With social media becoming the main way to keep in contact with family and friends, it’s important that you can use it to enhance your connections.
Social media can be used in a way that supports you.
Connecting with loved ones during a pandemic is definitely a time where you can find the value in the sites that allow you to share what you’re up to. Whether it be a recipe for a new meal, pictures of your animals, or reminders of times when you were out of isolation, the posts you create have intention behind them.
More of your time is being spent tending to your Zoom calls and Instagram posts, and the news is infiltrating every platform you’re on. This constant online interaction can be beneficial for you when you maintain a mindful approach and conscious boundaries.
It’s easy to get caught up in the dopamine rush from receiving notifications, and even easier to become trapped in the seat of comparison and judgment. This cycle becomes addictive as the dopamine triggering behaviors become a habit (1).
Instead of using social media as a way to authentically connect with others, it becomes a mask, a distraction from offering your true self to your community.
I’ve come to realize that when you’re online, establishing boundaries on social media is the most important mindful step you can take to protect your mental health.
The information that circulates on social media needs to be filtered through your consciously created boundaries.
Filter out the posts, videos, and stories of any content that isn’t on your vibration or higher.
How? If you feel worse after consuming content, or you catch yourself mindlessly scrolling- comparing and judging, take a step back, close your app, and come back to yourself.
The awareness you create regarding how the content you consume makes you feel is the first step.
Once you’re aware of what type of content best serves you, you can take action and begin to detox from the rest. Unfollow, mute, block… whatever it takes for you to release the negative feedback loop of information brought into your mind.
Filtering out lower vibrational content will save and protect your energy. This boundary is the best thing you can do to maintain some balance.
Now that you’ve thought about how you consume social media information, I want you to become more consciously aware of the posts you share. Especially the intention that fuels the posts you share.
The content you create and share can help you express your own experience in a way that’s authentic to you.
It’s possible to maintain authenticity on social media, and you can do so by asking yourself some questions before you post:
Who are you posting for?
How does it feel when you post something?
Why are you producing the content that you’re posting?
Make sure that you’re posting for you. Not to compare, or to one-up someone else. But for you to share a pure intention that no matter if you get likes or not, the dopamine rush is not the sole reason for your contribution to social media.
You can’t control how other people perceive you or what you post, so you might as well make it mean something to you.
There’s no need for you to keep reopening the same app checking to see who has noticed you. There’s no extra worth in the number of likes, views, and comments you get.
The true value is in the pure intention and authenticity of what you share. You’ll see that the vibration you give out is the one that you’ll receive.
One last thing… social media isn’t essential for you to be worthy of acceptance. You’re a perfect creation of the Universe just as you are. No matter what you post or don’t post, you’re seen by the Divine that’s within you and all around you.
You don’t need to share every detail of your life for it to be valid, and if you’re itching to document all parts of your day, that’s valid too. The connection resides in your intention behind posting.
Remember: It’s okay to take space away from the screen.
Your mental health is the most important.
Allow these boundaries to protect and serve you.
Relieving Anxiety Guided Meditation
Relax your mind and relieve your anxiety with this guided meditation.
You’ll feel more centered, balanced, and present after this practice.
Hi Grace
Its Divine Timing crossing your path today,as I am a sensitive soul that gets overwhelmed with News etc..So I stepped outside,stood on my lawn,to ground myself and said a Prayer to release what is not mine,afterwards I then found your Article on mindful Social media which also hit home,& made more sense.
Love & Light and all things bright..???
Thank you so much for showing me this beautiful path to walk through.
Thank you Grace! For a while now, I’ve been keeping boundaries on what I watch and read on the internet. I know how the mainstream media and news opperate, and it’s not always for our benefit.
Today, I published my latest blog post but decided not to “share” it as I knew by now that what I’ve written, and shared in the past, was mostly just for me. If people choose to read it, they will go to it. If not, that’s fine too.
Thank you always Grace for your sweetest messages and guidance.
Thank you so much for this !! I was debating if i take a break from social media٫ specially with everything that’s going on and how hectic it is; it’s easy for me to feel overwhelmed and get distracted from the real world. I appreciate this 🙂