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MindfulFilter: Can we mindfully photograph a fleeting moment?

One of the many benefits of mindfulness is how easily we can incorporate a present-minded awareness into any daily activity. How we use social media and our mobile phones can sometimes feel robotic and automated.

Our new interactive experiment, MindfulFilter, is an opportunity to pay more attention to how we use and interact with technology and social media through something we do regularly – taking and sharing photos.

This week’s MindfulFilter theme was Earth.

We saw two major trends in the photos people shared with us on Instagram: sky and light. Colorful cloud formations, rainbows and sunrises/sunsets galore.

That’s understandable.

Those fleeting moments need to be captured on the spot. There’s an unconscious drive to capture images that may not be there a second later. Perhaps we want to record and share situations that only we experience. Or we’re trying to make sense of things we don’t normally see.

With those considerations, we asked ourselves: Are we mindful of the moment we’re photographing – or are we responding instinctually without any conscious awareness?

One follower said: “I find that the process of taking pictures of such situations is incredibly mindful: you need to be cognizant of every move, every sound. It’s certainly a change from how I (we?) usually blunder through the natural world!”

There’s also an opportunity for the viewers of the photographs to practice mindfulness. When viewing some of this week’s #earth photos, for instance, we took a few extra seconds to examine different elements in the image, such as different shading in cloud formations or patterns in sunbursts. Elements we would usually notice, but not really look at closely.

The additional time we spent really seeing the image, or parts of it, allowed us to notice emotions that arose while looking at the photos: curiosity, awe, joy, jealousy (I wish I was actually there right now!), and so on.

Take a look at some of our favorite photos below.

rainbow

sky

nevada-from-sky

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Screen Shot 2014-04-25 at 2.15.59 PM

Screen Shot 2014-04-25 at 2.16.50 PM

Screen Shot 2014-04-25 at 2.17.40 PM

What comes to mind when you look at these images?

Please consider taking part in our social experiment. It’s easy to participate.

MindfulFilter-Onesheet

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More Than Sound’s Email Campaigns: A Model Approach

Our email marketing service, Benchmark, recently profiled our campaigns in their Emails That Do Work series.

We’re honored by the recognition. Everyone is inundated with information from a variety of sources. We take extra steps to provide useful, engaging content in our emails. Here’s what Benchmark had to say about our campaigns.

“Based on the nature of their business and their email campaigns, we can safely say that More Than Sound understands how to communicate effectively to their subscribers. It’s very rare to see graphics that stray anywhere far from the usual stock photos…The friendly interaction between the people in the graphics and the product immediately communicates two messages: (1) that this book is for everyone, and (2) that someone at MTS took the time to create a visual to engage readers. Rather than to slap a few stock images that could maybe fit into the context of the email message, MTS took ownership in branding their imagery.”

You’re welcome to receive our free emails (average 3-4 per month). Send us an email at hello@morethansound.net. Write Benchmark email list in the subject line.

Take a look at our latest email campaign here, which includes links to a collection of podcasts by Daniel Goleman discussing his research for his book Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence.