Photo for Your Thoughts?

I learned this from my cousins after they moved abroad. It was their quick, easy, low stakes method of reconnecting / staying connected with family, like if they went for a bike ride by a lake taking a picture and sending it to us like "went for a bike ride by the lake today and the lake was so pretty!".

When I'd been feeling pretty isolated because a chronic fatigue condition was making going out and socializing too exhausting for me, and one of my cousins sent one of their messages, it was a big lightbulb moment like "hey wait a second, why don't I just do this to stay connected with the people I've been drifting from since this chronic fatigue condition has been keeping me from spending as much time with people as I'd like?" and I did.

I'd take pictures of wildflowers and send it to people with a little "look at this cool wildflower I saw today, it smelled so good", and doing this with cats, and birds, and whatever cool or pretty or interesting things I'd encounter during my day. Maybe sometimes doing this with interesting dishes / culinary projects, you get the drift.

I'm not saying it was a complete replacement for actually going out and spending time with people, but it was amazing how much of a difference it made in how isolated vs connected I felt, and subsequently the difference it made in my mental health.