What I learned from my Social Media Break

A month ago I came to the realization that despite my efforts my depression was not improving. I live in a small town two states away from my family and one state away from my friends. Since I have moved to this town, I have felt like I have been in isolation. I have met many wonderful people but I am still working on building new friendships. Without my loved ones close to me, I decided to turn to Facebook and ask everyone what tips they had for me to overcome feelings of depression. I gathered this information and then decided that I should take a break from social media. This was very spontaneous but I knew that I needed it.

THE QUIET

On the first day of my social media break I noticed how quiet everything seemed. I was not checking my notifications every twenty minutes or endlessly scrolling through the feed. It amazed me how my mind was less cluttered with thoughts of other people. I felt as though all the voices from Facebook and Instagram were silenced. The only way I can explain it is the comparison to when you are in a room crowded with other people talking versus being in a room by yourself. It was incredibly peaceful for me.I felt like my mind was quiet for once and I could focus on improving myself instead of watching the lives of others via my phone.

SELF REFLECTION

With the quiet, I was not comparing myself to others or feeling upset that I am not as successful as my friends who are college instructors or musicians. I didn’t look at my friends and wish to be as pretty as them. I thought deeply about why I feel the way that I feel. I realized that all my life I have been very hard on myself. I expected myself to succeed in all that I do and I believed that other people expected the same from me. I know now that this is not true. When trials came, I expected myself to be able to control them. I thought that if I just worked hard enough that I would be able to overcome all things. This thinking ignited my feelings of depression and I continued to make it worse by comparing myself to others. So instead, I worked on seeing myself the way that others do as well as focusing on my goals. I wrote down each of my goals and made a realistic plan to complete them. My main goal has been to finish writing a novel. I have made a plan to finish it by the end of the year by completing a chapter each week. Since writing out my plan, I have been following it well and it has helped me to see myself with greater confidence.

TIME

Another thing I realized was that I was not wasting my time on social media. My time became more precious to me. I used it for playing piano, going outside, meditation, yoga, spending time with my husband, playing with my kitten, reading scriptures and working on my novel. Instead of wasting my time watching other people’s lives, I was living my own. After a couple days of being off Social Media, I no longer craved looking at the memes, but instead I craved work and creativity. I would look for things that I wanted to get done with the house such as weeding and organizing messy areas. I would also be inspired to create little mosaic coasters and to paint cloudy sunsets. I found that by the end of the day (in quarantine) my time was spent well.

CONCLUSION

I am not saying that social media is bad by any means. Social media is a great way to connect with family, friends and to network for business operations. What I am saying is that when we consume too much social media it may have unintended consequences. I think as long as we try to focus on the things that are most important to us, our families, friends and goals, we will be able to stay positive and mentally healthy.