A Conscious Life

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Recently, I went to a beautiful hill station here in India. I visited some popular tourist attractions and took a bunch of pictures.

Once back, I made a collection of the pictures I liked and shared them on Facebook(FB). Now if you are on FB, you can probably relate to the satisfaction one can get out of the likes one’s pictures receive.

But when I was taking those pictures and, later, as I was seeking those likes on FB, I felt something was not quite right with the activity. There was something bothering me but I didn’t know what.

Enjoying the moment

I feel now that my focus on taking those pictures was taking me away from the experience. Instead of enjoying the moment, I was focusing more on taking good pictures, to later share with others and to look back upon the trip.

When we try too hard to capture this moment for later, we loose what we could have gained in that moment. We come back without ever having made a connection with the place and the people.

And what about keeping memories? Don’t we need pictures to look back upon the good old days?

I have been thourgh phases when I would say, ‘Those were the days…” What that meant was that, ‘The days now are not as good as there were in the past.’

There are lessons to be gained and re-enforced from the past, it can be a reminder of the ways in which you did good things, had fun. But do we need to do this every day? And do we need thousands of pictures to do it?

I think reminiscing too much about the past brings us in denial of the present. The present is also good. It is just a different kind of good.

In fact, any moment is good or bad only according to the definition we give to it. When we think of the good old days, we tell our subconscious that we don’t like this moment and that we don’t think there is anything better we can do than just think about the past.

And that becomes our reality.

I don’t think that is the best way we can live. We can resolve to find the good in this moment, make the best of it, and enjoy it for it’s own worth. Otherwise, if we are just thinking of the past, doing nothing in this moment, we are as good as dead.

The present has the potential to be very beautiful, all it needs is our complete focus, our total presence.

Seeking validation

All of us like sharing our pictures with those whom we know. With the advent of FB and other social sharing sites, sharing has become even more widespread and popular. It gives a high for a few days, a sense of self worth. Then the feeling goes, and one has to repeat the process again.

It is as if people want others to validate that they are happy, it is as if they don’t believe so themselves. Deep down, they are bored and seeking freedom. One can almost sense their boredom with their regular, 5 days at job when one finds them posting pictures of their 2 days of weekend getaways, again and again.

Does it make sense to focus on a temporary solution, that only skims over the surface, rather than find ways to address the real problem itself?

Letting others in on the experience they missed.

Another reason to take pictures is to let others see what they missed. But why tell them what they missed? They missed what they missed, their are many more experiences to come in the future. Why not focus on what you can share right now?

I can see people wanting to let loved ones in on the experience they had, I can see people sharing with others the possibilities these others might not know of. But, as far as having fun is concerned, I would rather create a new and wonderful experience with others than discuss what I did and they didn’t.

But the camera is not itself a bad thing…

Taking pictures can have its advantages too. Pictures can be good pieces of art. Creating art is being totally present. Creating art is enjoying and living the moment.

They can also be used well for business purposes, to promote something, to make people think, to motivate, inspire, to make them happy, or to make them question. All the above would make sense, when they themselves are your primary purpose.

*****

Today, unlike a decade ago, every other person has a digital camera. They can now take hundreds and thousands of pictures with ease. This is great power and has to be handled carefully. More is not always better, taking umpteen pictures mindlessly only causes disconnection, stress, and unhappiness. Few and meaningful is the way to go.

This goes along the lines of simplicity, as Richard Greg described it :

Avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater abundance in other directions.

If you want to experience a place, leave the camera behind. Memories that are worthy of keeping will stay. They will stay etched in your mind, you will not need pictures to remind you.

Image credit: graur razvan ionut

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