Jump Out Of Your Comfort Zone Into Crazy Chaos To Improve Your Focus And Awareness Skills
Jump Out Of Your Comfort Zone Into Crazy Chaos To Improve Your Focus And Awareness Skills
Walking Sicily’s Food Markets Teach You More Than A NYC Cab Drive
Throw some very advanced amateur photography enthusiasts into the middle of crazy Palermo in Sicily and see what happens. We did that. But, no worries, we did it with lots of care, love, support, and ongoing teaching about how to practice Street Photography.
And here is an interesting lesson for anybody else who is not a photographer. Or running around Palermo. This crazy, busy, buzzing, non-stop-on-the-go city is like our busy, hectic life at home - and can teach you a lot about awareness, paying attention, flow, and kindness.
Standing in the middle of a crazy brimming food and clothes market with narrow pathways, shouting merchants, pushing customers, and Vespas trying to pass through, you might find this vibrating environment exciting on the one hand but difficult to navigate on the other.
That’s how I felt while moving through historic food markets last week in Palermo, Sicily. This market was a fifty-fold increase from a cab drive in New York City and felt almost like a training camp for chaos theory. It is overwhelming to all your senses, your vision, sense of smell, and hearing.
It makes you uncomfortable and uneasy. Which is good training for finding your inner calmness and gaining a clearer overview.
Learning How To Stay Calm And Focused In The Middle Of Chaos
Our plates are full of tasks, demands, and distractions. I can easily turn into a petrified rabbit wondering where to start and what to pick out and focus on. It is not easy to concentrate on the essentials and ignore everything else.
But watching the photography students and listening to the photographer instructor, I learned a lot about focusing on what is important and I was reminded of the many ways how we can zoom in and filter out the noise.
Acting Consciously Instead Of Reacting
A lot of the stress we have comes from reacting spontaneously to all the impulses from the outside instead of stopping for a moment and first getting in touch with ourselves, and being conscious.
You can actually stand in the middle of this incredibly tight, elbow-rubbing, noisy market and be still. Stop. Wait a moment. Step a little to the side, the crowds will flow around you. Breathe and observe. Feel yourself. Watch.
Why would you want to do that?
Because usually, we are not stopping to really listen, to really look, or to slow down to make better decisions.
If things at work or in daily life get hectic, overwhelming, stressful and you get bombarded with questions, demands, asked for decisions, and pushed to hurry up the smartest move you can do is to stop for a brief moment and take a step back.
We rarely do that. We rather jump forward to deliver an immediate reaction.
You Can Allow Yourself To Slow Down
By slowing down and having the patience to just be still we can better sort out the visuals and scenes unfolding in front of us. Noticing many things with a calm mind is a lot different than noticing many things while being in a hectic state of mind. We stay in control instead of passively reacting.
To see what matters, you really have to look. It takes real work to grasp what is not immediately visible to most people.
That is what the street photographers were practicing. Stopping in the middle of the chaos that was floating around them and observing. Some didn’t have the patience for that, some did. You could see the difference in the picture results. Some forced themselves to try it again the next day, and the photographs improved.
Be Open-Minded To Chaos And You Gain Confidence In Complex Systems
The chaos theory states that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnections, constant feedback loops, and repetitions and the systems seem to be in a constant flow self-organizing themselves.
This is life. This is work. This is the city of Palermo in Sicily.
With the camera, we can bring visual order into this chaos by being open and choosing wisely what we let into our frame.
With our mindset, we can bring mental and emotional order into the chaos around us called stressful daily life. By paying attention to what is essential and letting this be part of our life vision.
“Life is about staying focused. Not simply focusing an image in the viewfinder of a camera, but keeping your eye, your soul, your mind, all in focus in the viewfinder of the life you choose to lead.” – David Burnett, photojournalist.