A few days ago, someone I know finished a 100 day Instagram challenge of #100happydays, where she for the duration of a 100 days posted a daily picture of something that made her happy. On the last day of the challenge she posted a collage of some of her favorite pictures while also adding that although the last period of time had been challenging, focusing on the good had helped a great while.
I am a frequent user of social media and have especially started to be fond of Instagram lately. I like that it shows a nicer picture of the world today; maybe not an accurate one, but certainly a prettier one. Some say that it shows an unreal, unrealistic and maybe unhealthy aspect of life and can even make us feel less adequate about ourselves. I do not think that this is the purpose of the platform and I also do not think that this is what we should take from it.
My Instagram profile is mostly filled with pictures of happy times; the kids in nature and beautiful sceneries of places we have visited, sometimes in the neighborhood and sometimes further away. One could conclude from a profile such as mine that this is what my life looks like, but I think that that would say more about the person thinking that, than of my profile. The pretty pictures are a snapshot of a certain moment and time, are a part of my life but certainly not my whole life.
Like everyone else my life is filled with a million things: I work, I cook, I clean, I organize, I laugh, I cry, I love, I fight and the list goes on. Like everyone, I have good days and I have bad days. Showing only the pretty fragment doesn’t mean that all the other things are not there, just that I have chosen not to put it out there.
By focusing on the happy things in life, I do not cancel out the things that are not, but choose to put a lesser emphasis on them. By turning my energy to the good things, and reminding myself to do that by writing posts such as this, I can focus on the glass half full instead of the one that is half empty.
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