A New Way of Seeing

Next week my journey as an arts therapy student comes to an end.  It has been a wonderful journey with many challenges bringing insights along the way. I am now on a journey to develop my arts therapy practise but without the demands of study I can also start a new creative journey.

My new journey is a photographic one, an exploration into contemplative photography, mindfulness photography or a new way of seeing. I plan to use this blog to document my process and reflections as I go.

This is my first image that marks the starting point of my journey.  I have been doing some work with mandalas but mainly through drawing. I am also taking part in an online course 6 Degrees of Creativity and I have been doing one of the lessons for   6 lessons for  a happy artist's life entitled "Look for the good, see the beauty around you".  I decided to take at least one photographic image each day for a week that would be representative of a natural mandala. I took my camera with me on walks around my neighbourhood and my garden. I wasn't sure what I would do with the images but I knew I wanted to combine them somehow and this is what I came up with. 

Reflection

Creating this images brought positive feelings at several levels including:

1. First taking my camera for a walk (my dog felt pretty good about this part too!) - exercise and fresh air
2. Stopping to notice the small things - mindfulness of my surroundings
3. Capturing them on camera - practising my skills
4. Playing around with the images to create my multiple mandala image - learning some new skills
5. Completing it - a sense of achievement.
6. Sharing the image with this group and some other friends - sharing
7. Receiving the lovely feedback - taking in the good