Let's Talk About SOCIAL MEDIA

The world is a REALLY weird place right now. And to me, social media has gotten even more weird, along with these crazy times! This space is so DIFFERENT than it was ten years ago. It was FUN, back in the day. There was no pressure. Algorithms...what is that? The filters didn’t erase all your wrinkles and make you look not like you, they just did some crazy stuff like the photo below...LOL! You just took a photo and you posted it...End of story!

This has obviously changed and so many other things have too! Social Media is consuming our lives and not always in the healthiest ways. I know that I am opening up a can of worms with this topic and it is going to be hard AF to cover it all in a blog post, so I am going to just try to keep it as simple as possible. I will talk about the negatives, the positives, and how I handle social media, which revolves around food, fitness, health, and nutrition.

NEGATIVES:

What’s REAL anymore...Is that what YOU really look like? Is that what YOU really eat in a day? Do YOU really use those products or wear those clothes? These are things that trigger me and have led me to unfollow a lot of people. I can’t handle the “fakeness”. The filters. Telling me you are eating all that food in one day when you are skinny AF. NO NO NO! These images and messages that influencers are putting out there are very toxic, unattainable, and causing a lot of harm to the younger generation. I know what to do when I see this stuff, but it is a lot different than when a 14 year old is looking at these photos.

I can’t even with this magazine cover…the makeup…the filters…the painted abs…Tell me I’m WRONG?!?!

Don’t believe everything you SEE & READ...To keep this simple, I want to talk about food and nutrition, because it is what drives me absolutely CRAZY! Everyone is looking for a quick fix...whether it is a detox diet, a juice cleanse, a certain diet, and even a fitness challenge. And people are taking advice from strangers online who they have never met and have no idea what their backgrounds are and if they even have proper credentials to be giving YOU nutritional and fitness advice. This is YOUR life...Your well-being, your body, do the research and don’t jump on the bandwagon of a quick fix. It is NOT a good idea and it can do more damage physically and emotionally than you are aware of.

ADDICTED to our phones...Everywhere you look these days people are staring at their phones...and of ALL ages. At the stoplight, on the sidewalks, at restaurants, weddings, and family functions. We are on our phones 24/7. This obsession was fast too. I am going to age myself right here BIG TIME, but as I look back, I am grateful that in college and my 20’s that Facebook didn’t exist, I only turned on my phone to make phone calls, and posting on social media was just posting. The addiction has become too much and it is hurting the younger generations. It’s hurting our generation. We are losing the ability to communicate with each other, to get outside, to look up, to just slow down and live in the moment.Sigh...

POSITIVES:

Connections with amazing PEOPLE...My absolute favorite thing about social media is all the connections that I have made with women, men, and brands all over the country. I am surrounded by some badass, inspiring, creative, friendly, and caring humans who have supported me from day one in this space, but especially since I opened up about my health journey. I love when people reach out to me on DM or come up to me after a yoga class to talk about a certain post about food, health, fitness, or just anything. I love that I can have lengthy conversations on DM’s about fun topics or heavy topics. I LOVE that Instagram is where I found my Health Coach. Social Media has been a great way for me to connect with other people and brands who are passionate about what I’m passionate about and it has helped me grow and thrive as a person, but also professionally too!

Learning about health, fitness, and nutrition for FREE...When you find the REAL information on social media it is a plethora of awesome information and a lot of it that has helped me with strength training, recipe inspiration, nutritional guidance, ED recovery, and even retail therapy.  It can be FUN, educational, inspiring, and just make you feel GOOD to find your niche of people and brands who keep you feeling good from the inside out. Finding the right niche takes time though. I have worked on doing the research with following people and brands that align with my beliefs, goals, and who I trust with what they are putting out there.

Plethora of INSPIRATION...I’m a sucker for good quotes and have so many saved in my IG account. But I have also found so much inspiration when it comes to fitness, food, and recovery. And don’t even get me started on all the animal accounts that I follow. With things being so heavy and uncertain these days in the world and this country, watching dogs and animals brings me peace, love, and hope. A little silly…maybe, but animals are so loving, forgiving, and resilient. They make me laugh, cry, but also give me HOPE! When I take Lucy for walks on the beach and I see the way she smiles, runs, interacts with other dogs and people, it makes my heart full…ANYWAY…

Things that I DO to have a HEALTHY relationship with Social Media?

Unfollow accounts that no longer serve me...I find this very therapeutic and almost like purging! I love to clean things up and throw things out in my life that no longer serve me. It makes more space for better things. Things that bring me joy, that inspire me, that allow more space for all the GOOD things! This obviously also pertains to social media. I no longer want to follow things that bring negativity, comparison, or trigger me. The beauty and simplicity of social media is all you have to do is click “unfollow” and you are done! Simple as that...BOOM!

Limit my scrolling time...This is HARD for me as it is an addiction that not only I struggle with, but obviously everyone else does too. We are all looking at our phones scrolling away and it needs to STOP. Every day I make progress...but I am still a work in progress. I leave my phone at home when going on short runs or walks with Lucy. I leave my phone at home when doing errands with Shannon. I try to set a time at night when I am just done. Usually 8:00 PM is a good time for me to just stop and start reading my book. The more I do this, the happier I am, the more space I have in my brain for other things, the more I feel less addicted to my device. 

Just take a BREAK...STOP posting...STOP engaging...STOP liking...just STOP! When I did this last week for 5 days, it was pretty magical. It was a vacation that I thoroughly enjoyed. I still have to check in and post for the brands that I work for, so it is inevitable that I check my accounts, but I would go in and out and that was that. At first this was really hard to do, but the more you disconnect and disengage the more time you have and are almost forced to do other things...GASP! I realized that after taking these days off, I need and will do it more often. I already take one full day away, which is typically a Saturday and/or Sunday, but multiple days need to happen more often. The time away allows me to schedule, organize, and create when it comes to work, but in my personal life it just opens up so much more space to live life! 

I know that a lot of this sounds repetitive, but right now it is important to remind ourselves that our lives shouldn’t be ruled by social media. There is more to life than scrolling, comparing, and posting. YES, this is my job and I truly do love it, but even I have to set up boundaries to protect my energy, my happiness, and my lifestyle. It is important to me to make sure I have a healthy relationship with social media, because it makes my REAL life more fulfilled. I am a better person. I am a happier person. I am more attentive to those around me. I am more inspired to be the best version of me and to help, inspire, and educate others.

xoxo