Yes, I did it! π
Just over a year ago I proposed that I would post a photo of something I was grateful for on Instagram every day for a year. I also invited you to join me on the ride, and some of you did. It was a very rewarding ride!
I called it the #365Gratefuls #Spoonie Project and I started it on 1 January 2014. Check out the original post here.
Firstly I had to learn to use Instagram. In true Louise style I announced I’d use a platform that I’d never used before. Everyone seemed to be using it. How hard could it be?!
Not hard exactly, but for someone who gets severe headaches, neck and face pain from a Smartphone (search electrosensitivity category), I was a little disturbed to find I could only post photos via my Smartphone, not via my computer (which gives me ever-so-slightly less headache!).
But I said I’d do it, so do it I did. I also learned to share each Instagram post on Twitter and my Facebook Page. Who’s the techy now hey?! π
I had some lovely new Spoonie and non-Spoonie friends join me on Instagram and Twitter, posting something they were grateful for every day.
Some stayed a little while, others longer.
It was certainly not an easy thing to remember to post every day, but it became a habit at the end of my day, and I managed it every single day.
If you check my Instagram feed, all but 2 posts are #365Gratefuls #Spoonie posts. And you may see that some were posted after midnight – sometimes because I’d been to a function/party or sometimes because I was nearly asleep when I remembered to post, and had to jump out of bed and blearily post my photo.
On one occasion my phone camera stopped working, so I only posted a Tweet on Twitter without a photo.
But despite the camera not working for months, I found a way around it (Photogrid app, dragging photos in from Dropbox … innovative as well as techy!), and I kept on going.
Sometimes if I didn’t have wifi I had failed posts, but I reposted them when I got service back.
And if you’re reading this and thinking, “boy, she’s a bit of a perfectionist”, you’re right.
I’m ever the recovering perfectionist, but I also really wanted to see if I could follow through on a commitment every day for a year.
I’m so proud and excited to report that I could and I did.
But what I really wanted to report was how beneficial I found the exercise of having to find something I was grateful for every day. My perfectionist nature told me it had to be something DIFFERENT every day as well, so that added to the degree of difficulty, but that was part of the exercise for me.
And in the process, I realised just how many things I take for granted that I have to be grateful for. So, so many things!!!
So am I finished now?
I debated that one on New Year’s Day. I even decided not to post. But then as I was trying to get to sleep, it just didn’t feel right to break the chain. So I turned the light on and posted. It’s in my DNA now π
I was inspired to do this project by an Australian woman who wrote a book called 365Gratefuls (see original post). She was depressed and decided to photograph something she was grateful for every day for a year (in polaroid, so no filters or digital media). The result: She wasn’t depressed at the end of it (and now has a best seller I think!).
So if you’re feeling a bit low, why not join me in the #365Gratefuls world? It’ll be worth it, I promise!
For the first 365 days I tagged it as #365Gratefuls #Spoonie Day xxx: every time, but now I’ve dropped it to just #365Gratefuls.
You don’t have to do it every day, but if you feel inclined, join me and Bel and Shauna and Aaron and the others who continue to Instagram and Tweet their gratitude.
If you search #365Gratefuls on Twitter you’ll find all my posts, and if you just got to my Instagram account – LouiseBibby72 – you can see them all there (minus the one that’s only on Twitter when my camera broke).
Keep Smiling
Louise