“Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.”  ~ Amit Ray

When I developed this creative practice, my life was full to the brim with work. I was working full-time in a government funded art studio, and I was building my private therapy practice in every minute available in my evenings and on weekends. My lunch hour was literally my only "down time."

 

So, I decided to go for a "visual beauty" walk on my lunch hour each day. For an entire year, my "photo therapy walk" became a treasured form of soothing meditation. And, ever being in love with visual symbolism and metaphor, my photos started to express their own healing language.

Breathe

1. Solitude: Go for a 30-60 minute walk in solitude each day for 30 days.

 

2. Breathe softly. Maintain a portion of your attention on your breath as you walk.

 

Be mindful of your in-breath and of your out-breath. Tune into your inner world.

Observe

3. Observe: Focus your attention on your surroundings in order to quiet your thoughts.

 

Take care to observe details that you might not normally pay attention to.

 

4. Soften your eyes and look for areas in your surroundings that strike you visually and emotionally. 

Respond

5. Beauty: When you see something that feels beautiful or striking on an emotional level, take a photo.

 

6. Contemplate your photo during the day, and consider how it reflects your current emotions.

 

7. Name your inner experience as expressed in the photo. Give your photo a name.



Share your Photos

So, let us begin this photographic healing journey together! If you take your photos on your phone, I invite your to share them to Instagram and tag me @shelleyklammer (if you want me to see your photos.)

 

And HASHTAG: #30dayphototherapy if you want connect to the Photo Therapy community and enjoy what others are seeing. You can view my ongoing phototherapy journey on Tumblr.

 

The Healing Power of Beauty

This course is for you if:

 

- Sitting in mindfulness meditation does not suit your restless creative soul.

- You love beauty and you want to track your inner life's responses to your outer environment.

- You want to incorporated a creative wellness activity with daily exercise.

- You are curious about how your emotional life responds to imagery.

- You long to calm your nervous system and take your attention off of your emotional pain.

~ You want to focus on what you love about your life instead of what is wrong.

~ You want to share your photography with others and/or track your inner life through photos.

 

Deep Soul Healing

 

In this course I share my personal journey of healing a deep pocket of emotional pain and grief at the death of my mother. My story may ignite and inspire your own journey of deep healing, as I touch into the deeper spiritual dynamics of healing emotional pain such as ancestral healing, empathic pain processing, and the soul and karmic contracts that we come here to heal.

 

If you are interested in exploring spiritual and alternative ways to heal your emotional pain, you will love this course. The daily emails that you will receive touch into the reality that we are larger than this one earth life we are walking now. This larger perspective will support you to call upon the spiritual support of your ancestors, guides and spirit helpers to heal your emotional pain.


A Year of Expressive Art and Writing

Access Photo Therapy as part of my year-long program, "The Art of Healing Depression."


"I personally do a lot of blogging, and journal writing and even have a painting/collage challenge I have undertaken. Since I love photography as well, I was curious how this practice would help.

 

I thought it would be easy, but it was a bit more challenging than expected. At first I was randomly snapping "pretty" pictures with no attachment to the image. I was going through a rough patch at work, and I saw my emotions in the photos I was taking - "caged, trapped, out of reach." 

 

It really became clear that we see what we feel. When I started focusing on looking for "help" in nature, I was attracted to such things are bark shedding from a tree, a blossom on a cactus. These were both very inspiring images. In the end, I found this bond with nature."

 

~ Jennifer Ott