Mental health propotional to creativity!

I got diagnosed with depression in 2016 but I started feeling so since 2015 and it took me a year to approach a doctor. It is been 4 years now and I find myself more active and alive hence restarted writing to share a part of me with you all.

Coming out for self is itself is a war where you worry a lot about people around you and depression has been tagged as a phase in life by many including your own and it is indeed sad and it makes life more difficult to be normal as for various social terms. I being an art history student thought to refresh my memory with them and realized many masterpieces were during the extreme lows of one's life. I don't claim depression to be my secret to the work I do and how I gain the trust of my client and run my living but there is something peculiar about mental health and creativity or letting one's subconscious mind take over.

Depression is the agility to do anything, the inability to find happiness, it is a real issue and I will never suggest anyone go through it in-case creativity is your solace. Creativity is not subjected to visual like photography, illustration or anything physical like painting and sculpture and more, but it can be anything. Calculating the most complex mathematical equation is also an art. I personally feel the ability to un-complexify a situation is a creativity. If you are not easily emotionally triggered try watching A Beautiful Mind.

I have not personally found depression adding anything extraordinary to my creative process what got me to do things which was liked by many was the focus. A focused mind can do wonders and can help you discover yourself, and focus comes with practice and a room or space where nothing much there to get yourself distracted.

If I look into two of my fav visual artists Frieda Khalo and Vicent Van Gogh, both are from two different eras and with very different artistic approach but they both suffered with extreme physical and psychological traumas. If I think suffering from something will make me create masterpieces I should have, it is been 4 years I am having issues with the trauma I went through.

If you are wondering what I am talking about I will post a few links below, feel free to know more about myself.

Depression is a change in various aspects of your brain functionality from faliure of neurotransmitters, to a section of a brain or hormonal malfunctioning leading to suffer and often putting them into the isolation of its own, personally I have felt drooling into my sadness leading to focus, it is very difficult for me to explain why I think so but that is what I can justify myself with for now.

As a freelancer, I have always wondered if having sadness has kept me creative and if I try to fix my issues as much as possible will lead me to lose some, let me be honest, NO! you are not going to lose the touch in-fact happiness leads to many good things you have not discovered in yourself, self-discovery is the way to be more creative and if you ask why? Every person is different and every opinion matters and with every thought process, there is the discovery of various aspects of life from liberalism, communism to radical thoughts. Human aka homo sapien is a complex case of many things. We are aware I mean very much aware of things around us and that leads us to rule the planet we do.

Now coming back to depression and creativity is a topic I don't talk about with my therapist yet. Oh! I forgot I am taking therapy and If I have to lose a bit of creativity to lead a little less than normal life then be it. Therapy and medication have helped me to get a grasp on my episodes, I have sought of discovered a bit about myself and It has helped me to make things more varied and giving it a touch of freshness with every work on my way. I am now on the verge of realizing what I do and why I do and how I can turn it in something productive and as I have no intention to change myself as a person.

So depression leads to creativity is something is very subjective, though there is no scientific connection, personally I feel, creativity is an amalgamation of your conscious and subconscious mind and personality of yourself. You need to stick to something to know if it is worth it but and it doesn't let you sleep like literally then for sure it is your call.

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To note: I am no health expert and the above is from my personal journey in life so far and I highly encourage you to connect to a therapist or you can ask me for mine and I will be happy to help. Therapy and medication don't take away who you are in reality but as like any illness, you should take care of yourself to help others and share what you to offer.

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Depression and Anxiety a self-confession

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Hey Hi, myself Shovona, a freelance commercial food, product, and people photographer based out of Mumbai India.

Feel free to connect for any queries: shovonakar@gmail.com

Thanks for reading...

#commercialphotographer #portraitphotographer #photographerbasedinmumbai #foodphotography

Pandemic and freelancing

Anyone who will be reading this article, to let you know I am writing it during the phase of 21days of complete lockdown in India. Corona has crippled the world and forced us to think about what are we leaving behind us.

As a freelancer it scares the hell out of me about my coming days and my survival skills will be tested, being the best is not the question, it is all about how you perceive it. Yes, the days will be brought to normal but the real question is, will we see ourselves and our world around us in the same way? Awakening of the desires we have and our needs will be questioned and I am pretty sure everyone will not be affected and it will be easy for them to get back to the time they were there.

As a freelancer our survival is based on many factors and a good economy will push to keep us hanging on with our passion. Sadly it is no more about individual dreams, many who acquire jobs will be in a spot to lose, their livelihood will be affected and a chain reaction will be the next pandemic to take care of. Yes! I may be thinking the worst of worst but let us prepare ourselves for it.

Hang on! I am not writing this article to scare you, in fact, let us see how to go about it.

TO NOTE: I don't know how the coming days will be and how it is going to hit the economy and how much time it will take, for us all to raise the bar again, but let us be hopeful.

PRODUCE FRESH CONTENT: If you are a photographer, retoucher, CGI artist, illustrator, cinematographer and more, it is a good phase to produce fresh content to add it to your portfolio, keeping self productive is the best way to go about the times we are going. To add, with no pressure from any client and with no external expectation create the best you can. We all crib about the fact of not having enough time to create what we wished to and I don't think anyone has any excuse to give now with clients potentially understanding the situation, I am pretty sure they will not kill you to create for yourself. If they do, they are not worthy to be a potential client.

ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE and ORGANIZE: The biggest culprit for many who work from home is the messy situation we live in (I, myself included) and however you deny and you say it does add to your millennial saga, a messy place does no good. A clean desk and a clean space both physically and digitally uplift your productivity.

HAVE HOBBIES: Side hustles or interest will never be more important than the coming times, let's be honest, past recession and demonetization in India had hit the market bad for it to come back to a well to do state after 2 years and the current situation with thousands of people passing away in the most merciless manner and many, I mean MANY are off their jobs will disturb the economy for people to shed enough for marketing purposes keeping their employees as the prime importance and it is indeed fair enough. Incase global pandemic hits bad be ready to earn the same with many more hustles you need to take care of.

LEARN SELF MARKETING: It is one art which many fail to do and many find it way too less important to invest ourselves every day, marketing is how we find products for our needs, simultaneously marketing is the way potential client will get to know us. How you wish to market self is a discovery which you need to do and will get to know eventually as time passes and observe how our viewers react to it.

Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Google business page are a few platforms that let us shine the way we wish to.

• You should understand the algorithm ethics each platform is made off and how to use it to your benefit

• Instagram and Facebook are very much to do with timing, tagging, hashtagging and quality of content.

• Keep the quality of content as organic, high quality and as handmade as possible, think about the user or audience you wish to cater to.

• Keep your content short and brief especially stories.

• Always have something to give away to your audience.

• Use sites like Creator Studio to schedule posts (stories cant be scheduled) in case you are busy enough to give needed time to it on a daily basis. Youtube videos can be scheduled too.

• Let people peep into your studio, people are more curious about behind the scenes than the final product, grab your phone shoot it here and there and edit it to make a 15 to a 30-second video. (I just sounded like a hypocrite, lol, I need to share my side too)

• Keep your agenda clear, don't post not so needed content which is not related to your persona or page. No one wants to know what you eat on everyday basis unless you are a health influencer.

SUPPORT LOCAL VENDORS AND INDUSTRY: We Indians are obsessed with anything fancy and foreign return. In the scene of global crisis, it should be our prime goal to support local industries and vendors to get them back on track, they have and will be a part of the national economic backbone, the vendors in return need to raise their output quality. International transaction does add value and gives direct competition to the indie which will put the national economy far more in debt in the future.

I strongly suggest, if your situation is somewhere accompanied with deep pockets don't break your savings, I am no master in economics and all the above is based on my personal experience, we all wish to recover from the present state ASAP but let's be hopeful and let us prepare ourself for the worst in-case!

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Hii, I am Shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, freelancer and a businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer

FIve must have things as a freelancer

As a freelancer, we challenge each day we live and pass by. There is a roller coaster we ride on each morning and we don't exactly know how it will end up, all we know is we want the day to be worth it. Freelancing is like a dance, choreographed differently with each passing hour. The beauty stretches from having a cold day to something exciting we were not aware of, emails from an unknown client wishing to collaborate for a sum good enough to someone just fishing around. As the sole heart of your own company, it teaches you so much.

Something we often neglect is to embrace the aspect of itself we pass by. We are low, we happy, we are jealous and we are angry and more.

Here are five things we must have to understand, it is totally fine to have such feelings.

JOY

I love the fact of doing a job I love to do and earn something I feel is worth every effort, well once in a blue moon I do get clients who respect my job and conditions and the joy is a forever feeling I wish I can have.

Getting up early in the morning and adding my thoughts over my blog and social media to help freelancers and anyone again brings me joy. I love to add value to my life and it helps me to add value to myself.

Jealousy

As Google says: In fact, the feeling of envy refers to wanting something that someone else has, such as a fast car or a house in the Hamptons. Jealousy, however, is more aptly described as the fear of losing something (a lover, promotion, friend, etc.) to someone else. "Jealousy is an anticipatory emotion.

As a freelance commercial photographer, I feel jealous almost from time to time, but this very feeling pushes me to do something worth the feeling. Now it is not prerogative to be a freelancer to have such a feeling but it is something we do have it a little more than having a full-time job. We may end up seeing our mates be better in life and enjoying the basic leisure, traveling every next month to a destination we thought off and having that so-called pseudo perfect life. It is indeed a healthy thing to have and avoiding to over drool is something you have to have control, we are devoid of the fact of what they are up to in life and indeed one should ponder to understand how we can fix ourselves.

FEAR

This is a constant thing we live with, so uncertain is our life, but don't blame it to your job indeed a person with a 9 to 7 even goes through it. The ever-fluctuating economy does less harm to freelancers than the other. Again drooling over a myth or fact that tomorrow doesn't exist is everyone's problem, but this very fear let us be present at whatever we have and we are doing.

The pro is it pushes us to do more, to add value to our lives.

The con is it at times forces as to sit and do nothing.

Extreme of both is what we need to fear not the very feeling of it.

Sadness/loneliness

Many often interpret one's sadness and loneliness as something antisocial, if you read and flip back the pages of the masters of its own art, this secluding act has let it discover the true potential. I am not stating it to be a good thing to have but I feel it's one of the must things to have as an artist of its own tools. Many articles have supported Metime to be productive and a self-interpretation is a must for the brain to ponder and generate ideas. When you are free of distractions and your mind starts adding the blocks together, it's indeed productive in a way you have never thought of. I am no psychologist to give you a detailed insight but I have found myself doing some amazing things when I feel left alone.

Anxiety

Ohh, well these things are a sum whole of everything and adding anything to it not worth it. It's indeed a feeling for many but in case you suffer I highly encourage you to consult a doctor.

Hii, I am shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, I undergo the above almost every day and I am here to support others to let them feel cool about anything happening in life.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#freelancephotographer #productphotographer #portraitphotographer #femalephotographer