Forget The Highlight Reels
We have a serious problem facing our society and it almost destroyed me personally. We have become fixated with creating our highlight reels and not facing our life messes. Social media has made it convenient to post our lives in the best light, and by doing so we mask our vulnerability and our need for real connection. We display beautiful smiling faces and check into amazing vacation spots, and post our angelic children behaving well. What we don't realize is that we are displaying a false image of our lives and someone else is judging themselves based on our posts.
Because we know the dirty secrets about our lives, we in turn, look at other highlight reels of friends and family and feel that we are less than. We know in our heart of hearts that they do not air their dirt online either, and yes we still feel compelled to feel like our lives suck so hard compared to our friends. We put ourselves down for not posting "sweat pictures" (ladies I applaud you for doing so, keep up your hard work), we feel our family activities are not enough, we feel that our selfies are not touched up enough, and we strive to craft our image better.
I appreciate the hot mess mommas, the ones who show up on social media and post the realness of their lives. The ones who shout loud "here's the highlight real, surrounded by the crap that comes between". I love the men and women who invite me into their mess and allow me to just feel like I am not the only one. When I go through moments where my self esteem is waning, the last thing I should be doing is checking social media to validate my self-worth.
A few months ago I was feeling very insecure and a bit disparate. I would scroll through social media and see my friends living these amazing lives and I would feel downright alone. I knew that what was portrayed on social media was a smokescreen for what these real lives were, but I still allowed myself to wallow in self pity. I made a conscious decision to just not believe it anymore. To be happy for my friends happy moments, but to also be truthful with myself that this is not real life all of the time. Life is not rainbow farting unicorns, it is little boy pee on the toilet seat.
So I challenge you friends for the love of all that is cake and cookies, take off the blindfolds of the highlight reels and understand that we all go through the crap. We all feel all of the feels, and we need to support each other instead of secretly stalking our friends and seething over how much better their highlight reel is compared to our messy real lives. We need to understand that life is what happens when we put down the phone and pick up the laundry. Our memories should not be selfies on smartphones, but should be actual snapshots in our mind of lives lived presently. Trust me I am soooo not there, but I want to be. I hope that you want to be there as well.
Because we know the dirty secrets about our lives, we in turn, look at other highlight reels of friends and family and feel that we are less than. We know in our heart of hearts that they do not air their dirt online either, and yes we still feel compelled to feel like our lives suck so hard compared to our friends. We put ourselves down for not posting "sweat pictures" (ladies I applaud you for doing so, keep up your hard work), we feel our family activities are not enough, we feel that our selfies are not touched up enough, and we strive to craft our image better.
I appreciate the hot mess mommas, the ones who show up on social media and post the realness of their lives. The ones who shout loud "here's the highlight real, surrounded by the crap that comes between". I love the men and women who invite me into their mess and allow me to just feel like I am not the only one. When I go through moments where my self esteem is waning, the last thing I should be doing is checking social media to validate my self-worth.
A few months ago I was feeling very insecure and a bit disparate. I would scroll through social media and see my friends living these amazing lives and I would feel downright alone. I knew that what was portrayed on social media was a smokescreen for what these real lives were, but I still allowed myself to wallow in self pity. I made a conscious decision to just not believe it anymore. To be happy for my friends happy moments, but to also be truthful with myself that this is not real life all of the time. Life is not rainbow farting unicorns, it is little boy pee on the toilet seat.
So I challenge you friends for the love of all that is cake and cookies, take off the blindfolds of the highlight reels and understand that we all go through the crap. We all feel all of the feels, and we need to support each other instead of secretly stalking our friends and seething over how much better their highlight reel is compared to our messy real lives. We need to understand that life is what happens when we put down the phone and pick up the laundry. Our memories should not be selfies on smartphones, but should be actual snapshots in our mind of lives lived presently. Trust me I am soooo not there, but I want to be. I hope that you want to be there as well.
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