I love flatlay photography – it’s my favourite type of product photography. I love pottering around the house, looking for objects that work perfectly together in the shot. This pink shoot had been percolating around in my head for a while. I started this morning, by stopping off at my local bakery on the way home from the park, to see if they had a pink cupcake. I didn’t plan on doing a consecutive group of shots, but hey, it works for me 😊
So here’s a little bit of fun that I set up today.
We get so caught up in things, don’t we? How does something become so big in your mind that it takes over all your thoughts, most of your conversations, keeps you up at night? It’s not our fault, it’s just the way it is. We take things to heart, we want to please others, we want to do a good job, we want to make things right, we want to be content with ourselves.
Do you ever have those nights where you just can’t switch off? You can’t switch off all the thoughts running around in your brain? And then you get so frustrated at not being able to sleep, the frustration then stops you from sleeping. Isn’t it all just a viscous circle?
So how do we slow down? How do we turn off the brain, just long enough to get to sleep? And when we wake up during the night, how do we go back to sleep without waking up those thoughts that mess with our heads?
Meditation. Deep breathing. Pills. Think happy thoughts. Get up. Walk. Drink water. Drink milk. Count sheep. Alcohol. Read.
Those are some of the ideas that I’ve been given over the years. A “body scan” meditation does work sometimes – where you focus on each part of your body separately – there are guided meditations on YouTube that are pretty good. But you have to be in the zone.
Lately, I’ve been putting on P!nk’s new album and focusing on the lyrics – this seems to help me get to sleep. And if I wake up, I just play it again and get through a couple of songs before I’m out. This has helped before as well, with Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran….
But I wake up pretty often and so my sleep is not so restful.
Anyway, today I managed to switch off the brain completely (during the day), with a little bit of flatlay fun. I have forgotten, over the last few months, just how much I love being behind the lens. The camera and I are best friends, we get along so well, it makes me happy to be right there, figuring out how best to style a photo and then see the results of my hard work.
I don’t know how I forgot this. I guess after my shoulder surgery I couldn’t hold the camera anymore and maybe I just got out of the habit. That horrifies me. Something I love so much, just forgotten. I don’t carry my camera with me anymore, trying to keep the weight of my bag lower, but maybe I’m going to have to change that back. I miss it so much that I’m going to have to start carrying it again.
The other thing I’ve missed is writing. I was reminded recently about all of the stories I used to write, mostly when I was travelling. I got back into it a little for a while there, but then it fell over again. It might be the way to get to sleep easier – put all those thoughts into words.
Well, that was an unexpected little life update. And maybe a different tone than I had planned – certainly different to the title and photograph content of this post! But it’s what I’m thinking right now, so I thought I’d put it into words.
Best wishes for a great week!
x desleyjane
Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist 
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