Joanna Gaines Controlling Nature Caused Her to Feel ‘Exhausted by My Own Obsession With Trying to Hide’ Her and Chip’s ‘Reality’
Joanna Gaines pushed herself to the brink before realizing that she needed to change some of her perfectionist tendencies. Many of these involved the home and professional life she created with her husband, Chip. She admitted to being “exhausted by my own obsession with trying to hide our reality.” Therefore, the design trendsetter shared her feelings of reclaiming the joy in an interview where she discussed her book The Stories We Tell.
Joanna Gaines pushed herself to the limit as she grew her business empire
Magnolia Market, Table, and Magnolia Network are just some businesses in the Chip and Joanna Gaines conglomerate. Their projects include Magnolia Store, cookbooks, a home goods line with Target called Hearth and Hand, books, vacation rentals, a magazine titled The Magnolia Journal, and several home improvement collaborations with paint and wallpaper companies.
All the while, the couple grew their family with five children: three sons and two daughters. Their kids are Drake, Ella Rose, Duke, Emmie Kay, and Crew.
“The older I’ve gotten, I’ve realized the more humanity these kids can see in me. The more we’re going to connect,” Joanna, 44, said in an interview with People Magazine. “I want them to see the highs and lows. So when they’re feeling anxiety about school or relationships, they know it’s a safe place to come to me.”
Joanna Gaines admits she was ‘exhausted by my own obsession with trying to hide’ her and Chip’s ‘reality’
In an interview for Today, Joanna explained how trying to have the appearance of a perfect life made her “exhausted.” She opened up to Hoda Kotb regarding her difficulty balancing work and personal life.
In hindsight, Joanna revealed her drive for perfectionism stemmed from control. This personality trait stemmed from a childhood where she wrestled with looking different than her peers as her father is American and her mother is Korean.
“I think many people can relate to the idea of being teased,” Gaines told Today. “The biggest thing for me was because it wasn’t dealt with; it resurfaced in different ways.”
“I was fearing a whole lot of things; failure, our future, what people would think,” she wrote in her memoir. “I was exhausted by my own obsession with trying to hide our reality and keeping all the balls in the air.” But because she couldn’t fix how she felt, Gaines wrote that she “controlled” how her and Chip’s life looked.
However, she continued, “I realized that I’d never felt so isolated, so alone, then when I was obsessing over making something go perfectly.”
Since writing her book, the Magnolia Network star feels a sense of release
The Stories We Tell, released in late 2022, detailed many times when Joanna faced some of the most challenging parts of her life. She used writing to connect with her past and learn lessons that she hopes will encourage and inspire readers.
“There’s something about that openness that leads to connection, which I feel like we’re all wanting,” she said. “And in that, you have to be open, and you have to share the ugly parts, the beautiful parts, all of it. Not just the facade that you want to present.” However, she admits it is a daily practice not to slip back into old habits and feelings of insecurity and fear.
