Paler, J. (2019). 52 Brené Brown quotes that will inspire, encourage and empower you. [online] Hack Spirit. Available at: https://hackspirit.com/brene-brown-quotes-that-will-inspire-encourage-and-empower-you/ [Accessed 5 Jul. 2019].
Social Media.
It has been part of many of our lives for over a decade. Some of us love it, some of us hate it, and some of us love to hate it. Whatever your feelings on social media or what platform you prefer, it is the mode for communicating.
I recently was listening to a radio personality that was sharing statistics of newly married couples and the impact of an Instagram obsession on their honeymoon experience. In some cases, the obsession led to the marriage ending upon the return of the couple from their honeymoon. Presenting a certain “life” or “story” on social media has become sometimes “too good to be true” and gotten in the way of just doing life.
Then there is the other side of things. The ambiguous posts by people ending or starting with “you know who you are…”; I try not to give these posts much attention or weight, but sometimes I find myself wondering if I have done something to the owner of the post. Posts like this thrive on indirect shaming.
A few years ago I wanted to change my own mindset and approach to social media. I loved that it allowed for me to connect with friends and family that I had not seen in years and geographically was likely not to see them any time soon. I did notice, due to the “time-hops” and “on this day” that sometimes the “memories” I had were brash moments of negative-ness. It saddened me.
At this point, I had participated in the November daily posts of thankfulness two years in a row. I had noticed that each of those months I ended in better spirits. About this same time I stumbled onto the website 100happydays.com and embraced the challenge. I began to see a huge change in my attitude and noticed I was looking for the little moments to share and celebrate each day both for myself and share on social media.
It was such a huge success, I did it twice. I then decided to finish out 2018 counting down to December 31st. This year I am focusing on gratitude every day of 2019 using the #wilsonmoments2019.
This approach has also helped me with capturing memories and events in the life of myself and my family (fur babies included). Another layer to this was that last year I discovered Chatbooks. It pulls directly from my Instagram feed and is efficiently scrapbooking our family’s life.
I was an avid scrapbooker up until ten years ago. I still love to scrapbook, however, I am so far behind in capturing my family’s memories (Kritter is still 3 years old in my scrapbooks and EmBug just finished Kindergarten- in reality, they are 14 years old and 16 years old respectively). I am so thankful that Chatbooks gives me the opportunity to do this in a great way. It has been so fun to get the little 6×6 books in the mail, and when the pictures and text celebrate the good and happy it makes the sad times seem less sad.
I appreciate what focusing on the good/happy/gratitude with my social media has done for me. It has also helped me to see things positively and celebrate others accomplishments both big and small. Some may say my social media isn’t real life, and they are entitled to their opinion. What I say is that it is the best version of my real life. It is focusing on the cream that rises to the top in spite of circumstances, the presence of God in the messiest of situations, and the connection and love of a family even in heartache. I don’t post for others, I post to grow my own heart in gratitude. However, I do hope that in some way “why I share happy” brings joy to others.
If you read this all the way through, thank you and I hope you have your own ways to help you focus on the good/happy/gratitude in your heart.
14. February 26th EmBug presented twice at Techno Expo (Our School District’s Student Technology Showcase). She shared her 
The Wilson Family Stories from Razorback Ranch 