Hi,
This is Ruben from Burn On Space.
Welcome to this meditation called Your Mind Is A Lens.
I want to ask you to get settled in,
Get as comfortable as possible where you are.
If you choose to sit or lay down,
Take a deep breath in through your nose.
And breathe out through your mouth.
Once more,
Take a deep breath in through your nose.
And out.
I'm going to tell you a story about my life.
I have been a photographer for nearly 20 years.
The biggest part of my conscious adult life,
I have viewed the world through a lens.
For me,
That gave me a huge sense of freedom.
Photography consists of three basic elements.
These are time,
Light,
And the moment.
The more time you take,
The more light comes in.
It's called the shutter speed.
The amount of light is the aperture.
The moment is the moment itself,
Captured by you,
By the viewer,
The observer.
These three elements form your perspective.
The camera itself,
The lens,
Is a tool.
It registrates.
You command what it sees.
Photography taught me that things were able to be shaped,
Constructed,
Arranged,
To be decided on,
And frozen in time.
A moving scene becomes a still image.
Our minds are our lens.
We see something.
Within a split second,
We decide to keep it,
Or discard it.
We see so incredibly much in one day.
Over 30,
000 images,
At least.
Much more if you live in a major city with loads of visual information.
Sometimes we look closely,
Sometimes we look away.
There is a huge difference between seeing and looking.
We see if we use our eyes.
We are looking if we use our inner vision.
There's so much visual information to process,
And we do most of that without even realizing we do.
Our heart is our edit box,
Our software.
We choose to keep what we find the most valuable.
I presume your eyes are closed right now.
What do you see?
Is it dark?
Are there colors or shapes in the space behind your eyes?
Lines,
Dots?
Does it make you feel stressed?
Does it make you feel calm?
Take another breath.
In through your nose,
And out through your mouth.
How much time do you give yourself for the pictures your mind wants to take?
Leonard Cohen,
Poet,
Singer,
And artist said,
There's a crack in everything.
That's where the light comes in.
Nothing is ever completely dark.
Darkness cannot exist without light.
It's the universal principle of balance.
Yin-yang,
Black and white,
Day and night,
Open or closed,
Good or bad,
Love or hate.
Think about a specific moment in your life.
Something you have seen,
Something you choose to capture in your inner lens,
Something you remember very vividly.
Now imagine you would be there again in that moment,
Seeing the exact same thing,
The exact same people,
The exact same colors.
Now imagine you would take that picture again after days,
Weeks,
Years,
Maybe decades,
And you're taking it as a person you are today.
Would you take the same photo?
Would you capture it with the same settings?
Or would you take more time to feel the moment?
If you would edit the picture,
Would you change anything?
Would you add light or brightness?
Would you put in more shadows,
More contrast,
More darkness?
Our mind decides what our hearts want to capture.
What we remember is often how we would like to look at the moment and not what it actually was.
We make it better or we make it worse.
We twist our memory.
We protect what we love.
And we also remember what scares us,
Which is human and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
It's in our infinite urge to grow,
To love,
To remember what we had,
What it was like in that period of time,
In that moment,
With who,
And especially how it made us feel.
In our physical bodies,
As persons,
As humans,
We don't want to be fixed in a frame or frozen in time.
We are wired to grow,
To see moments as new stories.
If you become aware of the incredible power your inner lens has,
You can use it to shape your thoughts,
Fuel your soul,
Reconnect with your body,
Reflect on your experiences.
You can edit yourself towards more light.
Just know that your shadow is as important as your shine.
Try to accept yourself from all angles without judgment.
Just like any compassionate photographer would do.
Namaste.
