Sifting through the social media slop!

When you first open your social media each day, how do you feel?

I recently took part in a manifesting challenge and part of that was to declutter my life in all ways. I started with social media. I "unfollowed" people; not because I don't like them as a person, but what they were posting each day was not of interest to me and it "cluttered" my day. I was looking forward to only seeing positive and uplifting posts that resonated with my current state of being. What it actually did was toss me into the pig pen.

Have you ever seen a pig's pen? The mess and the slop? Everything is uprooted, there is no organization and their food is a mishmash of variety of foods they will eat regardless because it all looks good; hence called slop. Well, my social media became that slop! I loved everything I was seeing because I chose to only see that which inspired me. Inspirational quotes, positive affirmations, messages from he universe, photos of my family and friends enjoying life, fun facts, educational resources! I wanted to eat it all and I tried for a few weeks. I tried to process each post that really stood out to me (which 99% of them did), consider it and how it is relevant to my world. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeching halt!

All of the internal work I have been doing to release all of the muck that no longer serves me and I started filling myself back up with muck that serves other people and trying to find space for it in my world.

Deep breath Barbara! Lets' do this differently. I decided to take an intentional and purposeful look at my Facebook feed and ask myself for each post; what emotion does that trigger for me, what memory does that trigger for me, why am I drawn to these types of posts? I found that each and every post created a response within me. Some things inspired me and made me want to act on them, some things made me sad because they reminded me of a lost loved one or relationship, some things made me angry because they were related to something that strongly opposes my values. I was filling my day with all of this "reactions" and information sifting.

New approach. I open my social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram) after I have cleansed myself and set my intentions for the day. I am mindful of my intentions for the day and only absorb that which supports those intentions. I also look at it a lot less because I realize I can't work from a space of being cleansed if I am filling myself with noise that is meant for other people.

I am not suggesting people should stop posting. Everyone has a reason for posting whatever they post just as I do. Just like I follow who I follow for a reason. I am simply suggesting that just because you enjoy everyone you follow doesn't mean you have to take their posts to heart and allow it to affect your day. I have a friend who posts beautiful things every day and I used to seek her out every day to read her post and sometimes the post wasn't what I needed in my day but I clung to the message anyway leaving me to feel less than productive and valued. The same post inspired others to create amazing things or find a place of peace that day. I am also suggesting that you become aware of how the post make you feel and why. This awareness helps us release what we don't want cluttering our minds and welcome more productive thoughts that support us to live a life of joy.

Sift through the slop, only ingest what will nourish your soul each day.