I have been into photography for a long time and it goes through phases of interest, sometimes taking a lot of photos, sometimes going long periods to the point I barely remember how to use my camera. And while I love taking photos on holiday in new places I have never been, what I also like is getting shots of every day things that are around the house, whether it be flowers or insects or random bits of furniture. This is something I don't do enough though and I think it is because of an availability bias.
It is always there.
I remember when I lived in Cairns, Australia - which is a beautiful tropical area in the north considered the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. When I had been there on holiday the year before moving there, I did all the touristy things I could. However, once living there, the daily grind of school set in and what was special, just became something to do when family visited. Now that I am not there anymore, I realise how much I never did, even though it was right there. It was always a "one day" thing to do, and that day never came.
We all have things on our "one day" list, don't we?
What I think though, is that we are also spending a great deal more time online, immersing ourselves into a world that engages and entertains us, but doesn't actually offer us the return we think we are getting from it. We feel connected, while we are actually weakening relationships. We feel intelligent because we always have Google search, while our brains are literally changing for the worse. And we feel better, while we aren't changing anything of ourselves for the better.
It is insidious.
Yet, I also think that it is pretty easy to break the cycle for most people, because all we have to do, is go outside, and leave our phones at home. It doesn't matter what we do outside, or where we go, as long as we are interfacing with reality directly, rather than through a screen. A walk in the park or through the forest, sitting in the grass or on a bench, or just standing outside, feeling the breeze on our skin.
And pay attention.
I reckon a lot of people are so unwilling to hear themselves think, that they will find any kind of distraction possible to fill up the quiet space of their lives. And, they have good reason to, because the more we avoid thinking about the things that trouble us, the greater they grow in the background so that whenever there is a slice of quiet, they immediately bubble into the consciousness to demand attention. But rather than dealing, we look to escape again and pick up our phones, or immerse ourselves into another useless bit of entertainment.
Nature isn't an escape.
It is a return.
People are constantly talking about how their lives are too busy, and how society is so stressful, but ask them what they do to balance, and most dive into another screen-based escape. But it isn't an escape as much as it is an avoidance of having to deal with the mental burden. Go into nature, find some silence, and let the thoughts arrive, let the troubles bubble to the surface, turn them over in the mind, and then, strategize ways to deal with them.
Real ways. Tangible ways.
And, you don't need a national park, or a garden - just a tree, or a patch of grass, some sand, or a pile of rocks. Just a place where you have no investment in where you are expecting some kind of immediate payoff. Stand or sit, take a look around to see if there is anything interesting to observe, and just hang about to see what happens.
It is available now. Make it a habit.
Taraz
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