How Instagram Changed My Life

in #introduceyourself7 years ago (edited)

Hello!
My name is Aurora and I struggle with anxiety and severe depression. Up until about a year ago, I kept this a secret from pretty much everyone.
That is, until I got an Instagram account.
Yep, Instagram!
What started out as a way for me to record my yoga progress quickly and unexpectedly turned into a space where I started to share what I thought at the time were my deepest, darkest secrets: my struggles with severe anxiety and depression.
The more I opened up about these experiences, the more I received overwhelming support and kindness from friends and complete strangers. Whenever I uncovered something painful or came to a realization that helped me heal, I wrote it down and posted it. Slowly, my writings became longer and more detailed. Some of the pieces turned into poems, and others turned into stories that ended up spilling over into the comments section underneath my photos.
With the growth of my account, I started getting messages and comments from people all around the world, telling me that this vulnerability and truth-telling thing was bringing them to tears, giving them chills, and inspiring them to be more courageous and bold in their own lives.

I still can’t comprehend what a gift it is to know that what I love to do is able to evoke such emotion and change. It’s an honor to be able to create a space where we can all sit and sift through our brokenness, share stories, raise our hands, and proudly proclaim, “Me too.” It’s an incredibly humbling and privileged place to be, which is why I want to start sharing in a bigger space, bringing in more storytellers and truth-tellers under one roof, so with the help and support of friends and strangers, I started a blog called Rooted & Rising.
Glennon Doyle Melton, one of my favorite authors, reminds us that our most personal experiences are also the most universal. These personal stories that I share are my peace offering: a reminder that we’re not alone in our struggles in dealing with the sometimes heartbreaking and overwhelming weight of what it means to be human. It’s messy, complicated, and achingly beautiful, but so many of us spend our lives thinking that we need to filter ourselves and shelter others from our pain, our scars, and our past in order to connect. This couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth: it’s our vulnerability that lies at the heart of innovation, creativity, change, and most importantly, connection.
It’s an honor to share this space with those that have lifted me up and inspired me to new heights of showing up and being seen. I'm reminded daily to own my heartbreak & speak my truth. I feel safe and reassured in doing so because I’ve received support and encouragement every time I fall, and every time I pick up the pieces to get back up again.
I've poured my heart into this space online and I'm really, truly excited to join a new community here on Steemit, to learn from you all, to connect, and to share stories, insights, lessons, resources, and most importantly, love and support.

So cheers to the messiness, the beauty, and the community. Cheers to making friends out of strangers from all over the world, to making dreams a reality, to lifting one another up in the process, to coming together to hold space for where we’ve been and where we want to go.
If there’s anything I can do to support you & your journey, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me below!
Together, regardless of what communities we are a part of, in some way or another, we're all Rooted & Rising.
Love & gratitude,
Aurora
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Hey btw! Would you mind verifying that the person in the pictures is really you?
We get a few plagiarists and fakes now and then because of the posting rewards.

Verifying through your instagram or other social media platform is more than enough, then I can feel safer knowing my votes are going to the right person. Thanks :)

Yeah, but you see. Anyone could have created the Steemit account and pretend to be said person. If you can verify in a comment on the IG account or something that this is really you, I would appreciate it. ^^

Thanks! :D

apologize for the "intrusion" but we've seen a lot of fakes over the months and it would suck if the real person would find out about steemit at some point and then realize someone else has been pretending to be her all that time. :P

I understand! I appreciate your willingness to double check this to make sure the community is being built in a responsible/respectful way. :) Thank you for you support and for answering all my little questions too!

Sorry I have one more little question! It says my post got resteemed. What does that mean? @acidyo

Thanks for being my support buddy on here :)

Re-steeming means that that account has shared your post on his wall so that his followers see it too! :)

PS. Make sure to reply to users comments since the @mention only appears for a few seconds and can easily be missed.

No worries! Good luck and have fun! ^^

Welcome! Steemit is a wonderful community, you will do great here!

Thank you friend!

Hi Aurora! I met you on facetime with Brie the other day lol ;) Great to connect with you here! I followed you and resteemed this post because I really relate!

Samantha! omg yay! Hi girlie! I'm happy to connect with you on here :) Thank you so much. I can't wait to read more of your stuff and talk more!

Yay! Same here girl! We should chat on a call sometime. Seems like we have a ton in common!

Welcome Aurora! Enjoy Steemit!

Thank you! Hey, random question as a newbie, but I'm trying to figure out how to create line breaks. I did the whole
thing and entered the space bar but for some reason the text still shows up in a clumped paragraph. Any tips?

:) I don't have that problem but there is plenty of tips here:
https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet#lines

Thank you! Lots of gratitude :)

Welcome to steemit ! i think you will love steemit, it's an awesome community of open-minded people. Have a great day !!

Welcome Aurora... I am following you now... you too can do the same...

Thank you for your support :)

Hey Aurora you look so cute!

Yay Aurora! So happy you are on steemit! I looooove you and so excited to read more of your work XO <3

Hi Aurora, welcome to Steem!

Cool to see Instagram do some good in this world. Have you tried @steepshot?

No I haven't heard of it! What exactly is it?

It's basically an app like Instagram, but the pictures are posted here on the Steem network, so you can collect financial rewards for them just like a Steemit post.

It's in very early alpha stages though, so the user experience won't be as good as Instagram yet...

That sounds so cool! I'd love to get involved! How do I sign up?

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