Episode 7—Nature, Photography and Impermanence
In this week’s podcast, I introduce a few simple and powerful exercises you can do with the camera on your phone. Click on the slim black player above to listen!
As a practising Zen Buddhist, one of the most powerful teachings for me is the key teaching of impermanence. Impermanence is a simple scientific fact that relates strongly to nature.
Nature is showing us every day how the world never stays the same. In every second, the nature around you has shifted. One moment, there’s a wind. The next, a small bird flies by. The next moment, a leaf falls from a tree. Next, it’s raining, or the clouds clear to let in the sun’s light.
All of this—and so much more—can happen in the space of just a few moments in one single place where you stand. How much of this do we really pay attention to though?
As humans, we seem to have an in-built fear of change. It makes sense. Despite death being the most natural thing in the world, it is still a taboo topic in many cultures in the world (notably so in Western cultures).
I believe that seeing the beauty in the changes within nature can heal some of this fear in us. It can also really help us to tune in the the fascinating miracles that are going on all of the time in this gorgeous world around us!
Here is a simple eco-therapy exercise that you can do with a camera when you are out walking. This exercise (as are so many of the exercises that I share) was introduced to me in a slightly different form by the wonderful Caroline Brazier at Tariki Trust.
Photo Changes. Take a walk somewhere where it’s easy for you to revisit. Find a view that you like. Stop to take it all in. Take a photo. Go back every week for four weeks and take another photo each time. Compare the photos at home and notice the changes taking place in nature. (If you remember to, you can even go back later in the year to notice bigger changes). How much has changed in this small space of time? Notice how you feel, and potentially make some journal notes on what has happened in your life while the changes have been taking place in nature.
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