Joanna Gaines Finds Perspective Through One Simple Action
By Movieguide® Contributor
Joanna Gaines recently explained how seeking a new perspective helps her overcome the staleness of routine.
“There have been times [in life] when I’ve felt a need to approach some things differently,” Gaines said in a Magnolia blog post. “When life has handed me new challenges to navigate, and my mind’s been blank. When I couldn’t see the solution, no matter how close (or creative) I got.”
In a previous essay, she shared how she found herself in that place, “Unbalanced by how much I was pouring out without being poured into in the ways I really needed.”
“I was learning that a well that’s only ever knee-deep can’t outlast a drought and that I had to figure out what it was that would pull me out of the grind and give me renewed perspective,” she explained.
“Maybe you’ve been in a similar place before – where the way you’ve always done a thing is no longer working,” Gaines continued. “Could be a routine, a relationship, a parenting style. Work you’ve carried forever that’s in need of a fresh direction. You start to hit a dead end enough times that you realize it’s time to tune your point of view.”
While finding new perspectives on habits, relationships and problems is hard, Gaines shares the simple way she moves forward.
“I started closing my eyes,” she wrote. “For a few minutes each morning, I quite the sense that’s strongest so the others can stretch their muscles. I feel the presence of my body. The breath readying in my lungs. I hear the great quiet, and sometimes, if I stay still long enough, the whisper of something more. And when I open my eyes, I know I’ve witnessed far more that what they could have offered me on my own.”
This simple practice has made all the difference in Gaines’ work, faith and relationship with her husband and kids.
“I’m finding that I’m more alive to the present moment, more aware of my blind spots, when I stretch my point of view from one to two, to three, to four. It’s like feeling the moment in total harmony, every new vantage point revealing more of the bigger story being told,” she said.
While culture pushes busyness and focuses on what’s next, Gaines’ says that slowing down and being present are just as important.
Time and time again, Jesus would depart from the crowds and even His disciples to spend time alone with the Father. His is an example that, if followed, will bring new life every time.
“If given the option, most of us will choose to move and react and decide before we’re willing to wait and collect and refine,” Gaines observed. “But I want to be more dynamic than that. I want to be more today that I was yesterday.”
“I want more than just glimpses of the bigger picture,” she continued. “Because perspective, I’m learning, isn’t necessarily a setting aside of what we may already know, but a building upon it – with the strength of someone who trusts it’s worth reaching for more.”
Gaines shared that the newest edition of her Magnolia Journal dives “into the theme of perspective in this issue—believing that there’s always more to see from where we stand.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia empire:
As home decor and media hub Magnolia celebrates its 20th anniversary, co-founder Chip Gaines shared how he and Joanna Gaines relied on their faith to inform the couple’s growing business through the years.
“For better or worse, we’ve trusted our gut instincts and held on to faith with a white-knuckled grip, trusting that no matter how something may appear on the surface, there’s always beauty waiting to be revealed underneath,” he shared.
Magnolia began in 2003 when newly married Chip and Joanna opened a little shop in Waco, Texas.
“We didn’t have much figured out in the way of numbers and finances,” Gaines wrote. “But we believed in each other, and we believed in a dream to build something that would matter—something that would be meaningful, not only to us, but to our family and our community.”