Autumn Colours
Just before going away to Italy I was talking to a relatively new friend about Healing with Photography; in essence just explaining what it is. You’ll know if you’ve read my previous articles that Healing with Photography is close to my heart and whilst I’ll listen to constructive advice, woe betide anyone who sticks their nose in where it isn’t asked for.
It turned out that I was talking to someone who didn’t understand the issues of mental health, as I guess many of us don’t, and they then tried to offer advice. And for a while there they had me re-thinking, questioning my ideas and looking for a different way to run it even though the professionals I’ve spoken to in mental health tell me that I’ve developed something that they really like.
And in many ways the re-think was a worthy detour, it gave me the opportunity to look again at Healing with Photography and make sure that it is on the right tracks to help the people most in need of it and to make sure that commercially it works too. I took this musing away with me to Italy and I was going to find time to sit down and work out the best way forward, whilst all the time I could feel the resentment towards this friend for having stuck their nose in to my business bubbling up in my mind.
So with a few too many late nights in Italy spent sitting at ice-cream parlours watching the world go by, (I do so love the Italian tradition of finishing the night at an ice-cream shop), it meant I didn’t quite get around to working out the right way forward; I just got off the plane with the same tinge of resentment that I took away with me.
Then I gave the following advice to a friend today. ‘When someone is interfering or taking things out on you that aren’t your fault, it’s never about you but the person doing the deed. It’s their insecurities and fears that are coming forth.’ It is though up to you how you to choose to deal with that, whether you choose to get upset about it and believe that there is some truth in it, or whether you simply choose to say they are their issues not mine. I decided to listen to my own advice and today pulled all my ideas for the business together to create a cohesion that felt right to me.
Since coming home this last week there has been a slight re-organisation of my intentions for Healing with Photography. A MIND centre, the national mental health charity, has come back to me after acquiring funding to run the courses, so I am very happy about that and we are making plans to get the course started. And today I have been looking at a location where I can run the courses privately for people to come via marketing or referrals rather than through a specific mental health centre.
This location has everything, classroom, café facilities, parking, toilets, most importantly of all it has five or more great locations to keep the photography fresh across the sessions and it just occurs to me as I write it would also be a good location for more traditional photography courses too.
Once I finally let go of the resentment caused by my friends comments that I judged as interfering, and became less put out and more let’s see why it’s bothering me, it allowed my mind to become more open to the opportunities in front of me. And for that I am very grateful.
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Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.