“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
– Thomas Merton
I have recently been thinking about my dissonance of feelings for my photography. For me, photography is an immersive activity with benefits to mental and physical well-being. Photography is also a source of creative pride, allowing me to seek and enjoy recognition for my craft. I love being in the creative zone for photography! But my photography is also a distraction, a way of avoiding feeling and dealing with the demands of life.
As a person in recovery with a history of substance abuse primarily to avoid feeling and dealing with life at a real and honest level, I sometimes wonder if photography is like an addiction that lets me escape reality. I admit to heading out for a photo walk or diving into a photo editing session, acknowledging an awareness that I may be procrastinating on the harder and necessary tasks of life.
I find joy when engaged in the creative act of photography, but I hear a whisper of doubt and criticism that tells me I should be doing more "responsible" things with my time. I become bored with activities and situations required for doing those more "responsible" things. A word I like to use for "responsible" things is "adulting". Examples are paying bills, taxes, routine appointments, lawn and home maintenance, parenting, and relationships with others.
What I am seeing in these thoughts and what has had me feeling ungrounded lately is a lack of balance. I know I must give attention to both my creative side and my "grownup" side to be in balance, or "living a balanced life", as they say in Smart Recovery. So, I will continue researching and learning ideas, tools, and habits to help me find my healthy balance.
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In last week's blog post, I ended with the promise to list a few resources about mental health, creativity, and photography that I have recently found helpful on my continuing creative journey. These are just a handful of available resources on the subject, as any web search about "art and creativity and mental health" will provide many rabbit holes to jump down.
I will give a summary for each source explaining what I find of value for my needs.
The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression, by Eric Maisel, Phd
This book, was recommended by a friend, and I've just started it, but it hits the target. The point of working with depression, particularly with creatives, is finding meaning in life. This fits the theme of one of my favorite books, “Man’s Search For Meaning”, by Viktor Frankl.
YouTube Resources:
How To Use Photography as a Therapeutic Tool
Channel - Wex Photo Video: Pro photographer Paul Sanders talks about connection and mindfulness in photography, and how it has helped with his mental health issues.
Street Photography and Your Mental Health (feat. Pete Wands)
Channel - Sean Tucker: I like Sean's channel in that his content and presentation style are clear, comfortable, and meaningful. I consider him to be a philosopher photographer. Sean interviews a well-known Scottish street photographer about mental health and photography.
Channel - Dan Greer: Dan presents a concise video with examples and studies about the therapeutic benefits of photography, similar to what has been proven in art and music therapy.
Here is a bonus blog post from Dan Greer about a depression toolbox for photography and mental illness:
https://depression-toolbox.com/2022/07/17/photography-for-mental-illness/
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Creativity belongs to all of us and is unique to each of us. Finding the spur or the spark for a new creative interest, reaching a higher skill level, or discovering a new direction for an existing creative interest can guide us on the creative path.
Discover your creative passions, enter your creative zones, and take pride in your efforts and results. Listen and learn with an open mind from valuable critique. Above all, give yourself the freedom to create, and then create with freedom!
If my thoughts in this photography project can benefit anyone on their creative journey, I am proud to be of service! I invite feedback from readers for different perspectives on creativity. Please use the comments feature at the bottom of this post, if desired.
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