Joanna Gaines knows all too well what it’s like to be in a rough patch. She also knows what it’s like to pull herself out and how to make herself happy.
If you are thinking that Joanna Gaines looks familiar to you, that’s because she probably does. She starred on the HGTV reality series Fixer Upper for five seasons alongside her husband Chip Gaines. The show first aired in May of 2013 and ended in 2017.
However, despite all of her fame and success, Joanna Gaines is still human. She has still been through hard times just like we all have. The 43-year-old opened up about just that in the latest issue of Magnolia Journal, a quarterly lifestyle magazine published by Gaines and her husband.
“I found myself in this place late last year. Unbalanced by how much I was pouring out without being poured into in the ways I really needed,” she explained. “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.”
The Fixer Upper star says that she started to read, plant, and cook like she never has before.
“I considered what I’m already drawn to, what I already know wakes me up and brings me life — nature, the garden, being in my kitchen, and the peace that meets me there — and I leaned in.”
Gaines said that her family even started to joke about how extreme she had gotten with her passions. In the end, though, it’s what made her happy.
“For weeks, I pored over books, threw my hands into the soil, and filled every surface of the house with jars for canning just about anything. My family joked that I’d gone a little extreme, but for the first time in a long time, I felt full, truly full. And at the end of those days, I was bursting with so much more to give. And really, that’s all that I was after.”
Joanna Gaines Has Had a Busy Year
It may be early in 2022, but Joanna Gaines has been busy. Magnolia Network, her and Chip’s new lifestyle channel, officially took over the DIY Network on January 5. They now air more than 24 new lifestyle shows including classics like Fixer Upper.
When the channel launched last month, Gaines told Good Morning America host Lara Spencer that it was perfect timing.
“I think, looking back, we couldn’t have planned it any better,” she said. “It’s January, it’s a new year. Just the message of hope and inspiration from these storytellers and the stories they’re telling. The world is ready for that kind of beauty to be seen.”
