Social Media – Inspired, or Sick and Tired?

Social media, a place to be inspired, or is the constant advice making you sick and tired?  Last month I had to close my computer in disgust, I couldn’t handle another post of the perfect mom, creating the perfect homeschool regime for her kids, including exercise and of course, fresh baked bread that they all made together while singing kumbaya, after meditating and doing their gratitude journals.   Or someone with minimal qualifications telling me how to relax and ; I didn’t want to relax and for crying out loud, I wanted to cry, scream, hide in a ball and wait for this to end.

I do a lot of counselling and coaching in my practice, and am always telling my patients, It’s not the situation you find yourself in, but how you respond to the situation that makes all the difference. We talk about taking a step back and spending the time to realize WHY your are reacting viscerally to an event or action.  So, why did I have such a hate on for social media? Was I jealous, yes, maybe I was, why did I feel so closed in, while others were embracing and reaching outwards? Was I angry with some posts, yes, I found so many posts to be judgy and negative, calling others out instead of sending love and support. In my opinion, even if you don’t agree with what they are doing you don’t know their situation so you can’t truly understand their why, so you can’t truly judge.

One of my very good friends and fellow Naturopaths, Meghan Walker, is a social media guru, and has been telling me for years I need to embrace it, but why, it always seems so shallow and fake, not for me I would say.

Well, this week after reflecting on the why I was reacting so negatively, I decided to truly give it a try, but with a different mindset.  I decided my posts would be for me, to inspire me and remind me of what is important. I would try to engage the public, by making interesting, thought provoking posts.  And I have to say, one, for all of you with talent in social media, good for you, its not as easy as it looks, my hat goes off in respect.

Two, I’m enjoying it.  It fills a creative outlet.  It fills me with inspiration, as I have to sink deep into myself to see what I need, and what might inspire others.

Now, I’m still a newbie, so by no means are my posts anything to write home about, and my following is still small, but it’s growing, and I promise to post only from the heart, not to try to get anything out of you but a smile or a thought. 

And for all those people who posts about their seemingly perfect lives, no judgement here, we say fake it till you make it, and when you write affirmations its in the present positive tense of what you WANT your life to be, so isn’t Facebook just your way of giving yourself that.  Keep saying its true until it is? 

As far as the judgement post, I was listening to a podcast by Brene Brown, where the person she was interview said that “where there is judgement there is punishment’, you are either punishing yourself, or the other person.  Obviously those posts are trying to find a way to punish the business or person they are talking about….So, perhaps this is a time where people have a need to punish others so that they don’t punish themselves? Who am I to judge, we all need to find a way to get through this .  So for me, it sure was making me sick and tired, but in the spirit of ‘if you can’t beat them join them’, I have, and I think that was a decision for the better.