Social media, joy and wisdom from my smoothie

Happy Monday everyone! I just taught an amazing yoga class full of inspirational quotes, high energy, focus and pure joy! The only problem was afterwards I found out the whole class lost sound halfway through! What?! All that focus and hard work and no one is even going to hear how fantastic it was. So instead of getting upset over it, I spent my post-yoga smoothie thinking about the lesson here (aside from technology will pretty much let you down and there is nothing you can do about it).

How many times have you done something amazing, but no one was there to witness it? Was it any less amazing? Nope. These days, especially with social media, it seems we are used to sharing all the amazing things we have done, are doing, or are even thinking about doing, but often feel deflated when others aren't sharing in our excitement.

There have been times when I felt really great or proud of myself, decided to share it on social media, and then let the joy and pride diminish every time I didn't see a new "like" on my post. Selfies included. Why do we let people we barely know determine how proud we are of ourselves or how happy we are about things we are doing?

How can we feel happy without the need for others to validate our feelings?

How can we feel proud of ourselves regardless of anyone else even knowing why?

These are the deep questions my smoothie is helping me sort through this morning. I think we can ask ourselves this question whenever we feel deflated:

Does not receiving external validation reduce the growth, pride, or joy that xyz provided me? Probably not.

Ironically, I suppose if the sound had worked today and I had received the external validation that my class was good, I wouldn't have come to the important realization that while I'd love for others to experience the joyful moment with me, it doesn't make the moment any less joyful for me.

Have a great week friends! Regardless of what others "like" :)