Tired of Fake Positivity? Go Beyond #Blessed and #Grateful

Is social media making you feel like everyone else has it all together?

In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins explores the truth behind #Blessed and #Grateful posts—and why so many women feel disconnected from their real lives when comparing themselves to curated content online.

While gratitude is a powerful practice, social media has turned it into a performance, often leaving out the messy, complicated, and very human parts of life.

This episode invites you to go beyond the hashtags and reconnect with your authentic experience—without pressure, perfection, or comparison.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

•  The difference between real gratitude and performative positivity 
•  Why social media creates unrealistic expectations 
•  How comparison impacts your confidence and self-worth 
•  Why it’s okay to feel grateful and still struggle 
•  How to show up authentically online and offline 
•  A simple practice to align your voice with your truth 

Your Brave Move:

Before you post, ask:

“Is this aligned with how I actually feel?”

Choose authenticity over performance.

Final Thought

You don’t have to perform happiness to be worthy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, my friend, have you ever scrolled through social media and thought, wow, everyone has it all together? Everyone's hashtag blessed, hashtag grateful. Everyone is living their best life. And then you look at your life, and it feels like a little more complicated than that. And today I want to talk about going beyond the hashtags, beyond the blessed, beyond the grateful, and into something deeper, something more real. Because if you've ever felt like your life doesn't quite match what you see online, honey, this episode is for you. And stay with me because I'm going to share one brave move that will help you reconnect with your truth, not the version of you. You feel pressure to show up. Now, let's start with this. There is nothing wrong with being grateful. Gratitude is actually amazing. And there's nothing wrong with feeling blessed and to have blessings in your life. In fact, gratitude is powerful, but somewhere along the line, gratitude became performance. And we started using hashtag bless, hashtag grateful as a way to signal that everything is okay. Show that we're doing well. Prove that we're happy, even though we're struggling, even though we're overwhelmed, even when we're questioning everything. And that creates a disconnect because now we're not just living our lives, we're curating them. And we post the wins, we filter the moments, we share the highlights, and we hide the doubt, the grief, the messy middle. And yesterday, I noticed that for the most part, I fall into this trap as well. I was filling out a questionnaire. I belong to Pat Flynn's community, and he is rolling out the super fan system. And one of the things that he asked the members of the community is to take up a quiz, take a quiz and see inside, kind of self-select what area of entrepreneurship you're in. And once I found that, I filled out a questionnaire talking about my job and my company, the work that I do, and where are the wins? What how is it structured and where are the struggles? And one of the questions was, what do you really struggle with when showing up consistently? And he, of course, gave the caveat. Do not be embarrassed, do not be shy. And I thought, ooh, what is it? And I realized that for me, I back up. You know, I'm a pretty open person. I share and I don't mind sharing because I know that from my own journey and struggles and wins and failures, somebody else is gonna learn. And I also remind myself what I've been able to do. However, what I do is sometimes I do lessen how I'm showing up because I'm in barrence and my life may not be the way that I feel that it should be. And there is that doubt, that grief, that messy middle that I don't want everybody to see. One, because I don't want people to be annoyed that I'm posting my won wh, life is terrible thing. Because, well, first of all, I wouldn't do that. But it gets annoying, right? And also, I don't want fear, I don't want to have people feel they are, you know, required to be my cheerleaders. But listen, I get it. You know, everything does not belong online, but everything we show is polished when we are showing up online. And we start believing that everyone else's life is easier than ours. That, you know, we don't have it together, and somebody else has been born with all the gifts. And that's simply not true. And here's a truth again that no one is talking about. You can feel grateful, you can still feel lost, and you can feel blessed and still feel overwhelmed, and you can love your life and still want more. These things are not contradictions, they're part of being human, but social media doesn't always make space for humanity. It rewards certainty, positivity, perfection, and it punishes vulnerability for the most part. So, what do we do? Do we stop sharing? No, we start sharing differently, and here's the shift. Go beyond the blessed and grateful and beyond what that means. Be honest about your experience, not in a way that overshares, but in a way that is aligned. And it means I'm posting this because it's true or because it's expected. It means allowing space for I'm grateful, but I'm still struggling, I'm blessed, but I'm figuring things out, and I'm doing well, and I'm not okay today at the same time. Because that's real life. And when you start showing up that way, something powerful begins to happen. And you are giving other people permission to do the same. So here's your brave move for today, my friend. Before you post, pause, ask yourself is this aligned with how I actually feel? And if it's not, you have two choices adjust the message or don't post at all. Because your truth matters more than the algorithm. And my friend, you don't have to prove that your life is perfect. You don't have to perform gratitude to be worthy. You can be messy, evolving, and certain, and still be incredibly powerful in this world. And here's what I want you to think about this topic. We are not alone in this world, and we need to stop making it sound like, hey, look at me, and nobody else is dealing with this because we all are. You know, the other night I was in TikTok as I was scrolling mindlessly, and I shouldn't have been that late at night, but I happened to be in, well, grieving TikTok. And I started to see all these posts for people that have lost people that are dear to them. And it made me think, is this okay to share this much? But I think that if we share, we are normalizing that when you lose someone, it leaves a big hole in your life. And then you carry on with your life, even when that person is not there and you're creating a new normal. So I think that yes, it's still important for us to share and not to prove that, you know, we got it together, but to prove that we are living this human experience. And if this episode friend resonated with you, share it with someone who might be going through the human experience as well. As a reminder that real life is not a highlight reel. And remember, you don't have to fit into a hashtag, you get to define your own story. And that, my friend, is the brave move. Thank you for being here and continuing to be a part of this community. If you are looking for more resources, you can go to goconfidentlycoaching.com. That is my website, and you can find everything resources, support. You can also join the confident you community in the co op. The link is in the show notes, so make sure that you check it out. And if you have any questions, all you have to do is send me a text message. You can do so through the podcast show notes. All right. Until next time, I love you so much. Have a wonderful day. Hashtag blessed.