Before You Scroll, Try These 9 Mindful Social Media Practices

You’ve probably heard of ‘mindfulness’. It’s pretty popular these days and for good reason. Countless research studies have shown that it offers enormous health and mental benefits.

If you haven’t heard of it, mindfulness is simply focusing on the present moment in a non-judgmental and grateful manner.

But when it comes to social media, how do you actually practice it? The truth is, you can’t ‘turn off’ social media. It’s becoming a crucial part of our lives.

And nor do you have to. There are practical things we can do to practice mindfulness while using social media.

This brilliant post from Tiny Buddha offers some wonderful suggestions that I’ve summarized below.

Before You Begin

1. Set an intention.

What’s your goal of using social media? Make your intention positive to begin with.

2. Remind yourself to stay present.

There’s so much going on with social media that it can be easy to get lost in your thoughts. But don’t worry! Whenever you notice that you’re losing focus, bring your awareness back to your breathe or your fingers on the keyboard.

3. Take the time to clean up your feed.

Unfollow people that regularly complain or post negative content and consciously follow positive pages and people. If a particular person is making you feel envious or jealous, don’t hesitate to unfollow them as well.

When Posting.

4. Let of your attachment to the outcome.

So many us focus on how many ‘likes’ we get because we want the validation. The truth is, likes mean nothing. You’ll be more happy if you post what is true to you than posting simply to get more ‘likes’.

5. Post positive content or things that are helpful.

Above I said to unfollow negative pages and people. Well, the sames goes for you. Make sure that what you’re posting can help and uplift others.

6. Challenge your initial reaction to criticism.

If you receive a negative comment, take some time to reflect upon whether or not there’s truth in it. Be honest and detach from your ego. If it’s true, express your gratitude to that person for pointing that out. If it’s not, don’t be afraid to delete or disengage.

When Scrolling

7. Practice non-judgment.

When you think negatively about others, it makes you feel bad, not them. There really isn’t any point in negatively judging others. You don’t know what they’ve been through and why they’re acting they way they are acting. It will make you happier anyway.

8. Realize that envy is a call for inspiration.

Envy is a HUGE problem in social media. The first thing to remember is that social media is everyone’s highlight reels. It’s not their whole life. And instead of being envious, be inspired!

9. Be curious about the stories your mind makes up.

When your mind makes up a story about someone based on a post, pause for a second and ask yourself whether you’re jumping to conclusions. The first step is to be aware of when your mind does this and whether your mind is actually accurate.

Please share this post so we all can experience the benefits of mindfulness together!