy And Connection To Self

• Jennifer Hulley

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This week we embark on a journey through the art of photography, unraveling how daily snapshots can become a conduit for mindfulness and self-discovery. In our latest conversation, we dissect the fast-paced hustle of modern life, societal pressures, and the perils of toxic positivity, advocating for an authentic approach to gratitude that honors life's rich tapestry.

Ever considered the possibility that capturing your morning coffee or the way shadows dance on a wall could alter your brain's wiring for happiness? Our discussion in this episode reveals just that, as we explore the idea of being the nucleus of our universe and how our inner beliefs and actions shape our reality. We discuss the significance of 'glimmers'—those tiny yet impactful flashes of joy—and how a regular practice of photographing these moments can lead to a more fulfilling existence that resonates deeply with our heart and soul.

Armed with nothing but a camera or a smartphone and a fresh perspective, we delve into the joys of setting a daily photography challenge to document the beauty in the mundane. Whether you're committing to a week or a year, this act of creative expression not only nurtures your spirit but also strengthens connections with your true self. We examine how this practice not only serves as a creative outlet but also as a journey of self-reflection, helping us align with who we are at our core. So, let your lens be your guide, and let's capture the essence of gratitude, one click at a time.


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Speaker 1:

This is Soul Therapy. I'm Jen Hully, your host and therapeutic arts practitioner, creativity coach and photographer, obsessed with empowering others to build creatively fulfilling lives. This week on the podcast, we're talking about mindfulness, embodiment, positive psychology, glimmers and photography. We're looking at how we can apply a new lens onto the idea of gratitude to cultivate a state of well-being through a daily photographic practice. Now, before we get going on that, I want to set an intention for each podcast episode going forward, and I want to do this because I believe firmly in the process of intention setting when it comes for or comes to living in our truth, whatever that means for you. For me, the idea of living in your truth and being connected to your authentic self means connecting with your true self, who you are at your core, when we strip away expectations of others, societal conditioning and beliefs that don't belong to us, and it's the process of cultivating a relationship with that version of yourself, and doing so so that we can mindfully choose actions, beliefs and goals that align with that version of us and will bring us towards a space of joy and a feeling of success. Now, it's important to remember that success is deeply personal, and I always advise that we get really clear on what the term success means, because it's very easy to get wrapped up into somebody else's definition of success or to think that success means I have three cars and lots of money, even, or being rich, right. But the term rich even has nuances. You can be time rich, you can be love rich, you can be energy rich, you can be financially rich. So when we set these intentions to live authentically, to experience joy and success we have to understand what success means to us. So if you haven't done that, there's an episode previous to this, a couple episodes back, where we talk about setting new year's intentions and goals and creating themes for your year, and I think that's a really great process to start with. But we're gonna dive in, we're gonna get jumping into this. Just go with it. And if you have, like I said, if you haven't set your intention, you don't know what success means. That's all right, you can come back later, or you keep listening and go listen to that after you do.

Speaker 1:

You Follow your brain, as linear or nonlinear as it is, and so for today, for this episode, the intention for myself and for everybody that's listening is to have an open and honest conversation about the bustle and hustle, the speed and the increasing speed of our daily routines, the grind of being an adult and this feeling of like the revving up of time that is happening. I want to have an honest conversation about that and the internal beliefs and habits that we may have that are actively working against us in achieving and embodying what we desire. So it's a little nuanced conversation. There'll be a lot of different aspects, but I want us to talk about the reality of how fast life is, how much we feel like we're on a hamster wheel, we can't get up, we can't get off how tired we are and how often it's our own brain that is having us experience more of that exhaustion and more of that disconnection. And to move the conversation into a space where we can also honestly and openly talk about gratitude. And I don't want to talk about gratitude from a toxic positivity lens and I don't want to talk about gratitude from the viewpoint of spiritual bypass, because I find there is so much spiritual and wellness rhetoric out there that's like tells you to just think like everything's happening for a reason, this is for my best interest, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter how terrible it is. I don't think that helps. I think when we deny the pain and the darkness and the hardship that we're going through, we don't connect with ourselves on that really deep level, we gloss over it and, like I said, we don't nurture the aspect of our relationship with ourselves that actually needs to be healed. So I want to talk about gratitude today from an open standpoint of just what does it actually mean and how can we use a doable, an honest and a what's the word? Authentic view of gratitude to shift our brain into a pattern of noticing and rewiring for more states of happiness. And you're like, if that sounds great, like hang on, it's gonna be good man, because anything is possible, anything is achievable.

Speaker 1:

We can have or not have as much or as little as we desire in our life. A lot of it comes down to getting our brain to partner with our heart and our soul, and doesn't mean your brain is bad or it's like this evil thing in our, in our life story. It's just, you know, we talk a lot about the ego and shadow self and conditioning, and it's not something to get rid of, it's something to embrace and, like I said, learn to work with. Alright, I got to get back in the flow. My dog just went bananas downstairs because like a leaf blew by the window and you know that leaf was out to murder us. So he had to let me know about all the dangers that were happening outside the front door. And it's kind of funny because it's what we're gonna talk about today is about when our brain is hyperwired to notice all the fuckups and the dangers and the things that went wrong or the mistakes we've made. So just kind of the way the universe is like tapping me on the shoulder and being like Walter's ready, walter's ready to talk about this. Walter's my dog, ps.

Speaker 1:

Alright, so yesterday we're talking about gratitude, we're talking about how our brains can work for us or against us. We're talking about the real-life dilemma of how complicated it is to exist as an adult in the world right now and we're looking at doable, creative strategies that you can put into place to help rewire your brain, take control of your emotional state, your mental state and I mean that in terms of the way we perceive our experiences and ultimately just cultivate a deeper sense of self-satisfaction, joy and fulfillment. And as we talk about this and you hear all the wonderful things that we've got for you to think about, consider and try out. If you find you are seeking a more personalized journey with a creative mentor to guide you through the process, I am here for you. You can reach out to me for one to one creativity coaching and therapeutic art sessions where we can delve deeper into your experiences, your desires and your process. You can get details about this in the show notes or you can just drop me a line at contact at jennifer hulleycom.

Speaker 1:

In addition to setting an intention for each episode, I want us to get in the habit of pulling a tarot card or an oracle card to pull some wisdom from it. Like I said, I'm a therapeutic arts practitioner, I am a creativity coach, I am a photographer and I am also super into intuitive practices and spirituality and I do intuitive readings for myself and clients where we look at the cards to give us a bird's-eye view of what's going on maybe blind spots that we're not seeing and to start to shine a light forward for us in terms of, like, what we can do to start to move through something. And I pulled the card after I set the intention, you know, I went to my little space where I've got my crystals and I said this is my intention for the episode. I want to talk about this and this and I wanted to help people with this. What guidance do we need? To you know further the conversation and the card I pulled was the Four of Wands, which was just like I was like oh, this is perfect.

Speaker 1:

Because the Four of Wands, you know it has this vibe of like homecoming, celebration, relaxation, community satisfaction. It's about like milestones and you being like exactly where you're supposed to be, like you are where you're meant to be right now. Bask in the moment, notice it and really feel what it feels like to have achieved certain things and be around certain things and have certain things, whether they're like physical things in your life or relationships or just states of being and honestly like, just what a perfect card, right? Because as we're talking today about gratitude and we're looking at a process of developing a daily photography habit as a way to cultivate gratitude, it's going to require that we put ourselves into a space where we're like embodying the energy of this card. Because to live in the energy of this card and to also step into this daily photography practice, you are asking yourself to look at all the wonderful experiences you have created for yourself. You know we are masterful and powerful creators of our own universe.

Speaker 1:

I always say that we are the center of our own universe, meaning not that we're the most important thing and that nobody else matters, but meaning that we are the nucleus of all of our experiences. So our beliefs and our behaviors and our habits all create this universe of energy, of people and things that circulate around us, that come together to create our daily reality. And this card is saying take a minute like step back, take a minute survey what's going on and really look at how much success you are experiencing right now and how much satisfaction you have achieved and you have experienced and like how strongly are you standing and living in your truth and living in a way that fills your heart and your soul? And these can be like small moments and they can be big moments. They can be like ah, yes, I have a house that's got me close to nature and that makes me feel happy, because my true, authentic self feels really called and pulled to connect with nature 100%. But maybe you still have that calling and that pulling, but you don't live in a big house that's surrounded by trees. But you took five minutes on your lunch break today to get outside of your office and to go connect with the earth, to walk in the grass, to smell the flowers, to talk to the trees. That still is an expression of your authentic self and an experience that you have created that allows you to stand powerfully in your truth and have your heart and soul be fulfilled.

Speaker 1:

And so this Four of Wands asks us to take that break, take a pause, step back and look at everything that is going well, what we are grateful for right now and how we are creating and living a life that we do desire. And what a perfect, perfect segue. Because it's like, hmm, that's great Sounds easier said than done, right, and it's true, it's easier said than done, because you know what Our brains are complex, and we will get there. We will get there to talk about the subconscious brain and talk about how it can be our best friend or not our best friend. I don't want to say evil, because we're not evil, but it can be a monkey wrench in our life plans.

Speaker 1:

But I do hope this week that you've managed to find some moments of joy had made, like the hustle and bustle, even if they were small and fleeting. Like I said, maybe you just caught the sun on your face for a brief second. Yesterday I was sitting. I was so tired. I had done so much in my day. I had left the house, come back several times, worked like on a bunch of projects and I was exhausted and I was like I had a couple minutes before my son was going to come home. He was out with my mom and the sun was just shining in the window in a way that it was like creating this rainbow aura in front of me and I was like this is fucking magic and it lasted like 10 seconds, but I took a video of it because it was one of those moments that I was like this is such a pure moment of joy and enjoyment, enjoyment, enjoy, same thing, but not really. I think they're nuanced but we'll get into that later and I think it's important that we find those little tiny snippets because on the day to day, life goes at warp speed, gets worse as you get older.

Speaker 1:

There's any kids listening to this, and I say kids meaning you're younger than me, you're like younger than 41. As you get older, it goes faster and faster. The days whip by, but time sometimes also feels like it drags, so it feels like things move faster and faster and things get done faster and you're like, holy crap, I got all this done, but yet you also feel like you're not accomplishing anything. And it can be like, oh so tiring, oh so tiring. Right, and you can't help but sometimes feel like you're missing the good moments. And it reminds me of this quote, and you may have heard it before. It was really running around on social media like in the middle of the pandemic. I don't know who it's from, I can't seem to find it with a source, but it goes.

Speaker 1:

You've got to start romanticizing your life. You got to start believing that your morning commute is cute and fun, that every cup of coffee is the best you've ever had, that even the smallest and most mundane things are exciting and new. You have to, because that's when you truly start living, that's when you look forward to every day and we get that right. We hear it and we're like, yeah, we do, we know, we know, we know, we know we need to do that. We know so much that I said it like seven times.

Speaker 1:

But it also feels so much easier when we're like away from our daily grind, right when we're on vacation or we're taking a me day. It seems so much easier to stop and to savor the little moments, especially if you travel, I think because you're in a different scenario and your brain is scanning everything. But, like you know, when you go away, even if it's just a day, and you get a day to yourself or you go on a day trip or you go on vacation or whatever, but like when you take yourself out of your daily grind, suddenly you come back from that experience and your camera roll on your phone is just brimming with like coffee cups, tabletops, sunrises, sunsets, storefronts, all sorts of stuff. Right, there's pictures of kids playing in the street, there's light patterns, you know, in an alleyway, there might be like little details and cracks on the wall of something. Because you're in that space of noticing, you're really noticing all the nuances and your brain is in this state of like what's interesting to me, what's beautiful, what's capturing my attention, what do I want to remember? It's like it wants to program your brain with all these happy memories and I can't help but wonder what would life be like if we were able to train our brain to live like that every day? Because there's a reason that when we come back from vacation that we feel so fucking good Because, yes, we've been away from the daily grind, maybe been away from your kids. If you're one of those people gets to do child-free vacations, please tell me how those feel. You know you do you get away from the demands. Maybe you're not cooking for yourself, yes, and there is that baseline level of demand that's relieved from you. But we're also in a state of noticing, capturing and engaging with, like the little, tiny details that basically connect us to the world through our senses what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, what we feel.

Speaker 1:

And I had a post earlier this week where I was talking about I think it was just in my stories on Instagram where I was saying, like I posted a photo it was an overhead picture of like a latte that I had made. The light was really pretty and it was just like a basic photo flat lay, coffee, cup, foam, light, rays, sparkle. I was like, do you remember the OG days on Instagram when, like your news feed or whatever that's called, what does that thing you know what I mean when you scroll through Instagram, like even before, stories were the grid. That's it. People's grids were literally just like waterfalls, sunsets, alleyways, food moments with friends. It was all these micro moments of joy and engaging in the world and our surroundings through our senses, the things that we were listening to, eating. It was really simple act of collecting these moments that were filling up our bucket essentially, or filling up our soul and heart bucket. We would collect these pictures, we would share them and we'd be like this is what gave me joy today, or this is what I experienced, that made me feel more connected to my true self, and it was just easy and we were just sharing it. And I think that's why we just latched onto Instagram so much in the beginning, because it cultivated this habit of noticing, but noticing really good things. And then it kind of morphed and shifted in the last few years and we're a little bit farther away from that.

Speaker 1:

But I argue that we can get back to that, because just because an app changes doesn't mean we have to change our behavior. We get to engage with it just like anything else in life, the way that we want to. And it's the same with vacation we're on vacation, we're engaged with our senses, we're capturing memories, we're noticing, we're making an effort to remember. We can do this when we get home, if we want to put in the effort and the energy and the commitment and dedication to doing so. And I say that because I don't want to toxic positivity over this and be like it's just easy. Start a new habit, you'll feel great.

Speaker 1:

Starting a habit is work and it takes dedication and commitment, but I believe a habit like this, a daily photographic practice, has so many benefits that once you get over that initial hurdle of the discomfort of starting and committing and doing something because building any new habit can be challenging and is uncomfortable but once you get over that hump, it's so self-fulfilling that you'll continue with it and you'll like how you feel and you'll also be creating stuff that is beautiful to look at, which then makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy, like because you're rewarded. Your reward center will be going off, and I think we talked about this a little bit last week as well. So why don't we Like? Why let's talk about this? Why don't we do this when we're at home? Why is it when we're on vacation? Why is it when we're in our daily life that we just it's nose down? We're focused on the grind, we are mitigating disaster after disaster, crisis, fuck up mistakes, whatever, and it's because our brains are literally wired to do this, like that's.

Speaker 1:

The short version of a long story is, like I said, we have a heart, we have a soul, we have a creative voice within us, and then we have this cluster fuck of a human brain, your best friend, if you know how to train it, feed it, water it, take care of it in a way that you can partner with it and that you're not like battling it day in and day out. But our brains, they're fascinating, right, because they're so complex and way deep, deep, deep down in our brain and into the subconscious. We have, like autopilot mode, right. We have a part of our brain, our subconscious mind, that is responsible for the majority of our thoughts, beliefs and actions, and it allows us to do things without having to be consciously aware of them, without having to like burn extra calories, like brain calories and energy trying to figure things out all the time. Cause you imagine like if every time you got in your car, you had to be like what do I do? Oh, I push this button. Okay, now I can put my hand here. Right Now, I gotta, okay, yep, push your foot here.

Speaker 1:

Can you imagine if you had to remind yourself of every step, how fucking exhausted you would be by the time you got to your destination. You would be like you'd be exhausted, you wouldn't be able to function. So our brain has this autopilot mode in our subconscious, the reptilian brain that kicks him, and it does so to conserve energy so that we're able to stay alive. Basically Because you stay alive when you conserve energy and resources. You are a threat when you are tired, depleted and like down for the count, right. So this autopilot mode pops in and it's wired for energy conservation, not energy conversations, that's a whole other thing. That is your intuitive mind. But so the subconscious is wired for energy conservation and it kicks in to save calories, save energy.

Speaker 1:

And in order to do that, it overlooks little things, little nuances that it believes aren't really important. Like it's not critical. If you don't notice this, it's not gonna, like you know, make a break, you're not gonna die if you don't see this thing. So we're just gonna like tune you out to it. And what happens is we. It overshadows like the nuances of, like the nice moments in your life. Right, we don't notice necessarily the sun coming in our window or this face that our kid made. That was like super cute when they were playing with their you know their dolls. Or the way our dog does this funny thing with their head when they're trying to get your attention. We don't notice those because from the brain's perspective, they're not essential to our survival. But what is essential to our survival are dangers, lurking messes, that we've made mistakes that happened because we want to avoid them again. Don't do that. Holy shit, that was dangerous. People might hate you. You're gonna lose money. I was late for this.

Speaker 1:

Anything that didn't work caused you to burn extra brain energy to figure it out or was perceived in a way that could be dangerous to this brain rumor that wants you to be like surviving it has. You pay so much attention to it and you, inadvertently you build up this like mental file, like a filing cabinet of things that were no good. Debbie Downertales four cups type energy that sucked Fuck that. Oh my God, that person's terrible. They're a bitch. Don't ever talk to them again. That job they didn't even call me back. Don't try. Don't risk yourself. Don't put yourself out there. Don't take risks. People might laugh at you. You wasted time. You were up doing your resume for hours. They never like.

Speaker 1:

It does all these things Chitter, chatter in your brain to get you to like avoid being hurt or potentially hurt in the future. Great for surviving, right, that's an absolute nightmare for thriving and feeling good. So, and the other thing is it's kind of it's not totally trustworthy because it's almost like hardwired and like to hyper perceive. Like, oh my God, that like it overblows the threat, like don't say, don't put your hand up in a staff meeting, don't offer a new way of saying, you know thinking of something, because people might not understand what you're saying and if they don't understand, they might disagree. And if they might disagree, they might say something about you in front of everyone. Then everyone thinks you're stupid and everyone thinks you're stupid, you're gonna lose your job, and if you lose your job, you're not gonna have money. If you're not have money, you're gonna lose your house. You lose your house, you're gonna be out in the cold with no shelter, thereby at the threat of dying.

Speaker 1:

This is where the brain goes. It goes very quickly, so it is hyper scanning the environment and your day to day to be like where are the fuckups, where are the dangers, where are the things that almost killed me and I want you to remember them so you never put yourself in that scenario again. Oh, that beautiful bird that's singing a song. That's wonderful, that's great, but like that's not gonna keep you alive, so it tunes it out. And the more that we do and the faster paced that our lives are and the more tired we are, the even less energy our brain has to notice those little moments.

Speaker 1:

And this is where that concept of the glimmer comes in. And that was going around on Instagram TikTok, I wanna say like, in the summer. It was really popular and it was talking about like she is a clinician, a consultant, and she's an author and speaker. I think she is a social worker, but she specializes in trauma and she talks about how a glimmer are these fleeting moments where we feel good and happy and connected and safe. And it is her belief that when we get in the habit of noticing glimmers, we actually can train our nervous system to dial it the fuck down a little bit, right, to be like not everything is so terrible, and that we can start to rewire our brains for happiness, right.

Speaker 1:

And I undertook a challenge in the summer to do this through video. I was like I'm gonna capture a glimmer every single day for two months and it was so fun and I love watching the video. I put them all together as like a reel. I did one second every day. That was it one second. And it taught me to intentionally stop in my day, to pause, to even step out of a space Like if I was in something that was really challenging. To step out of this like this fucking sucks, and to step into a space of like what's the best thing about this challenging scenario right now. And I also had to learn how to do it with joy and ease and creativity, because the more that I engaged with it, the more my brain wanted to play with it.

Speaker 1:

So I believe that, yes, glimmers, it's a part of the essential process of rewiring your brain for happiness, so that you notice more happiness, experience more happiness, but also create more happiness in your life. But I think that we can do this really effectively when we use our camera, because seeing is believing. Right, if you just make a mental list, you'll forget, because your little, you know, survivalist brain is gonna be like that's not important to remember. Let's not forget, let's not remember that flush, recycle and if you create a list, you'd be like oh, I had a nice sandwich, fiddle DD, that's great. Oh, my coffee looked pretty, wow. Because it's just a list and there's no emotion and there's no story behind it.

Speaker 1:

But when we take a picture or a video, suddenly we transport our current self back in time to a past self through the senses. We'll remember what it felt like, what we heard, what it tasted like, what it felt I think I said felt or whatever. Whatever we, you know, we see I'm losing it, but you know what I mean. It will transport you into this space, back into our senses, and I think being rooted in our surroundings and in our life through our senses is so, so critical for wellness and happiness. And so I did this through, like I said, through video.

Speaker 1:

You can do it through photography. You don't have to do video, you can do whatever. You can mix it up. Sometimes I take a photo and I take a video every single day and it's a really fun challenge to give yourself. And we need constraints. We've talked about this on a previous episode that creativity really thrives when we put some constraints in. So a challenge for yourself might be 30 days of glimmers, a daily photography and or videography project where you ask yourself to intentionally notice and capture these tiny, small, beautiful moments, the ones that, like make your heart skip a beat or have you like catch your breath, or just like whoa, like that rainbow burst that was coming through my window yesterday. And it's not just about snapping photos, right? It's not just about the you know, the pictures that you take or the clicking. It's about how your brain is guided into noticing and gathering gratitude, right, gratitude.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes we think gratitude means, like the things that are going well, that there were. We, you know. Let me step back. We over complicate gratitude and we think that, because gratitude has to be about things that are going well, that we're happy to have in our lives, that we appreciate that they need to be big things like I'm grateful for my job, maybe you're not, maybe your job sucks right and that's okay. Or I'm grateful for my house, maybe you hate where you live, right. And so when we don't feel gratitude for these massive entities in our life, we think like, oh, I'm not a grateful person, oh, like I should just be grateful. We gaslight ourselves into thinking we're terrible humans and whatnot. But gratitude is, can and should be.

Speaker 1:

I think so micro moments, little mini elements of gratitude. Gratitude can be appreciation for how something looks like that light looks so beautiful. That is gratitude. Coffee. You have the latte, like look at those perfect little bubbles. The way the bubbles are forming, oh my God, it's beautiful. It's like symmetrical blah, blah, blah. Whatever. That's gratitude. You're grateful for the beauty that is in front of your eyes. Or maybe it's your dog, like rolling around on the ground. You're grateful that you have your dog in your life. You're grateful that you have that moment to sit and notice. You're grateful that he's just having a great time. You're grateful that your dog gets to have a home where he's happy, content and expressing himself, or whatever. It's these little, tiny moments that we choose to focus on that are rooted in joy and happiness and appreciation, beauty and by creating something that we can look back on.

Speaker 1:

Whether I said like it's a slideshow, whether it's an Instagram post, a blog post, maybe you make a video. Like I said, I love, love, love the app one second every day. If you're looking for it in the app store, I believe it's. You don't type one second every day. I think you type like one S? E. I've been using it for four and a half years for different purposes, because it will take one second of video, or you can put photos in it too, and it will just display each picture for a second, or you can use like Cap Cut or whatever. There's so many ways you can do it. But when we take all these joy moments or these moments of gratitude or these glimmers and we capture them visually, we then get to put them together to tell a story. Right, and the story we're telling of this is what it meant to be me this month. This is what it meant to be me in January. This is who I am right now.

Speaker 1:

I really believe that every photo or video you take is a self-portrait, even if it's not a picture of yourself, because you are showing whether yourself or the viewer a bit of your internal world. You're showing people a little snippet of what you think is interesting, maybe how you felt that day, where your emotions were at, where your thoughts were at, where your energy was at right. You might, you'll find that you take different photos on days where you're tired versus like amped up with energy, and when we put them together and create something, like I said, a slideshow or whatever, you're sharing a little bit of yourself with the world and if you don't put them on social and you just keep them for yourself, you're just sharing a little bit of yourself with yourself. You're reminding yourself who you are at your core, who your soul is, or what your soul is, or what your soul's authentic voice is right, like I said, those things that are important, that we notice, that we are energized and filled up by. And I encourage all of you listening. I'm gonna tap into my former teacher. You know energy. This is your homework, this is your homework class. It's to go do this.

Speaker 1:

If you can't do 30 days because that gives you hives, do seven, do one week, do one week and just put a reminder in your phone, have your phone ping you at three times during the day morning, lunch, evening. You can have a pop-up. It can play a little funky ringtone or it can say like stop and notice or whatever right, and just see what you get. And it doesn't matter if the pictures aren't perfect, if you're a photographer or you're an artist or you have dabbled in photography. This is a time to let go of expectations about what it looks like. That can come later, but when we're just starting the habit, we want to just really prioritize the mindset shift and the habit building that we're using to build happiness right. We can look at our photos, you know, if we want to add a creative layer to them one day we can say like I'm gonna capture all you know red things or blue things or whatever.

Speaker 1:

But there's so many ways to adopt a daily photography habit and I'm kind of on the brink or risking going onto too much of a tangent here, talking about different topics. But, like I said, the easiest. Easiest way to start a daily photography habit is through this lens of glimmers and gratitude and instead of saying like I must capture a macro shot, or I must capture a portrait every day or I'm looking for leading lines, because that can be overwhelming when we're, like, really busy or if we've become so disconnected from our creative self that maybe we haven't given a lot of time to a creative habit, that can cause more stress. But if we say to us ourselves, like I'm gonna capture every day one thing that was beautiful to me or that I appreciated or that I enjoyed, it makes it that much easier and because it's linked to that element of gratitude, it's going to benefit us from a mental health perspective because we're going to start programming our brain to remember look how many things happened that were amazing, wonderful, beautiful, and you know what you will find. Initially it will be hard. They'd be like oh my God, I didn't capture anything because your brain will still be in that like funky survival state right, we're little reptile brains gonna be like nope, nope, nope, it's gonna be hard. You're gonna think there's nothing to capture one day and I guarantee you, for me it's usually around day 10. Something shifts and you have more photos than you know what to do with. Suddenly, you have three, then you have five, then you have 10, you're like, holy shit, I got 10 things today. And watch what that does to your brain. And watch what that does to how you remember your days and how you remember your experiences, but also how you anticipate and look forward to what is gonna come in your life.

Speaker 1:

So get started. Start it today, start it tomorrow. Pick your timeframe. Do 10 days, seven days, 30 days. Set a goal for yourself that feels like a stretch. We always wanna set a goal that we're not gonna knock it out of the park and do it. If you remember to do this every single day without a prompt, then your goal is too easy, so maybe it's 30 days. You know yourself, you ask yourself what sounds like a stretch, what sounds easy If you're like, oh, seven days, I could do that. 14 days, I'd probably start to lose interest. So then you set it as 30.

Speaker 1:

And put the reminder on your phone and give yourself permission to just take pictures with your phone. Make it easy, right, mobile photography. There's no excuse. You can't say like, oh, it takes crappy photos. No, it doesn't. Our phones are just capable of so much and even if the photo isn't something that you love, but the moment was something that you love. You'll remember that and I think that knowing and that connection will just give you something further to reflect on. Prepare yourself for the fact that, like a new habit is hard. Putting those notifications on your phone to pop up at three times are really helpful.

Speaker 1:

When I first started this years ago, I think the first time I did this, it was a 365 project and I started this daily photography project literally a month before I moved home from England to Canada and like the way I moved home from England was not pleasant. It wasn't like I just decided to come home. I was in a really toxic relationship that just I was like so disconnected from who I am. I was like a shell of my own self. I was very sick, like physically, emotionally, emotionally and spiritually. And I started this project for some reason and I think, like on day 20, I was like I'm out, I'm leaving, and I came home and I had this project to hold my hand through like a very transformative year of my life and having that really, really helped me to maintain perspective in a time where I could be like everything's terrible, I've lost everything. I've lost my job, my friends, my home, blah, blah, blah. So I've been doing this. What was the whole point of my story? I just went off on tangent and what point was that? That was like 2012. And when I was first starting it, right notifications here we are.

Speaker 1:

When I first started the project, I would set a notification at the end of the day to be like did you take your photos? Question mark. And it would be like nine o'clock in the night. I'd be like no, I fucking didn't. And now it's pitch black. So I feel like shit, cause I didn't, I failed. So keep that in mind and that's why I say like put three notifications.

Speaker 1:

Put one in the morning, not when you first wake up, but think about, like, when is the first time that you're accessible enough to possibly take a photo? Like I get up at six. I could maybe take a photo at six because my kid is not up, but like I don't want to be reminded at 730 to take a photo because it's like a battlefield in here with a four year old and trying to getting ready for school. If I saw a notification I wouldn't even pay attention to it. But if I mindfully chose a window in the morning and then, like when I'm sitting down for lunch, and then maybe a snippet in the afternoon I have before he comes home, to just be like hey, did you take your photo? Or what did you notice today? Not like a take a photo, like you don't want to yell at yourself, but just a little prompt. What did you notice that was pleasant today? What caught your attention? What was beautiful, things like that.

Speaker 1:

Have those. Pop in on your phone. You'll appreciate it. You'll need the nudge and you'll find like, as you get into the habit and you're, you'll find, like I said, you'll have more pictures than you need. Those notifications will get annoying because you don't need them anymore and then that's when you can delete them because you've built that habit. I think they say it takes 21 days to build a new habit. I don't know if that's true, test it out, tell me, tell me at what point. For me, like I said, it was around day 10 that I'm like in it to win it and I'm enjoying it. And that's because, like you'll see these, you'll see, yes, these photos warm your heart, warm your soul, but they do connect with your creative spirit and you do have that sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, being like look what I made.

Speaker 1:

And, yes, a daily photography habit is just one of the ways that we can really cultivate mindfulness, embodiment, gratitude, creativity and wellness. It's this relationship that we can create and deepen between ourselves, our inner self, our intuition, our experiences, our world, the things that we're creating, and to keep us anchored in the moment and consciously aware of how we're experiencing life, so that we can make little micro adjustments as we go, whether we realize we need to engage in something less or bring more opportunities for something else in our lives. You know, one of the things I've recently realized is like I need a change of scenery, I need to get out, I need a day trip or I need to travel or something, because that part of my soul bucket feels a little drained, and this daily photography habit has helped me realize that, because I'm getting a little bored in one space from like, oh, this room again, come on. So it'll help you connect with yourself. It'll help you, you know, mindfully be aware of the things that are happening, that are wonderful, but it'll also make you aware of the things that are missing, that you need to bring more into your life. And often the things that are missing, that we feel like we need more in our life, are the things that are really connected with our authentic self and who we are. And it's a process, it's a ride. It is exciting, thrilling, challenging, but always, always, always worth it.

Speaker 1:

And I hope this episode was inspirational, I hope it was helpful and I hope it was a space for you to have that conversation with yourself and with me about how life is really fast and how we have so many demands on us and how we're just sort of on autopilot at hyper speed go, go, go, go, go go and how, yeah, we have to break and shake up the habits of like being the Debbie Downer and really work our noticing muscle and take that ownership and take that power back of our internal state and of our feelings, and to remember that gratitude is small. They can be micro moments. They don't have to be big Sometimes they are, but sometimes they're just the little things. What's important, as we said, is that they are moments that are meaningful to you and that they help you to experience a feeling of success, satisfaction and joy.

Speaker 1:

And one final reminder that if you're seeking for guidance and creative mentorship on your personalized journey to wellness through therapeutic arts or photography, I am here to guide you. I am here to lead you and support you through this. You can reach out to me at contact, at Jennifer Holly, to learn more about what one to one creativity, coaching and therapeutic art looks like. It is very personalized and the best way to learn about what it would look like for you is to just have a conversation with me. You can book a free consult on my website and we can talk all about what's going on for you in your life, where you want to be and how this might play a part in your journey to getting there. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. If you appreciated this episode. Throw us some love. Leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast platform and share this episode with somebody that you think it would benefit. All right, until next week, go out, kick some creative ass and I will talk to you soon.