How to use social media to empower you vs disconnect you from yourself

So many people don’t realize the pain they are causing themselves by scrolling through their social media feed but if they were to tune in to how they were feeling after about 30 seconds or so they would have a pretty good idea of what social media was not doing for them.

So with so much external input, influence and persuasion we have become deeply disconnected from who we are and that is what we are talking about in this weeks video.

Social media really upped the anti in how we have skewed the perception of who we are and our worthiness; so not unlike magazines, billboards and tv commercials before social media, we have round the clock access now.

So, with so much persuasion and influences from external input, we have deeply disconnected from who we are,

This is how:

It would be helpful to understand what it’s like to be connected to oneself:

• Having healthy self-confidence and self-esteem –  having confidence in ones own judgment, and your abilities and your person power (personal power for self-empowerment vs power over others) and having a good impression of yourself.
• Believing in oneself
• Trusting in oneself
• Loving who we are; as we are – how can we love who we are if we are always comparing ourselves to the perfection we see online.
• Knowing who you are
• Caring more about what you think about yourself vs what someone else thinks about you
• Making time to take care of well-being; our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being

With that in mind lets look at how social media keeps us disconnected from who we are.

1. Distraction; distraction distraction distraction 

We have become so incredibly distracted.  What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?  A lot of people reach for their phone before their feet even touch the floor.

We’re looking to see what we missed in the 8 or so hours we’ve been asleep. 

We usually haven’t missed anything.

But we scroll and before we know it, 30 minutes or more has past.  That’s 30 minutes of consuming information and images that won’t help us with our depression, it won’t teach anything that will help us be creative or help us make more money, or add help us have more joy, freedom and fulfillment in our life.

2.  Another way social media keeps us disconnected and why I believe we are using it incorrectly is from who are is that if we struggle with our self-worth, our value, loving who we are, it won’t take long before you start comparing yourself with the beauty that lives online.    

Maybe you are self-conscious about your body or don’t see yourself as attractive.  Social media will only exacerbate how you feel about yourself because there are a lot of perfect bodies, perfect faces, perfect hair, perfect skin tone, etc.  its all there.

Anything you feel you are missing within yourself you will find there…  

But conversely, if you struggle with worthiness, you may post the perfect selfie with the perfect filter, which may have taken 30 or so takes to get it picture perfect, then post it and when you don’t receive an adequate amount of likes or comments, you delete it and proceed to beat yourself with a lot of negative thoughts and hurtful words.

3.  Another way social media keeps us disconnected from who we are is by keeping us from taking care of our spiritual well-being, which when we do, will help our mental, emotional and physical well-being.

Here’s how.

If you look at your online usage you may be surprised to see exactly how much time you spend online.

Many people will say they have no time to meditate.  Meditation isn’t only sitting cross legged in silence.  There is walking meditation, there are guided meditations, there is just sitting in silence listening to the birds, waves, the wind, whatever your heartbeat.

How can you hear yourself think, make decisions from a place of clarity when so much time is spent online.

This is how I feel social media can really help us because if we’re going to be online we may as well use it to help us move forward in life and keep us feeling good, right!

Have a look at who you follow on social media and ask yourself; does this account or person teach me something that will help me get out of debt, manage my anxiety and depression, inspire me to eat healthier, inspire me to go move my body, motivate me to persevere,  in some way, help me grow my small business, help me heal from heartbreak, teach me to be a better human being, help me overcome my addictions, help me be more patient with my children, help me heal myself physically or emotionally, help me learn a new skill, basically if it’s not adding value to your life then unfollow or unfriend.  

I’m not saying you cant follow your friends and family but really who needs 400 friends when you don’t know them, they don’t know you, and all you see are pictures that have no meaning and connection to you. 

If we are going to have an online presence let’s make sure that who follow and are friends with people who are contribution to our growth and expansion. 

Basically let’s just be more discerning about who we are connected with online because we don’t need to see things that waste time and add nothing to the quality of our life and keep us disconnected from who we are.

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