Social F’ing Media
Something’s happened….
I’ve developed an aversion to social media.
That thing that I’m supposed to be active on to grow my business…. yeah that.
Urghhh.
You see, I started to have these moments where I’d pick up my phone to do email/send message and suddenly, inexplicably, I’d tapped on Instagram. The unconsciousness with which this happened freaked me out.
I have a habit. Great.
A habit of falling like Alice in wonderland down the rabbit hole into fantasy land, that fantasy being visually reminded that my life might be a little bit shit in comparison. I know, I know, maybe I’m being triggered by my unhealed wounds (yawn, and point taken) but the science is out there and I’m not alone FOR SURE.
My feed is beautifully curated to follow my family, my friends and about a million trillion breath workers, tappers, poets, artists, dancers, yogis and sound healers. It’s populated with happy, shiny, honed, healed, fantastical posts.
But, most of the time, this isn’t uplifting for me.
It’s too much.
As Alanis Morrisette would say ‘isn’t it ironic’?
Ironic that so much time is spent watching the healers and not actually doing the healing?
Ironic that something that’s supposed to help us connect is only driving us into seemingly more disconnection and sabotage.
Ironic that if the spent the same amount of energy is spent on writing, reading, breathing, tapping (blah) as sleep walking on social media I personally might be a levitating, self-actualised, published author with a breath hold time of 15 minutes.
Ironic that reading posts that advise how to cultivate oxytocin and a calm the nervous system, switches the nervous system into sympathetic mode and dopamine levels to high.
Too high.
I have some bad news.
Dopamine in high quantities is VERY addictive. I was being totally serious when I told you I have a habit. When dopamine is released in large amounts it cultivates feelings of pleasure and reward, motivating us to repeat the behaviours. Herein lies the secret to all addictions, from food to shopping, to sex and gambling. Now we can add our phones to the list. Experts agree that it can take 100 days, that’s 3 months, to recover from social media induced dopamine addiction.
Yep. I know.
Shocker.
I’ve been through addiction in many different guises in my life and the idea of a new one is not something I’m willing to entertain. It’s for this reason that it’s time to address it.
If you’re reading this and your heads about to roll off from too much nodding, I’m going to share my action plan with you.
Firstly, now that my consciousness has awoken to this subconscious behaviour, I’m NOTICING what’s happening. From finding myself down the aforementioned hole, to understanding how I FEEL about myself when I’m looking at Joe Blow travelling to brilliant and beautiful places, or Barbara Bliss growing her business empire with her 10 million followers. Lots of limiting beliefs to be found here! This is step 1. Tappety tap tap and a nice bit of breathwork and journaling.
Step 2 is to then decide how long I will spend on social media and set a timer. Do I need to advertise something or do I just want a cuppa and a scroll? Set the timer Rachel! During my research others have removed the app from their phone, and only check in for an hour of an evening on PC. A more disciplined approach perhaps, and forgoes the accidental slide that can happen during the day if it’s available to us.
Step 3 is to further curate my feed. Drop some of the follows. I think a regular declutter here will be very useful. As I evolve, so will my follows.
Step 4 is to understand some of the other brilliant ways dopamine can be experienced, and set about getting high on my own supply in ways that contribute to my overall health.
Here are a few:
Get in the sun
Eat protein rich foods
Get savvy on the gut health
Meditate
Exercise
Listen to music
Pay attention to sleep and sleep hygiene
See you on the levitating, self-actualised other side!