



If you did something that would be considered bad by objective moral and social standards and you feel bad about it, that's normal and to be expected. But, what is when, from other people's point of view, you have done just fine and you still feel bad? Others say, "That's what I would've done, if I was in your place," but you keep on feeling bad about it and deny yourself any justification or compassion. If you do this habitually, you are a likely candidate for depression.
What prevents us from feeling good? One of the major causes people stay depressed or frequently slip into depression is that they don't know how to stop feeling bad. Some people become good at "doing" depression. They spend a lot of time in self-destructive thoughts and feelings. They become experts at being depressed , but don't know how to do anything else. So they do little of anything else.
Depression may be a simple case of all addition and little subtraction. Depressive thoughts and negative feelings keep adding up over a period of time and nothing is subtracted from them because the depressed person does not entertain positive thoughts or happy experiences. These repetitive patterns prevent us from feeling good about ourselves. We prevent things from happening that could bring us satisfaction and happiness.
Chronic depression is not merely a "chemical imbalance," as some would like us to believe. This entirely chemical and narrow view of human emotions has done more harm than good. We should also note that a depressed person is neither "crazy" nor "weak." Depression is a set of negative habits, behaviors, thought processes, perceptions, assumptions, attitudes, faulty learning, and a lack of certain skills. A person who has had repeated episodes of depression needs to learn many new skills and not just make minor changes, but transform himself or herself as a person.
Depression is like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis or any other chronic physical illness in which medication alone is not enough. Informed heart, diabetes, and arthritic patients know that they have to change their diet, exercise, and avoid harmful habits and emotions. Similarly, informed depressive patients should know that in order to recover from depression they need to give up depressive habits and acquire skills that promote happiness and satisfaction.
Medication alone should not be tried for more than a couple of months. If depression persists, try medication and therapy, or therapy alone. If depression becomes a life-long condition, we should make a deliberate effort to change ourselves. We must make appropriate changes in our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, relationships, and in our ways of thinking about ourselves. We should know that merely cosmetic changes are not enough. We require transformation.
Unfortunately, therapy and medication often don't go far and deep enough these days. Managed care companies don't want to pay psychiatric physicians for more than fifteen minutes a visit, so all they can do is to listen to patients' complaints and hand out prescriptions. Likewise, these companies don't allow more than a few counseling sessions for non-physician counselors. In such limited contact, clients and therapists can only work on symptoms rather than on underlying causes.
Unfortunately, our awareness and understanding of chronic and recurrent depression is far from satisfactory. Drug companies, through their mighty machinery of advertisement, have sold us the idea of chemical imbalance. As a result, many view chemicals and emotions as one and the same thing. When they feel a little better with medication, they lose all motivation to work in therapy.
Feeling better is not enough. We need to remove that which stands between us and our happiness. We must identify the things that make us happy and do them. Without being critical of ourselves, we must learn to improve ourselves. When bad things happen to us, we need not feel that we are being punished. Likewise, when good things happen to bad people, we need not feel deprived. Instead of feeling guilty for past actions, we should take reformative actions.
Instead of dreading future, we should be proactive. We should recall past successes to recover our confidence. Instead of feeling like a failure, we should exploit what we are good at. We should ask for serenity to bear the things we can't change and courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference
by Vijai P. Sharma, Ph.D
1. Never Stop Thinking About Photos
Whether your camera is in hand or not conduct mental exercises to find subjects, mentally frame images and think through how you would capture the subject. Keeping photography constantly in mind is important in training yourself to think creatively. If your mind is primed for creative thought, creativity will have an easier time striking you.
aku : kalau dah kamera trgantung jek kt leheor,mesti dlm kepala otak pikir nk amik gambor jek.. xpayah gune viewfinder,ak gulung2 kertas wat teropong nengok keliling. jadi gak. org kata nk dptkan view dr perspektif kita sndri.
2. Embrace Your Mistakes & Chance
It’s OK for chance or mistakes to bring something new to your attention. Always take a second look at your mistakes and see if it presents something new to the scene that perhaps you hadn’t thought to try. Not every mistake is a creative epiphany, but you’ll never have one if you never look.
aku : sbb tu ak upload melambak2 kasi org tgok.org kritik. ak xkesah. ak suka mcm tu. yg kritik tu lg lama kenal kamera dr ak. nama pn nk blajar. ko marah cikgu masuk neraka jahannam tau. lgpn,praktis make perfect kot. selain tu muhasabah diri, blajar dr kesilapan yg terbaiknyer... tq kepada yg meng'komen'... anda byk membantu...
3. Find inspiration
Whether viewing artwork at museums, in photo books or immersing yourself in nature, embrace the work of others including Mother Nature to help you see or think in new ways. When our minds are introduced to new techniques or ways of seeing our mindseye begins to expand its view fostering creative thought.
aku :mencari ilham kata org melayu.. time berak,pn leh dpt ilham. time tdo pn boleh.dr mimpi..haha.. yg logiknyer..korg ushar la hasil karya org lain..tp jangan tiru. ia hanya utk mencetuskan idea korg jek. ak slalu tgok2 hasil org len.. comey2 dr ak. ak x anggap tu wat ak down,ia wat ak makin galak nk wat lg kreatif dr dorg.
4. Break the Rules
Rules are great as they provide a roadmap of how things can be done or explain why we find something visually appealing. Once you know or have mastered the rules its time to break them. Creativity knows no bounds. A great creative exercise is to intentionally break a rule to see how you can find a new way of viewing something in a manner that is otherwise “taboo”.
aku : bab "break the rule" mmg slalu.. rule kt sini maksdnya,rule dlm photography.. ada beberapa rule,atau peraturan cth mcm "rule of third" tu lah.. ak kdg2 xikot pn.. mana angle cun,ak kasi snap jek.
5. Have No Fear
Free yourself from the fear of what others might say if critical of your creative experiments. People by nature almost always have adverse reactions to new things particularly when they’re entrenched in thinking a more common practice is the “right way” or “norm”. Creativity is the antithesis of a “norm”. Creativity brings a new way to present and see things. Never let norms and the attachment others have to them sway you from your creative exploration of the world before you with your camera.
aku : pernah ak tgok org amik gmbr sarang burung,dia panjat n ikat bdan dia kt pokok.. giler... pd ak tu brani... yeah..ak dah wat tp bkn ikat bdn kt pokok la,ak redah jeram smata2 utk amik pic rama-rama kt atas batu.. serius cuak..arus deras,tkut kamera jatuh..tp ak try.. big sacrifice for big satisfactions....
6. Extract Yourself
Remove yourself from familiar routine and locations. Taking time to be away from the things that normally fill your day is a great way to obtain freedom for your mind to wander. Distraction free time allows for new thoughts and ideas to surface and most importantly it allows you to shape them into actionable projects.
aku : xpernah2 merayau sorg2 mcm pelancong asing,aku g wat.. xpernah2 jelajah hutan2,ak g wat.. xpernah2 tunggu sunset,ak g wat, xpernah bgn pagi nk tggu sunrise,ak g wat... luar tabii kalau org kmpung kata..haha.. tp tu lah.. ape yg xslalu org tgok tu lah yg unik,lain dr yg lain..