Joy vs. Social Media

I think sometimes we get caught up in the big, grand social media worthy moments of life that we forget about the little things. It is easy to look at all the "influencer" posts and feel down because we want that life - the travel, the fancy clothes, beautiful houses, etc. that we ignore what is in front of us. We want to get live vicariously through them and we use social media to escape our reality to do just that.

I have heard people say that "social media is the thief of joy" and quite honestly, most of the time I feel that is true. I sometimes take social media breaks and let me tell you, I am so much happier when I do. When I stop comparing my life to everyone else's and just live in it, that can help my anxiety and depression a lot, because for me at least, it can very draining to see everyone living their "perfect" lives and feeling like mine does not compare to that. And I know for me personally, I can be having a great day and then I get on social media and see a sad news story that depresses me or even see that some friends were hanging out which can cause a pang of jealousy and just like that, my mood is completely different.

For people who have mental health issues, are empaths, or highly-sensitive people, we can be affected really easily by things like that. It is important that we pay attention to how these outside influences affect us and ensure that we step away when we need to. If you need to take a break, take that break. If you need to delete those negative pages or people on your feed, delete them. Work on only following people and pages that bring you up and make you feel better.

One thing that has also been a big game changer for me is placing a time limit on my phone for my social media pages. I am allowed 1 hour each day between all my social media pages and once that hour is up, it locks me out for the rest of the day. I love this feature so much. It forces me to walk away and nudges me back into doing the other things that I used to love so much like reading, writing, coloring, listening to podcasts or audio books, etc. My challenge to you is finding ways to step away from social media and bring back those passions to your life.

This was one of those "little" moments for me that brought me true joy. Sitting on the couch with my kids and pup all snuggled up, watching Harry Potter. This is one of my happy places. What are yours?

-Kristen