Creativity Therapy Part 3

The Therapy

Have you explored your inner depths since my last post?  Have you found something that is uniquely you?

For me it's taking pictures, making art, the process of creativity.

Once I learned some basic techniques like composition, lighting, and seeing in two dimension, I was unstoppable.  In those days we had only film and manual operating cameras!  You had to have a pretty good idea what your image would look like before you shot off 36 frames and paid money to have them developed.  I of course wanted the whole experience, so I took a class and learned the darkroom techniques for black and white so I could develop and print my own work. 

This was addictive for me, I was definitely hooked.  Any challenge I was facing in my life would disappear in the darkroom.  Later this same experience would recreate itself in the post editing process on the computer.

I'm pretty sure this feeling of getting lost in your creativity has the same effect as meditating.  If you take your mind off your problems and immerse yourself in something you love, somehow things just work out.  Not to say that ignoring them is the answer either, but for me it's a way of letting the real answers come with greater clarity.

Recently I started an Instagram account and have challenged myself to an almost daily search for interesting things to photograph, the magic pill so to speak, that steers me to a healthier mindset.  There is great power in challenging yourself to new things too, don't underestimate that form of  therapy.

If you've ever lost yourself in anything, that's a clue to your inner being, the part of you that's trying to express itself, your soul perhaps, because it knows what you need to thrive.  Listen to that and that's all the therapy you'll ever need.

I welcome your comments about your own journey.