"You Are What You See"

Last week a friend forwarded me an article entitled: You Are What You see: Inspiring Kindness Through Images. A scientist and a photographer, Dr. David Fryburg, was interviewed about his nonprofit, Envision Kindness, which he created to promote kindness, compassion, and empathy through sharing of photographs and videos.

After his own experience with what he calls a "sort of news-induced depression," he learned that "looking at negative news could induce anxiety, stress, and fear," and that looking at positive images makes people happy. To counter this negativity, he decided to create his nonprofit to focus on gathering and disseminating images of acts of kindness.

Like many of us, he understood that photography causes him to look more at the world than he would otherwise. Looking for the beauty in the world is one of the reasons that my Camera Walking experiences are so meditative. I am focused on looking for the unusual.

According to Fryburg, psychologists describe the differences between kindness and happiness in this way: "hedonistic happiness" is when people are satisfying themselves, whereas "eudaimonic happiness" is when someone is happy because they are giving to another. Kindness creates connections.

I love capturing images that illustrate the connections of people to each other, to nature, or to animals, but I also think that just the process of capturing photos makes me happy. As a result, I am a kinder, more patient, and generous person.

Although Envision Kindness is a wonderful website to go to to see images depicting acts of kindness, sharing your own photos of beauty is another way to help people feel happier and become healthier.

So take your camera and go out for a walk and take images that showcase the beauty that surrounds us. You will most likely feel better, as will those who see your images.