Scrolling can leave you feeling behind other people. Seven practices for when that happens.
1. Catch the sink as it happens
Some people notice a sinking feeling in the stomach or a hunch forward. You can learn how it shows up for you.
2. Close the app before you understand why
Do not wait to figure out which post sank you – close the app first, analyze later, from solid ground. Exit, then think.
3. Feel your feet and your actual life
Post-exit: feet on the floor, one slow breath, a look around the room you are really in. Grounding brings your attention back to your own life.
4. Name the specific want underneath
Hand on the chest: what exactly did that post poke? The house, the body, the ease, the audience? Write the specific want. Naming it can help you decide what to do about it.
5. Take one step on your own track
Answer the spiral with one small move on your own path – the draft, the application, the practice, the plan. It can help to act on something of your own.
6. Curate the feed like a room you live in
You can mute accounts that leave you feeling bad and keep the ones that leave you feeling good.
7. Register your own goods at day’s end
One line nightly – journaled or felt – of what was actually good in your actual day.
If the spirals are daily and dark
If comparison leaves you persistently hopeless about your own life, step back from the platforms and talk to someone, such as a friend, a doctor or a therapist. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, contact a crisis line or your local emergency number.
Related: meeting envy honestly.
