Look Around

Begin by sitting quietly for a few moments. Place your feet on the ground, root your sit bones, and sit up tall. Take a few deep cleansing breaths and settle in as you observe. Begin to notice your surroundings. The colors, textures, and landscape. The subjects and objects around you. The light and shadow. Become very present in your surroundings. Really look. Even feel the sensations of your eyes as they gaze and move around the space.

Once you feel present, choose one subject to focus on. It can be a person, place, or thing. Often the mind will waver between several subjects. Just choose the first one that resonates with you. There’s no wrong subject. Move your feet and begin to explore the subject from all angles. Yes, move your feet! Can you see it deeply? Take more than a surface glance, get a full perspective. See it from underneath, above, behind, up close, and far away. Notice how the light changes the subject as you move around it.

Grab Your Camera

Now the fun part! Grab your camera. A smartphone camera will do just fine, it does not have to be fancy. In this digital era, we often shoot many photos without pausing to really “see” the subject. In this exercise, you will only take 4 photographs, so take your time and choose wisely. The subject does not have to be perfect. Just choose one that resonates with you and go with it.

Note: You may notice your mind resisting this exercise with perfection tendencies or fear of doing it incorrectly. Take a few deep breaths and choose participation over unnecessary protection.

Thoughtfully walk around your subject and choose 4 very different angles. Can you see it from a low perspective? What about a high or overhead perspective? How does the subject change if you get really close vs a pulled-back perspective? How does the light change the subject when you walk around different sides? Take some time to explore and play. But remember, only take 4 photos.

Now that you have your 4 images, contemplate which one resonates with you. Which one do you feel connected to? Your mind may waver and wonder if it’s doing this exercise correctly. Just choose the one that resonates with you at this moment, I promise you are doing great.

Write down the following elements in relation to that photo in the space below:

Subject: (What did you take a photo of?)
Perspective: (Which angle did you shoot from? low/ closeup/ far away/ wide/ above/ silhouette/ straight on/ etc…)

Feeling Observations: (When looking at this photo what arises for you? Focus on this one image without comparing it to the other photos. What about it made you choose it? What do you see? How does it make you feel? You can be as descriptive as you’d like or you can keep it short to just 2 to 3 words.)

Seeing Ourselves Deeply Exercise

Similar to this photographic exercise, we will follow the same pattern to reveal an aspect of our heart’s deepest longing. 

Choose an area of your life that you’d like to focus on (just like the subject of your photograph). Consider health, wealth, relationships, direction, worth, etc. Identify one area that you’d like to focus your energy on. 

*Note: There will be opportunities throughout this book to focus on the other aspects of life so don’t get overwhelmed by choosing only one. 

Once you’ve got it, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Imagine this aspect of your life as a physical subject. Notice it starts to take shape. It could have a form or be formless. Notice the texture, color, and how the light reflects off of its surface. Is it large? Is it small? What are its qualities? Once you have an overall picture in your mind of what it looks like, view it from four angles and make notes below on what you observe.

Aspect of Life:

Angles to Explore

Low perspective: This point of view may exaggerate certain aspects of the subject. It may feel grounded or it may feel distorted in some way. Write a sentence or 2-3 words on how this aspect looks from a low angle.

Overhead or Wide perspective: Choose between an overhead or a wide perspective. This point of view may give you an overall vision of the landscape of the aspect. The whole picture. Write a sentence or 2-3 words on what you observe about this aspect from this point of view.

Silhouette/ backlit or closeup detail perspective: Choose between a backlit silhouette point of view or a closeup detail perspective. This perspective may show more shadow or obscure the subject in some way. It may introduce some mystery or reveal its form. Write a sentence or 2-3 words on what you observe from here.

Straight on/ direct and well-lit: View this aspect from a straight-on perspective. It is well-lit and visible. Write a sentence or 2-3 words on what you observe about this aspect when viewed from this point of view.

Now, choose one of these angles that resonates with you. The perspective in which you would like to see yourself relate to this aspect of your life. Put a star next to that point of view.

Feeling Observations: What would it feel like to live from this perspective in relation to your chosen aspect of life? What would your life look like? How would you act? How would you feel?

Patterns: What patterns, habits, thoughts, and tendencies keep you from living from this place? What fears hold you back? In what ways do you self-sabotage this in your life?

Heart’s Deepest Longing Mantra: Looking back at your feeling state, identify 1-3 words or a short phrase that will support you in following your heart’s deepest longing.

Present Tense: If your mantra uses a future tense change it to the present tense. If it uses the word “you” change it to “I”. Make it declarative.

Mantra/Photo Review: Review your photograph and your mantra. Do they fit together in some way? In what ways do they correlate? Write your findings below.

Using your Mantra: Whenever one of your identified patterns comes up, this mantra can be used to help you reorient and remember the way your heart longs to relate to your life situation. You can repeat it 108 times on a mala, place it on your altar, or create art out of it.

Create: To take your creativity to the next level, try using a design app like Canva to type your mantra over your image. Print it and put it on your mirror, desk at work, or set it as your screensaver or desktop. Place it anywhere you wish to remember to use it.

I hope this exercise has been helpful to you. I’d love any feedback you’d like to share.

OM,

Sara