Although I perhaps should have exercised a bit more willpower and stayed off social media for a bit longer (Ryanair was partly to blame though!), I still found it helpful and I feel like I am starting to have a healthier approach to it. For a while, I didn’t know how to explain what I felt then I remembered a Paloma Faith song, Make Your Own Kind of Music.

The lines that stood out to me were:

But you’ve gotta make your own music
Sing your own special song,
Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along.

I found that when I wasn’t on social media, I spent so much less time worrying about what other people were doing and therefore what I felt like I should be doing. I also felt like I had more free time in general to do things that I did actually have to do! Through my recent counselling sessions, it has been brought to my attention how much I say ‘I guess’, ‘maybe’, or ‘I don’t know’ instead of just saying more directly ‘I think’ or ‘I feel’. I have sometimes felt like I have been hesitant to say what I really think out of fear of getting it wrong. I was therefore also encouraged by my counsellor that I didn’t have to be afraid to be honest about what I think and enjoy and when I thought about it, I have found in my experience that honesty is an admirable trait for a person to have.

Another great song to demonstrate this idea is This is Me from the Greatest Showman (the link is below)

I have started a mental health placement where it is often difficult to get patients to engage with the activities that we have suggested for them and sometimes it can be just 1 or 2 patients who come along to do a session but that is still a success. I think this idea can be applied to social media as well, although something you post may not get as many likes or comments as you would like, it may have still made a small number of people happy which still a good thing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you find it helpful. As always, feel free to get in touch with any questions/feedback/thoughts, I always love to hear it. Stay tuned for the next instalment.

Until next time

Kathryn