Quite unconsciously and unexpectedly, my creative doings could be named mindful photography.
Throughout my whole life, I heard the word “mindfulness” quite often. Still, I’ve never thought about what this word means. According to the Oxford Languages website, mindfulness is:
A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
I wrote many times on the www.adammazek.com website that when I walk in frigid temperatures wearing summer clothes and doing street photography, I am incredibly content and grateful, thanks to the fact that I am here right here and right now. I would not swap with anyone to live somewhere else at other times. I love living in Poland in the third decade of the XXI century (I wrote this text on the 13th of March, 2023)
Moreover, I loved living here in earlier decades (I was born in 1985).
Speaking shortly: I love life. I love life for the sake of life. Even if I am sometimes miserable, sad, and full of doubts, I am still loving to live. While strolling around Warsaw’s streets and doing street photography, I try to avoid analyzing the past and forecasting the future. I focus on the present moment, on the fact that I am here. It is a moment when I am grateful for everything I’ve experienced and everyone I’ve met.
Even if I’m angry about something, nervous, or frightened, I always try to remind myself that such feelings are inseparable parts of one’s life.
We should control and accept them. I know it is challenging to do it. Undoubtedly, I will be learning it until my death. Still, I will do my best to conquer the so-called negative feelings. The same issue is with the pain I received while exposing my body to cold. While doing it, I have no doubts there is no better way to be here and now. Speaking shortly, symbolically, I represent mindful photography.