Social Media: How to Go From #Inspo to Real Inspiration

Published in

The Digital Journals

7 min readNov 13, 2021

If you have ever googled the impact of social media on mental health, you have likely stumbled into a barrage of information about the “dark side” of social media, perhaps a sprinkle of articles about how to use social media “mindfully” and others that suggest rather bluntly that you are the problem for being so affected by social media. I know I have and whilst I have been told repeatedly to “curate” my social media accounts, it seems no one quite hits the mark when it comes to explaining what it is to “mindfully” use social media.

For the uninitiated: those of us who are only just finding our way to discovering mindfulness, or living intentionally, there’s a lot of jargon and it can all just go over your head. Especially if you are anything like me, very literal. When prompted for the first time to “Set an intention” I rolled my eyes so hard I thought they might get stuck back there.

Perhaps I have cracked a code but a few months ago something clicked for me and I started to interact with my social media differently. I decided I wanted to be inspired when I scrolled and anything uninspiring, upsetting or triggering had to go. There's a time and a place for triggers and I decided my social media feeds were not going to be that for me. Let me walk you through my take on using intention to curate an inspiring social media feed for a better experience and mental health.

Social Media Wasn’t Working for me

Over the last 18 months, my social media usage peaked — with many days stuck inside and not much else to do by way of a distraction, it was an escape from the mundane. The issue was that I started to feel like I was lacking. I would find myself scrolling, losing hours at a time only to finally pull myself away from the screen feeling unfulfilled, unmotivated, uninspired and for lack of a better word just meh! So I did what we all do, I deleted the apps and reclaimed my time. And as all the blogs and studies suggest, I felt better, my mood improved and I was using my time to do other more enjoyable things.

I don’t accept that the only way to coexist with social media is to shove it in a closet and try to forget it exists. To me that feels like something in the power dynamic is well and truly off balance.

The Negative Impact of Social Media

There have been plenty of studies showing the negative effects of social media on our mental health and lifestyle. The impact of social comparisons (1), duration of use (3) and FOMO (2) have been linked to depressive symptoms, loneliness low self-esteem (2) and even suicide. Other studies have also found that a reduction in time spent on social media can decrease loneliness and depression(3). It would appear obvious then that we need to take a more intentional approach when using social media. Conversely, some argue that a lot of studies on social media simply demonstrate correlation vs causation (4). There is also the suggestion that negative well being is at the root of social media addiction as well as negative behaviour such as online trolling, stalking and misuse. I believe that moderation is key and that if you take a mindful approach to how you use social media, you can avoid the common pitfalls.

How to Make Social Media Work for you:

1. Find your Direction

Whether we realise it or not, every day we make choices and these choices can either consciously guide our actions (intentional) or unconsciously guide our actions (unintentional). If I decide that I want to become #fitspo incarnate, it makes sense that I work out regularly and make changes to my diet. And seeing as we are talking about social media, naturally, I would follow all the best #fitspo accounts to get #inspired. After all, they are going to inspire me to keep fit, give me all the meal prep inspo and keep me motivated. Sounds easy right? Well, no, not quite.

I think we can all relate to finding an interest, goal or hobby and heading straight to social media to follow a bunch of accounts that seemingly inspire. Like that one time I was convinced I was going to have a #homeinspo Instagram account. I spent months consuming home design content only to realise that I wasn't being inspired but I felt lacking, my home would never be good enough. So what happened? I stopped posting and interacting with that account. What was I missing? Direction.

If you don’t understand the why behind your choices as well as where you might like to end up, you are likely to end up unconsciously guided off track despite your best efforts.

So back to my #fitspo alter ego. I’m all dressed up in my cute new gym wear, obvs. I have made my workout and meal plans. My social media feed reminds me daily #nodaysoff, #nocarbsbeforemarbs, and “don’t forget to use my discount code for this slimming tea!” Slowly, I start to work out less, I’m moody AF from the lack of carbs and a cheat meal turns into a cheat week. I am not feeling inspired, I am demoralised.

The question now is: If my intention was right why does it feel so wrong?

In my opinion, the cause is a failure to investigate the driving force behind my intention — the direction.

Ask yourself: Why do I want to lose weight? How do I want to lose weight? Where is my desire to lose weight coming from? How are my beliefs around my weight and body serving me? Do they make me feel good or bad? Is there another way to approach this, that might feel better? What am I consuming that is reinforcing negative thoughts or feelings?

If I ask myself the above questions and I might quickly realise that I have a lot of beliefs surrounding weight loss, health and beauty that are not healthy and are no longer serving me. My beliefs are rooted in self-hate and these negative feelings have been impacting my self-esteem and confidence. I might also realise that the #fitspo accounts I follow reinforce these ideas, is it any surprise that I felt so low and uninspired? Ultimately I don’t want to feel this way. So what now?

I still want to get healthy and fit, but now I know I want to do so in a way that will increase my self-esteem and confidence and will be healthy and sustainable. I want to change my life not just my appearance. So I set a new direction:

My new direction: I want to get healthy and fit to honour my body, ensure mobility and strength into old age, to break bad eating habits and feel more confident in my body.

My old direction: I want to lose weight because I hate how I look, my thighs are too big and my stomach isn't flat. No one will find me attractive as I am.

This new awareness and conscious reframing will heavily influence the type of accounts I follow and the content I consume. It will influence my choices and my actions. The content I consume will serve me by focusing on something much deeper, whole-body wellness and self-love because those themes are woven into my direction thus my intention and thus my actions, thoughts and feelings.

2. Set your Intention:

Social media can be considered an add-on to your life. It can either enhance or diminish, depending on how you interact with it. So whilst my #fitspo aspirations will impact my life choices and habits, if I continue to consume content that reinforces my negative thoughts and beliefs, I would be setting myself up for failure. This is because my direction and intentions and subsequently my actions are not aligned. To stay inspired, I must extend these intentions to social media.

My direction: I want to get healthy and fit to honour my body, ensure mobility and strength into old age, break bad eating habits and feel more confident in my body.

Aligned Intentions for social media:

I will follow accounts that promote body positivity and self-love.
I will unfollow accounts that promote unrealistic beauty standards and/or unhealthy eating habits.
I will be more selective with the content I consume in general, only consuming content that makes me feel good.

3. The Great Social Media Purge:

Delete, delete, delete. Delete and unfollow with reckless abandon! Purging is not my thing, you could describe me as a minor league hoarder. But even I am in the process of going through my digital life (that includes computer files — pray for me!) and undertaking the great purge. I use my daily scrolling as a purging exercise. If it doesn't make me feel good — unfollow. If it doesn’t interest me — unfollow. Anyone can get it! No, if’s and’s or maybe’s.

In Conclusion

The goal is to consciously and intentionally choose how and why you want to interact with social media. Let your intention be your guide when deciding who to follow and what to consume. Then finally, make sure that your interactions on social media are aligned with your life intentions, removing anything that is misaligned. Why do all that work to become the best version of you, only to fumble the ball whilst scrolling on social media?

These steps helped me to intentionally curate an inspiring social media feed. It is now a space I go to feel educated, motivated and inspired as well as entertained. The process has been an enlightening and empowering experience, allowing me to better understand myself and reclaim my power back from algorithm.

Do you struggle with spending too much time on social media? What would your one-word intention be for social media? Mine is INSPIRE. Share yours in the comments.

I highly recommend reading the Mark Manson piece “Social Media Isn’t the Problem…We Are” (4), which provides a detailed and evidence-based look at numerous studies that exist on the topic as well as looking at social media from a cultural perspective.

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