Stress! Have you ever thought of what causes you stress in your day to day life? A few years back when I was healing from a “mystery illness”, I made so many changes in my daily routine.
I stopped eating sugar! This was tough since I craved it, ate it several times a day, depended on it when I had a bad day, looked forward to it, and got excited every time I saw the dessert table at the holidays I remember telling myself “I have to give it up so I dont have pain and migraines”. So…..I did it!. I just knew it was the sugar causing my issues with my health.
After 3 months of giving up sugar, I definitely felt better. But…….
My health issues were not gone. So……. I had to give things up one at a time every 3 months to figure out what was making me so sick.
I eliminated sugar, coffee/caffeine and meat.
I was already gluten free and dairy free.
I definitely felt better but was still getting these weird flares. Noone could explain it.
My mom kept telling me “It’s stress Tina”.
“No it’s not Mom”. I would keep saying back.
There was no way I was blaming stress. I didn’t feel stressed. I had my life under control. I was able to control my diet, thoughts, actions and views. Not to mention I knew stress caused inflammation and did not want to admit I was causing my own illness(es); there was no way my health issues were related to stress!!!
I eventually realized what I couldn’t control……
The stress of others. Hearing and seeing their issues.
Yep….that’s what it was.
I was stressed about other people.
- What they were going through
- How they were feeling
- What they would talk about
- Who they were
- When they were around
But I had to figure out WHY……..
Why I was allowing other people’s stress to cause me stress.
I have a saying that I’m sure I did not make up but I can’t say who did so I’m unable to give credit where it is due.
- You cannot change other people’s views and opinions, you can only change how you view the situation.
Taking other people’s stressors on myself was actually causing me so much anxiety that I wasn’t aware of. This is what Social Media will do to you (if you allow it).
If you are a sensitive person, or if you don’t have a good handle on your own emotions, each time you read a sad, heartbreaking, gut wrenching, violent post on SM it will cause your brain to start thinking and ruminating. See these things over and over and eventually your brain starts searching for these posts. You need to see them. You need to figure it out. You need to make sure someone is ok.
It’s like a murder mystery.
You can’t put the book down, or stop the movie in the middle, you NEED to watch/read to the end so you know what happens.
Social media makes finding the ending difficult. There is no ending to…….
- People portraying their lives as perfect
- Sharing inappropriate comments
- Demeaning others
- Politics
- Medical “miracles”
- Disasters
- Seeing commercials for products
- FB, IG, TIKTOK, Reels, Lives etc………
You need to make the ending.
You need to decide when enough is enough.
If you don’t you will always find yourself sitting and scrolling; looking for the next post that makes you feel good.
This takes time away from your kids, spouse, friends and co-workers.
The stress will begin to mount higher as you lose time in the day.
You have the option to sit and scroll, or get up and become productive at life. Can you remember the last time you were on SM and only saw positive posts? You didn’t see something negative? You didn’t read an inappropriate comment made by a “troll”?
Every day we subject our minds, thoughts and lives to different forms of stress. Maybe some cannot be controlled. But scrolling through Social Media is something you can control!
I find POWER in deleting people. Blocking people. Accepting people.
SM is ultimately MY space and I will do what I want with it. If I want to watch crap, I will. But……. I would rather use my time wisely so I choose to only follow the people who lift me up. I watch posts that make me laugh and smile. I accept people only after I review their profile. I block people if they are disrespectful to me or my family.
I don’t hesitate to remove people and posts that do not suit my needs at the moment. I urge you to do the same. Imagine how STRESS FREE your day could be without adding the stressors of other people’s lives.
As a Health Coach I work with women so they can find their own voice and have their own thoughts by prioritizing their needs and wants! They don’t have to keep searching through other peoples voices and thoughts to find answers. The answer is right there! If you need help finding it, reach out to me.