Healing Powers: Stroke Victim Uses Photography to Recover

For most of us, photography is a passion, a business, a hobby, or an artistic escape. For Maureen O'Sullivan-Day, however, it's helped her to recover from a stroke. This is an inspirational story that reminds us of how powerful artistic expression can be.

Last week I wrote an article about how photography has helped me to be more open and show more of myself through my work, and O'Sullivan Day's story really does reinforce how artistic creativity can add so many layers and textures to our lives and help in myriad ways. In January last year, O'Sullivan-Day, 54 at the time, had a stroke. It affected her speech, her memory, and her imagination. She also suffered from anxiety as she recovered. In order to regain her ability to use her mind and visualize things more clearly, she tried various things such as writing with her left hand, puzzles, and coloring, but nothing worked. Thus, on the recommendation of a good friend, she decided to take a four-day photography course. To say the course helped her would be an understatement, as it really helped her unlock the creativity inside her that had been blocked. Please watch the video to hear her whole story. What's equally as touching are the comments made on the video, which show how photography has helped numerous others struggling with various things in their lives. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts below, especially if you also have a story about how photography has helped you at certain times of your life, in whatever capacity.