We always love an honest-to-goodness moment with one of our favorite TV stars, Joanna Gaines. In a recent column for The Magnolia Journal, the monthly magazine that is an extension of her and husband Chip Gaines’ company, Magnolia Market, Joanna Gaines wrote about her social media posting anxieties and how she’s striving to keep things authentic on Instagram. Not only do we totally get where she’s coming from on this, but her comments on how to get away from the posting blues and live more honestly are things we are totally taking to heart.
“It wasn’t so very long ago that I had only a handful of followers on Instagram,” she wrote. “There wasn’t any pressure to post anything at all, so whenever I did, it didn’t really cross my mind whether or not people would ‘like’ it.”
As Gaines goes on to explain, the serious uptick in followers thanks to her public success with HGTV’s Fixer Upper had some unintended consequences when it came to sharing her life on social media.
“I could feel insecurity start to creep in, and posting a photo was no longer an act of enjoying the in-the-moments of life but rather a more calculated decision,” Gaines explains. “With every picture I found myself critiquing if there were messy backgrounds or blurry smiles. I think this is how we can end up losing sight of what [is] worthy of sharing and what is even more worthy than that — moments worth simply experiencing.”
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To combat this, Gaines offers up her new outlook on posting, which also acts as a nice way to reconsider how to look at the world.
“It is so easy to let social media rob us of authentic moments. There is a certain, creepy allure to a place where we can present ourselves any way we choose with very little accountability,” she says in her Magnolia Journal column, going on to note, “What happens when we don’t think our ‘real life’ looks as good as someone else’s? We make adjustments — find better lighting, dress our kids in something nicer, place a vase of fresh flowers in the background, or add the perfect filter.”
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Gaines goes on to encourage her readers to step away from the phone or computer if you find yourself mindlessly scrolling because that can only feed the anxiety beast when it comes to trying to achieve that so-called perfect-looking life. But she also suggests snapping physical photos or — get this — just living in the moment. For Gaines, it’s no longer about projecting a picture-perfect life to the world, but focusing inward and looking for joy outside the phone screen. And that’s advice so good it’s worth taking with us as we go about our lives.
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