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A post shared by Catriona Gray (@catriona_gray) on Jul 28, 2019 at 3:37pm PDT

MANILA – The normally cheerful Catriona Gray shifted her tone on Monday as she opened up about feeling in down in the dumps in the past weeks.

On Instagram, the reigning Miss Universe admitted that she has been feeling “down and overwhelmed,” with things “out of my control.”

“It’s been a really challenging last couple of weeks,” she told her 6.2 million followers. “I’ve felt really low in my spirit. I just wanted to write this post to share that low moments happen to all of us.”

While she did not give further details, Gray said she chooses to be grateful and optimistic despite her situation.

“When I find myself feeling down and overwhelmed; where things are out of my control, it helps to remind myself that the only person I can control is myself, to count all the things I have to be grateful for and to plan and look forward to the dawn of a new day,” she said.

“So if you’re feeling down in the dumps, you’re never alone. Situations and life are tough… but so are you.”

Many fans expressed their concern about Gray as they sent words of encouragement to the beauty queen, with others wanting to know the story behind her post.

“Cheer up, queen, we got your back always,” one netizen told Gray.

“Don’t mind the bashers, insecure lang ang mga ‘yan,” another commented.

Early this month, Gray spoke about body shaming after screenshots of a Thai beauty queen supposedly calling her “fat” circulated among pageant fans online.

“It is never, never okay to put someone down for the sake of ‘expressing your opinion.’ With words come power and we should be using those words to build someone up and not pull them down,” she said in a Twitter post.

“If anyone reading this, too, has been body shamed, I know how it feels,” she added. “I’m sorry you’ve had to experience that. But know that you are more than your appearance. You are a capable, unique, and worthy person. And you are never alone.”