Yesterday I didn’t shower. (please feel free to follow with a chorus of “ewwwww gross” or “that’s disgusting” here). The desire to be clean just wasn’t there. Being on summer vacation, free from the “day job” has opened up a whole host of new schedules and new routines. And apparently motivation isn’t a part that routine. I wake up, drink my morning coffee, plop myself down in front of the ______ (TV, computer, ipad, smart phone, insert your choice of technology device here), and zone out completely. By the time I snap myself out of this bubble of brain zapping media it’s already afternoon. Another wasted day. And this is why a shower at this point seems futile and irrelevant. So I just stink up my house until its time to go to bed and do it all over the next day. (don’t worry I do actually decide to shower when I can’t stand my own stink anymore).
Can you relate?
You know how it goes. We get so caught up in the daily grind that we get stuck in rut. Or a funk that we can’t seem to shake. Or something comes along that puts us in a bad place mentally. Ruts can be small and caused by routine. Or they can be much much bigger. Sometimes, things are seemingly going along great in our world and then something happens to send it crashing to a screeching halt. A bad day at work. A relative gets sick. A loved one passes away.
This rut I am in right now, for some reason brings me right back to the place I was in 2 years ago when we lost our baby girl, Bella Rose. At 20 weeks pregnant I gave birth to her and she did not live. In an instant our world was changed. For someone who is Type A like me (a planner, a thinker, an organizer) this was absolutely devastating. The life I had planned for me, for us, was not going to be the one we would get. In the months that followed I was in that same state of not showering, not interacting, and I felt very isolated. That time in my life was so much more than being stuck in rut, yet so similar to today on many levels.
So how to we climb out of a rut? a funk? a bad day? a bout of depression?
Today begins my first e-course: Illuminate: Lighting the Path to Photographic Healing where we are going to be exploring just that. The course was designed out my own experiences in using my camera to heal from the loss of our precious first daughter, Bella. It’s a community for baby loss moms who have lost their “spark” to come and learn some new photography ideas and techniques to get out of their own personal funk.
In honor this new journey I am embarking upon with the Illuminate launch, I want to offer a few suggestions for those of you who may be in a creative rut and looking to heal your own soul through photography, take some time to reflect , and bring some change to your daily routine:
- FIND YOUR ENERGY Are you are morning person or a night person? When do you feel your most you, your most friendly, your most easy going, your most energetic, your most emotional? This may be a clue to when you should be trying to tap into your creativity.
- GO FOR A WALK Make today the day you schedule in that nice hour long walk. It’s summer, the weather is warm, the sun is shining, there are no excuses for being indoors! Bring your camera along. Take pictures of anything you think is beautiful. Unique architecture. Pretty flowers in bloom. The sun setting behind your house.
- PICK A THEME Is your favorite color blue? Photograph anything blue you find this week. Try to take a photo of something that represents each letter of the alphabet (A – photograph a apple, B – photograph a teddy bear, C – photograph your fresh corn on the cob for dinner, etc..). Nature lover? Photograph nothing but trees, flowers, and shrubs. Now go make a collage using this fun online mosaic maker.
- MAKE A SCAVENGER HUNT Brainstorm a list of items you want to photograph and go find them! Better yet, find a list that has already been done for you. The Great Scavenger Hunt is a fun one to get some really obscure ideas. Or check out this Digital Photography School Group. They aren’t very active anymore, but they do have lots of previous lists to get your creative juices flowing.