Episode 39 – Of Mindfulness and Impostor Syndrome — Roxannalog!

Tonight, on a very special All Through a Lens…

we’re going to be talking about quite a bit more than just film photography. We’ll welcome Roxanna Angles and discuss Mindfulness through Photography. Both Vania and I will be digging into Impostor Syndrome and how to get out of that weird little spiral. There’s a bit on journaling, there’s the answering machine question, some zine reviews, and all the banter you’ve grown to love….

Roxannalog!

You might know Roxanna Angles La Belle as @Roxannalog from the Negative Positives podcast. But she’s also an author who wrote the book An Introduction to Mindfulness Through Photography. We gave her a call to talk to her all about it.

An Introduction to Mindfulness Through Photography.

Here are some of Roxanna’s photos:

Impostor Syndrome

For our main feature, we enter into a discussion about Impostor Syndrome.

Impostor Syndrome is the feeling of doubt in your own talent, in your own abilities, despite evidence to the contrary. For some, it can be a nagging feeling of insecurity, but for others it can turn into an almost paranoid certainty that someone will expose them as a fraud.

Ironically, this often strikes after something good. Rather than believing that these accomplishments came from our own skills and expertise, we end up thinking it was luck or random chance that led to our success.

In many of the papers and articles we’ve read, the focus is on CEOs, celebrities, and the incredibly wealthy. It’s almost as if to say “see, they’re just like us – even the incredibly powerful can have doubts!”

But let’s set that aside. We’re not CEOs, we’re not famous, and we’re just scraping by. We’re not professional photographers. We’re taking photos, doing zines, and talking about photography. In fact, for many of us, film photography is our art.

However, even an artist isn’t immune to this. Articles about “Artists at the top of their game” abound. In those cases, they’re speaking to professional artists. Their stories, at least to me, aren’t relatable or inspiring. We are not professional photographers, but for some reason, we still sometimes feel that we’re faking it.