Things I find beautiful

The other day, when I was looking through Facebook, I noticed an article about a social experiment. This experiment was invented by 18-year-old photographer Shea Glover from Chicago. In May this year, she started a video project where she filmed ‘things’ she liked. That’s exactly what she told her fellow students. She was curious about people’s reactions when she told them they were beautiful.

There were many different reactions to the message of being called beautiful. You can notice a lot of emotions, feelings and thoughts in people’s reactions. Some of them were positive, like happiness, joy, exuberance, modesty, shyness or being flattered. Other reaction were not so positive. For example, disbelief, indifference, defenses or even anger. As you can see, a range of human reactions were expressed by this simple experiment.

It’s very clear that people have different reactions at a compliment like this. These reactions are representations of how they see themselves. If you don’t think you’re pretty, your reaction can be incredulously or maybe even angry. You can feel fooled or maybe even offended. However, if you do like yourself, this remark can feel like a confirmation or a compliment. It can even give someone who is uncertain about his or her appearance a sense of certainty. It loosens comments, depending how the other person thinks about himself.

While I was watching the video, I caught myself with a huge smile on my face. Seeing people getting shy, happy or even angry about a simple compliment as being called beautiful was so nice, but also very interesting to see. It just made me wanted to smile, just like most people in the video.

After watching I began to think about compliments. What would I do if I got a compliment like that? Probably I would blush with modesty, but be very flattered as well and take the compliment with proud. It’s not that I think of myself as a very pretty girl, but hearing others do would give me a great feeling. But also, knowing from personal experience, everybody gets a lot happier when you just take the compliment instead of saying ‘no, that’s not true’.  This shows that you’re probably not confident enough about yourself to take a compliment or just believe the person who gives it to you. It also gives the person who gives you the compliment a bad feeling, because you didn’t accept her or his meaning. In a certain way you can offend him or her by rejecting the compliment. So, next time someone gives you a compliment: smile, say thank you and just be happy that someone confirms your beauty.

This post says a lot about people’s health. By giving someone a compliment, you can put a smile on her or his face. If you manage this, you’ll increase their mental health. For a moment, they’ll get a feeling of happiness. And believe it or not, this smile you just gave this person could make his entire day. This inner confident boost will make them feel happier, more confident and stronger. It also increase their physical health, because, if you feel good on the inside, it will be shown on the outside.

The final conclusion of this post is simple: give some compliments now and then. It will not only make the receiver of the compliment happy, but it’ll also give you a great feeling of making others happy by complimenting them. Just give it a try!

 

Source:

http://www.flair.be/nl/uit-thuis/363052/video-zo-reageren-mensen-wanneer-je-ze-mooi-noemt

http://www.metronieuws.nl/koffiepauze/2015/12/zo-reageren-mensen-als-ze-horen-dat-ze-mooi-zijn

http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/buitenland/hoe-reageren-mensen-als-je-ze-mooi-vindt-nou-zo

http://minerva-counseling.blogspot.nl/2015/12/mooie-mensen-in-een-psychosociaal.html