Social medias are an amazing source of inspiration: constantly renewed with fresh feeds and attractive reels, it connects us, help us dream, achieve our goals, discover new places, ideas, cultures, looks, recipes, anything we can dream of, within reach (our cell phones), and therefore very much present in our lives.
Having a "social media presence" is today expected from most businesses and very often from friends and family.
It is a fantastic way to keep in touch and share with our audience and loved ones (and more), but sometimes it turns into a list of expectations: regular posts keeping friends and family updated before they worry, necessity to look good on it (from looks to places where pictures are taken), pressure to feed them with regularity in order to build a consistent communication, explanations to be made when we change and it shows or when we are less active, unrequested interactions through comments, etc.
Due to those potential hazards, some users come up with strategies: filtering aspects of their lives, adjusting pictures and communications in order to bring the visitor's attention on certain aspects of life - hiding others as a result, building a certain image promoting a happy fulfilled life so smooth that comments likely to touch a nerve are kept under control.
Sometimes those strategies are more about fearing than protecting. Protection is creating safety: it comes from a place of confidence and trust. Fear is a wonderful emotion meant to trigger exactly what will get us out of danger, but it doesn't provide us with a plan to create healthy boundaries in which we can thrive.
Here is a few tips to help switch from fear to protection on social media:
- Gratefulness:
for being able to have social medias accounts, for those amazing tools, for internet, for all users offering such interesting options - inspiring, educational, fun, etc. Gratefulness is not compatible with comparison and fear. It rejoices on what is given and is a powerful way to shift from social anxiety to supporting ourselves and build self-confidence.
- Regular checks on who we follow:
does it align with our current goals and moods? what does it tell about ourselves? Those checks allow us to centre ourselves and help us respect others accounts. It is not about what we should be looking like or be doing, it is about how social medias are supporting our aspirations or current inspirations.
- Regular checks on how it makes us feel (what we are looking at/ what we post):
are we happy? excited? intimidated? is it too much? This moment of self-awareness is a nice way to check in with ourselves and understand what's going on. If an account we follow and used to love is becoming stressful, is it because of current circonstances or because of a bigger change? What can be done about it? (e.g. mute for a while, observe what was triggered, etc.)
#confiself#innervoice#personaldevelopment#focusonthegood#confidence#mindful#grateful#selfempowerment#selfawareness
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