Relive your holidays through photos

The healthcare industry has long known the therapeutic benefits of looking at photos and remembering good times to help you feel less isolated and more connected to the present.

Photographs, treasured objects and favourite songs can all help stimulate fond memories, especially when you are isolated from the ones you love.

Storytelling about past events can help individuals stay connected, develop positive feelings and even reduce stress and agitation. Photos are a wonderful way to stimulate that storytelling with someone special … “Can you believe five years ago this month we were in Hawaii?”

Chatting and sharing photos about the past can also provide relief from boredom and symptoms of depression, and preserve family stories for later generations.

A great exercise to do is to go through your digital photos and get them ready for some serious reminiscing:
• Delete the poor-quality ones – bad photos are just clutter you need to wade through to find the good ones
• Organise photos into albums in your smartphone or on your computer according to each holiday
• Make a few edits – remove the red eyes and crop the excessive background
• Delete the duplications – you don’t need them on your phone, your laptop and the hard drive
• Back them up so they are never lost

Now you’re ready to relive that holiday all over again. Where shall you go today?
• Take the ones that make you smile and display them on social media, a home page, a digital photo frame or even in print if you have the technology
• Select a few and email them to friends to gain an instant smile
• Start thinking which one might be on this year’s Christmas message
• Post some amazing Throw-back Thursday images on your Facebook
• Start a new Insta mood board