Monday Motivation: Who You Follow on Social Media and your Mental Health

Bralette:  Rebellia

I’ve been trying to follow and read so many different blogs over the past year.  I get my inspiration from so many places, one of which, people like you.  The people who read my blog.  I may not be as active as commenting as I would like, but I do peek at what y’all are doing, and how your life is.  I’ve found that so many people on social media and in the blogosphere are similar to me, but also, very different at the same time.  I read the most interesting article by Health and Fitness Blogger Carly Rowena the other day, and she talked more in depth about this, and I agree with her 100%.

She talked about how she was inspired by someone else to take a look at the people she is following on social media.  She noticed that most of the people she was following were either like minded people, or they were her competition.  Because of this, instead of it inspiring her to be her most creative and best self, she slowly realized that it was actually making herself feel like she wasn’t good enough.  A few months ago, I actually went through the entire list of people I was following on Instagram.  I unfollowed a lot of accounts that just weren’t what I was interested in anymore.  I felt bad unfollowing because I didn’t want to seem like I was just unfollowing like all of those other people out there who do it just to make it look a certain way to brands.  I lost interest in what those people were doing and posting about, because I have evolved as a person.

I’m no longer interested in looking my absolute best 100% of the time.  I’m more of a relatable blogger, ad even though that has hindered my following and readers, I don’t want to put on this fasade that life is perfect all the time.  Newsflash, it’s not.  My everyday makeup is no where near what you used to see here on the blog.  I used to go all out, when in reality I only wear concealer, mascara, and fill in my eyebrows.  I’m no longer interested in every single beauty vlogger/blogger that I was following.  Keeping up with purchasing those brand name products isn’t feasible for my life anymore.  Ever since we moved to Florida, I realized that living a simpler life isn’t at all what I thought it was before.  I still dress up, but I’m not worried about wearing a tshirt and jeans.  I started to live life a little simpler before, but it wasn’t until we moved and we started all over again that I realized this is the life I wanted.  I’m more relaxed now to be completely honest.

I’m not saying that I’m going to let myself go, but I’m not going to worry about what I look like every single day.  I’m actually able to leave the house with no makeup now and I don’t cringe when I do that.  I used to love following all of these huge fashion bloggers an would dream of one day owning a closet like theirs, but I quickly learned that I was longing for a life that was not feasible for me at the moment.  I’d rather focus on building a business that can eventually build my closet, rather than build my closet and make me go completely broke.

I love following travel accounts, but I’m not actively following all of the travel accounts that I was before.  I live through the Instagram photos that I see, but then again, I think about how those people may not be enjoying their travel to the fullest.  They have to constantly worry about creating these beautiful photos, that they are forgetting to actually enjoy their time off.  I have stopped following my “competition” because I would see these girls growing much faster than me and would get so discouraged.  I would honestly beat myself up over it.

I have started following a diverse group of accounts.  I follow accounts that I normally wouldn’t.  I follow bloggers who are completely different from me.  Whether it’s their style that is different, or they just blog about something I haven’t even thought of.  I get more inspiration from people who are nothing like me, than I do from my competition.  I have also stopped following a lot of huge accounts, only because it does make me beat myself up over not having the same following or growth as they do.  Don’t get me wrong, they have beautiful pictures, but I’m different.  They have the ability to buy the trendiest pieces, and they even have access to giant sponsorships where they get paid to wear these items, so why would I compare myself to someone like that?  That’s why after reading Carly Rowena’s post and realizing I’m already doing the things she said to challenge yourself to do, I was happy to know there are people out there who have woken up.  They have woken up from this social media bubble.  That’s why, like Carly, I challenge you to do the same.

xoxo Monica

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