Art and Mindfulness
Please excuse my going off on a tangent, but this might be of interest to some people. As I was processing this picture I realized that what I was doing was equivalent to an informal mindfulness meditation practice Years ago I practiced meditation, but I quit after a few years; then in 2020 I listened to a couple of lecture series on Mindfulness, but I kept falling asleep when I tried to meditate.. I have recently listened to those lectures again and started meditating. As I was processing this picture I realized what I was doing was exactly what the lecturers describe as the objective of a mindfulness practice. In both formal and informal mindfulness the objective is to focus only on the present. Some tasks that are used for informal mindfulness meditation are eating, driving and walking. For example when I do my walking meditation I focus on my steps, which is easy as my walking shoes squeak badly. When I’m processing a picture I tend to hyper focus on what I’m doing to the exclusion of everything else. I lose track of time and completely ignore my surroundings; I will often miss a meal even though I can see the time on my computer. There is a great deal of research that shows that this type of activity is very beneficial to your mental wellbeing. I’m currently meditating 26 minutes five days a week and trying to work up to 45 minutes, but the quality of my meditation is not nearly as good as I get when processing a picture, although it is getting better. Perhaps I should just spend more time processing my pictures.
Art and Mindfulness
Please excuse my going off on a tangent, but this might be of interest to some people. As I was processing this picture I realized that what I was doing was equivalent to an informal mindfulness meditation practice Years ago I practiced meditation, but I quit after a few years; then in 2020 I listened to a couple of lecture series on Mindfulness, but I kept falling asleep when I tried to meditate.. I have recently listened to those lectures again and started meditating. As I was processing this picture I realized what I was doing was exactly what the lecturers describe as the objective of a mindfulness practice. In both formal and informal mindfulness the objective is to focus only on the present. Some tasks that are used for informal mindfulness meditation are eating, driving and walking. For example when I do my walking meditation I focus on my steps, which is easy as my walking shoes squeak badly. When I’m processing a picture I tend to hyper focus on what I’m doing to the exclusion of everything else. I lose track of time and completely ignore my surroundings; I will often miss a meal even though I can see the time on my computer. There is a great deal of research that shows that this type of activity is very beneficial to your mental wellbeing. I’m currently meditating 26 minutes five days a week and trying to work up to 45 minutes, but the quality of my meditation is not nearly as good as I get when processing a picture, although it is getting better. Perhaps I should just spend more time processing my pictures.