Why I Stopped Just Posting Photos & Started Teaching Calm

For a long time, photography was where I went to feel calmer.

It helped quiet my mind.

It softened my overthinking.

It gave me moments of stillness when life felt loud and demanding

As I moved through midlife, and deeper into my own trauma recovery, I notice how powerful those moments were.

Not dramatic, not transformation in a big way, but steady.

Regulating.

Grounding.

Photography gave my nervous system a place to land.

However, over time, I found I was feeling more frustrated with just posting my photos, it began to feel that it just wasn't enough.

Beautiful images didn't explain why this practice helped me feel safer, calmer, and more present in my body.

And, I knew I wasn't alone.

So many midlife women I meet are carrying long histories of stress, responsibility and unresolved childhood experiences. They are tired. Disconnected. Living mostly in their heads because their bodies have learned to stay alert for a long time.

I didn't want to teach photography as performance or just creativity.

I wanted to offer it as a practice of reconnection.

That is when I began shaping mindful photography as a somatic, nervous system aware practice, and Calm in The Frame was born, my free gentle guide.

If you are curious, maybe I can help you here...

This is what a lesson actually looks like:

We begin by settling into the body, I will teach you how to practice orienting, a somatic practice which helps us connect the mind and body which helps reduce overthinking, procrastination, future thinking anxious thoughts. It has helped me enormously in difficult times of life ever since lockdown.

Heres the link to one of my orienting lessons.

I talk about noticing the breath without changing it, and layering in the noticing your feet, then hands, then pelvis and legs.

Now, this is not easy for many midlife women who are stuck in their heads, like I was.

It can take some time so we don't rush it.

Letting the nervous system feel that there is no rush right now.

Then I invite you to close your eyes again, and just listen to nearby sounds, sounds far away, and the quiet hum of life continuing without us needing to manage it.

After a pause, I invite you to open your eyes. Close them, open, close.

This gentle rhythm helps the body soften its grip on constant focus, and doing.

With the eyes open, you are inited to notice colour, or texture, depending on what theme the week is.

The trick is not to look hard for this, not to panic and worry what will happen if you don't find something that " fits the bill" because the harder you try, the less you will see.

This is about not trying, and to just to allow something arrive in your awareness, and thats a practice of trust, of letting things " be" without trying to control the outcome.

A practice of letting go of perfectionism.

Now, when a colour or texture, for example, catches your attention, you notice it, then you pause, without immediately taking a photo.

No analising

No trying to make it mean something.

Just noticing.

I find it a good practice then to start orienting again, noticing the breathe, hands, feet, pelvis

Then pick up the camera.

Take up to 5 photos. Slowly. Stopping when something genuinely feels like a " yes" in the body.

In the session, this takes up the majority of time, do not rush it, it could take 30 minutes, which isn't that long if you consider each photo takes about 5 minutes or so.

After the final photo, we rest. No reviewing, No checking. No fixing.

Just take a moment to let everything settle.

This is what a lesson looks like.

No productivity, no perfection, just presence.

Its highly possible that you will feel calmer, clearer, and more connected after just a short practice like this.

Its not learning how to see better. Its about remembering how to be with what's already here.

If you have been feeling scattered, tired, or disconnected from yourself and life lately, this kind of pause can be surprisingly powerful

More soon!

Mel

P.S. If you are curious to experience this kind of pause for yourself, I have created a free gentle guide, Calm in The Frame. It includes a simple mindful photography practice, 5 gentle prompts (choose one a week to guide you ) reflective questions laid out on a simple journal page, a short photo walk guide and where to find my private community to grab free audios and PDF's on the nervous system so you don't feel lost ( please note this community is not on Facebook, but on my own private platform )

P.P.S Ready to take a deeper dive for a bit longer but with me holding your hand? My 4 week course The Calm Practice begins Saturday 10th January at 10am . Here is the link

P.P.P.S. If this resonates, and has helped, please support my work in keeping these words coming by buying me a coffee as if we were chatting in a cafe. Thank you, your support means more than you will ever know.