Why be fake when being real takes no effort?
Social media: the curated world of photo shop, all smiles, and no hard times. Take a look at your personal social media platforms, or better yet, of those people who you may follow or idolize online. Perfect angles, ideal lighting, fresh hair and makeup – ALWAYS happy. Apparently no one ever has a bad hair day, cries, or feels vulnerable. Well, I'm not buying it! I have mentioned numerous times before in previous posts but with the constant hunger for instant gratification, we feel the urge to have to post, or perhaps give off the vibe, that we are killing it all the time. My hat goes off to you if you are, but chances are we are all struggling or stressed at some point in our day or week, so why the hesitation to talk about it?
I personally think that over the years, especially regarding any form or severity of mental illness or even just a lack of confidence, people are quick to judge or not accept others' thoughts and feelings. This usually leads to alienation or simply feelings of isolation, therefore feeding the original feelings. But TA-DA, the magic fix of social media now exists! If I post online how great my life is then it must be, right? I do believe to an extent that the whole 'fake it 'til you make it' notion actually works, but we can only take that so far. I firmly believe that in order to achieve true success and happiness we have to keep it real and accept where we are at any given time. We have to allow ourselves to be present for all of life's moments and accept all the feels that go along with it. Life is certainly no easy task, but it definitely is worth it for all of the amazing experiences we can have.
If you are a person currently struggling or maybe you're the one giving off a misconception of your true self online, take a moment to reflect on your situation. Identify the underlying issues. We need to try to eliminate putting a band-aid over our struggles for fear of showing vulnerability to the world. Here are a few ideas of how to overcome the false realities of social media and how to truly live a realistic, honest, happy life:
1. Talk about it with someone you trust and has your best intentions in mind. Personally, when talking about my struggles with anxiety to others, I learned that many others, too, struggle with it. In most cases, a better understanding was created, and for those who didn't get it, well, they aren't worth the time!
2. Accept how you are feeling. We need to be in each moment and take those emotions as they come. Accept the feelings of sadness, excitement, and anxiety, and then understand why you are feeling each way. In order for growth to occur, we must understand the present.
3. Evaluate how you can be misled online, and how you can mislead others. Of course we want to have a perfect profile online, but to me, that means showing our lives as a whole, with every perfect hair day or bad one that comes along with it.
4. Live in the moment. Not everything needs to be shared online, happy, sad, or whatever it is in between. On top of feeling obligated to only post the perfect moment online, we often take away from experiencing the moment in its full capacity in order to get that perfect shot to share with the social media world.
Stay true to who you are. Real people experience it all: laughter, happiness, stress, anger and sadness. It’s what makes us human, so there’s no need to be ashamed.
e fierce. Be strong. Be vibrant.
Rachel
Check out Rachel's page on Facebook or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Feel free to comment below with topics you would be interested in reading about in the future.