Life Without Filters

I have been thinking a lot lately about social media and how it is both helping and hindering our lives. I am a big fan of social media but I consider myself somewhat lucky that I didn't grow up with it in my life. Social media only really came into my life in my early 20s so I didn't really feel the pressure to convey my life to the world in a certain way at an early age which I am really grateful for as I don't think my sensitive soul could handle the pressure.

Today we are bombarded with images and videos of our peers promoting their 'perfect' lives with pictures that are taken with carefully selected lighting and filtering. We have become a world obsessed with what we are portraying to the world instead of what we are actually contributing to the world.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the silly filters in Snapchat and I use filters on Instagram to make my pictures look better. However I am painfully aware of why I like some of the filters on Snapchat and this is what worries me for our younger warriors.

I am drawn to the filters that make me look better. You know the ones, the butterfly filter that gives you a tan, bigger lips and whiter teeth or the dog ears filter which makes your face slimmer, your skin flawless and your eyes bigger. Whilst this is fine every now and again we have to make sure that we don’t start to rely on these methods to feel good about ourselves. In essence what I am trying to say is that you are perfect without filters and your real everyday life is far more important than a perfect picture on Instagram.

I promise you, whoever you are, whatever you look like, you are beautiful, without any filters. True happiness (which is what we all want right?) comes from accepting and loving yourself just the way you are.

We live in a society that documents everything, if there isn’t a picture of it, it didn’t happen. We are forgetting to live in the moment, to actually enjoy experiences instead of trying to get the perfect picture so we can show other people how awesome our lives are.

On my travels recently I was lucky enough to go and see the sunset over the Grand Canyon in Arizona. This is a total bucket list item and something that I will remember for the rest of my life, but I found myself watching it through my phone screen trying to capture the perfect photo. When I realised what I was doing I put my phone away, put my arm around my partner and just enjoyed the experience. The best camera I have, the one in my mind, has now captured that moment and its mine forever.

From now on I am consciously going to make an effort to put my camera away more and really enjoy these special moments and I really encourage you to do the same and when I do take a selfie I will love it whether I have butterflies flying round my head of if it’s my real face, flaws and all.

Aisling

xoxo

#happiness #selflove #filters