The Best Thing You Can Do For Your Mental Health In 2021

If 2020 taught us anything, it showed us the importance of our mental health.  In almost every way possible, 2020 brought challenges that pushed our mental capacity to the limits.  Through my work with my therapy clients and my own personal experiences, I’ve learned that there is one thing that has been a constant mental burden and causes more stress.  That culprit is social media.   

 If you did like most of the world and created a few resolutions, wrote down some goals, maybe even made a vision board, I truly hope that you took some time to evaluate how you allow social media to play into your life.  In your quest to develop new healthy habits, the best thing you can do for your mental health this year is to take control of your social media usage. 

The Impact of Social Media 

Social media can be a mood impactor.  It has become something that most people wake up and do first thing in the morning.  What you are intaking from social media sites can have a major impact on how you feel about your day, how you feel about yourself, and how you even view your life.  Social media has been found to increase feelings of depression, loneliness, and anxiety.  Adding social media on top of excessive news and stressful life events, things can become overwhelming, to say the least.

 Social media can suck the air out of your happiness balloon.  How many times have you been excited about an accomplishment, just to get online and to see someone else “one-up” you and deflate your happiness balloon?  Things you should be celebrating turn into feelings of disappointment.  Seeing everyone’s highlight reels 24/7 can be a dagger to a person’s self-esteem and a distraction from the most important things in life.    

Here are a few ways to know if you need to make some drastic changes to your social media regimen (and maybe even quit it).

You are never satisfied.

Social media is the ultimate place to compare and that comparison often leads to you not being satisfied with what you have going on in your life.  Things can be going great, but watching other people constantly show their victories or their best days can cause you to feel like your victories are too small and aren’t worthy of being celebrated. That goal that you set and reached isn’t enough anymore. You are no longer satisfied with your results.  That 5lbs that you worked hard to lose isn’t satisfying because you got online and saw some model or fitness expert.  Now you feel you should have different results.  Comparison is the thief of happiness and contentment.  If you want to be satisfied with reaching the goals you said are important to you, you may need to consider shifting your focus from social media to what directly impacts you.

You are constantly disappointed.

A lot like being dissatisfied, you also can find yourself being disappointed in your outcomes because of social media.  You launch a new product and you’re happy that you got 10 purchases that day. Then you go online and see someone sell out of their product.  Immediately, you are now disappointed in yourself. You decide to go back to school and you are so proud of yourself.  You hop online and see someone graduating and immediately you’re disappointed that you didn’t start sooner.  You gotta stop doing this. I’ve done it too.  No more diminishing your greatness and becoming disappointed in your life because of what someone does in their life.

You constantly put pressure on yourself.

What normally happens when you become dissatisfied and disappointed is that instead of changing your mindset, you being to be harder on yourself.  You put more pressure on yourself to do more.  You now need to set a higher goal, make more money, get more clients, and get promoted sooner.  Whatever it is, now you feel the need to go to the extreme and stress yourself out.  You are trying to be something or do something different because of social media.  All this unnecessary pressure and the strict timelines to be successful by a certain date, age, or whatever unrealistic restriction we create for ourselves, leads to pressure, stress, and anxiety and I say enough is enough!

You don’t know who you are.

This is a big one.  There is so much noise and so much “you should do this”, and “you should do that”, and comparison that you can’t hear yourself.  You don’t know what you want to do or be.  You have been influenced so much that you don’t know which way to go.  You don’t know who you are now or what you want or should be doing.  If this is you, this reason alone is enough to make you step back so you can find yourself, hear yourself, and connect with your path.  Following those “influencer’s” paths won’t get you to your own version of success. 

You can’t focus on what’s important.

Social media is a time drainer.  I’m sure most of you have a phone that will let you know how much time you spend on certain apps. How much time do you spend strolling and strolling through your timeline, wasting time?  Doing this prevents you from doing what you need to be doing.  Whether it’s working, writing, studying, praying, working out, reading, or playing with your kids. Nothing on social media is worth that much time.  Nothing!  Letting go of social media gives you your time back.  Now you can focus on what’s really important instead of what other people are doing in their life.

So, if you resonate with any of these reasons, you may need to have a heart to heart with yourself and determine if you need to take a break from social media.  Listen, I know it’s hard.  That’s why I haven’t done it before.  But this is one of those things where you have to remember your why.  You’re doing this to get your confidence back, to increase your self-esteem, to take the pressure off, to focus on you, to hear your voice, and to spend time in the present doing things that are important.

If you want to be your absolute best in 2021 I encourage you to focus on what you can control.  Control your social media intake.

LaShawnda McLaurin is a licensed clinical mental health counselor offering counseling and coaching services to women, exclusively online. She specialized in anxiety counseling, anxiety, fear, and worry coaching, trauma, and relationship issues. To learn more about LaShawnda’s services click here.