Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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The great escape
NIght Golf is all the rage
I had the opportunity this weekend to do quite a lot more violin playing than normal. The weather in London was so bad I couldn't go out doing photography, so I contented myself with mostly indoor activities. My partner has been away visiting friends for a few days, so while the cat's away....the mice will play. So I dragged horse hair over cat gut and had a great time, doing two hours on Saturday and two and a half of playing on Sunday.
Thinking back on this weekend I realised how good I felt having done so much playing. Indeed I felt as good as I would have if I'd been out at sunrise with my Hassleblad photographing trees in early morning light. I then began to wonder what was the similarity between violin playing and photography that made me feel so comparably good.
Photography is naturally an outdoor activity, requiring all my attention using equipment appropriately to the circumstances to make a good picture. After two or three hours I'm feeling very fulfilled and happy to return home whether I've made good pictures or not. It's the process and outdoor activity that I love. It's all consuming and I'm fulfilled and refreshed.
Violin playing is, well.......violin playing. it's making music and quite different from photography in many ways. Indeed it's hard to find any similarity apart from the artistic endeavour and the complete absorption of ones attention. It's all consuming and afterwards one feels refreshed, transported, as though we've been away somewhere. And this is where the similarity lies, I feel. Ultimately I do what I do because I enjoy it, and I feel transformed and great afterwards.
Indeed there are many, many activities that could have a similar effect, from gardening, car maintenance, crotchet, model railways, painting, sculpture, golf or any sport, wind surfing, cooking to web design or flying. It doesn't matter. it's how we are, and how much we are involved during the activity that counts. It's participative and beats watching telly any day.
We may not actually experience a sense of enjoyment during the activity, although we may. It's afterwards that we realise that we've been happy and had a great time. The thing is that we're just too busy in the activity to notice. An activity that takes us out of ourselves, requires our full attention to the exclusion of all other considerations, that is demanding and stretches our abilities (but not too much, so we can get a sense of satisfaction), that is also creative to some degree; an activity that demands so much rewards us beyond the tangible end result. It changes how we feel, about ourselves, our life and everything around.
Total absorption in a hobby or activity, that need not be a passion itself, but satisfies most of the criteria I've mentioned is likely to reward us in profound ways. it's meditative and good for the soul. If you have a favourite pastime then you'll probably know what I mean. If you don't have such an activity then I strongly recommend you find something suitable to absorb you. You can find great happiness not only while doing it but long afterwards too and you will look forward to the next opportunity to do it again. It makes you happy and this will spread to every part of your life. You even become easier to live with! Although from a partner's point of view, it's questionable whether being a photography 'widow' with lonely absences during 'play' is preferable to the more constant companionship of one who is bored. But I know which I would pick.
It'll also come in pretty handy when we're older, retired and waiting for time up. When you're busy with a hobby you just won't have time to pass away. There is always tomorrow to look forward to, and the next, and the next...
