4 Ways Your Camera Can Help You be Happier

Did you get a new camera for Xmas? It make do more to uplift your mood than Prozac. I use my camera to alchemize bad moods into good ones, or at least decent, non-sucky ones. I have 4 different techniques. They all help me get out of my head and connect with the world. As if those two things were actually different.

1. When the Big Picture starts to feel scary - difficult - upsetting, if I take close ups I feel better. In this case I'm using the camera to disengage from what ifs and focus on the here and now. Hey look at that grommet.

2. When something small is irritating me, a tiny irritating detail, like an annoying phone call, I take the long view. Look for the big picture. Vistas.

3. When I feel like I am missing the essential truth of a situation, I shoot specifically looking for what I am missing. Sometimes even sitting in a crummy parking lot there is so much beauty. This reminds me that there is the seen and the yet to be seen. It helps me look for the yet to be seen angle of my difficult situation.

4. If all else fails I take pictures of myself. Being on camera makes me turn it on, even when it's my own camera. Embarrassing. But true.