Since the corona measures, you might catch yourself being (even) more active on social media. Perhaps now more than ever, photos or messages of people who – in your eyes – are doing better are passing by. Whether it is because during this pandemic they exercise every day, started a new business or have renovated the whole house, we unconsciously and consciously compare ourselves to others. This often leads to negative feelings about ourselves. How can you make sure that social media has less influence on how we think about yourself? In this blog I give you tips.

Tip 1. The grass ain’t greener on the other side

No one will take a picture of themselves while being deeply sad or depressed. We only get to see the highlights of everyone’s life and this results in a biased view. Not everything is what it seems and this thought alone may bring some peace of mind. 

‘’The grass ain’t greener on the other side. It’s green where you water it’’

Tip 2. Multiple roads lead to Rome

Everyone follows their own path, everyone does it their own way. There is no holy grail for ‘how things are suppose to go’. As long as you do what feels right, you can not be wrong! 

Tip 3. Gratefulness

We tend to focus on the negative automatically, it might be a nice challenge to consciously focus on the positive things in life. Take a look at your core qualities. What are you good at? What brings you satisfaction? How would your best friend describe you? What are you proud of? It could be that you are really proud of the fact that you eat less sugar. You could also be proud of sleeping more than six hours each night. Or you could also be proud of focussing more on the positive things in life! 

Tip 4. Apples and oranges

Comparing yourself to others is like comparing apples with oranges. Every person has a different past, every person has his own weaknesses and strengths and every person has a different way of viewing the world. For these reasons, it is unfair to compare your authentic self with others.

Tip 5. Unfollow

Do you notice that, despite applying the tips mentioned above, you still feel restless by social media? In real life there is no such thing as an unfollow button, but luckily on social media there is one! Do you find unfollowing people too drastic? Then there is also such a thing as a ‘mute’ button. You will then no longer see messages from the person without unfollowing him/her.

‘’ Let everyone bloom in their own space at their own pace’’