Mindful Scrolling: How to Use Social Media Without Losing Yourself

Have you ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media, only to realize you're feeling more anxious than before? If so, you're not alone. As someone who's recently fallen into the trap of "doomscrolling," I understand how easy it is to get sucked into the vortex of negative news and heated debates online. In this Live. Love. Engage. episode, I'm sharing my personal struggle with social media doomscrolling and offering practical strategies to break free from this harmful habit. As a Midlife Empowerment Guide and Self-Love Advocate, I believe it's crucial for mission-driven women over 50 to protect their mental health and cultivate positivity in their lives. Show Notes | Transcript "Be honest about your behavior. If you find that this (doomscrolling) is becoming a habit, ask yourself, what's going on? Why am I doing this?" - Gloria Grace Rand Why Breaking Free from Doomscrolling Matters Studies have shown that excessive consumption of negative content on social media can: Worsen depression and anxiety Exacerbate obsessive-compulsive tendencies Trigger post-traumatic stress symptoms As empowered women seeking to make a positive difference in the world, we need to be mindful of how we engage with social media and protect our mental well-being. Practical Strategies to Escape the Doomscroll Prison: I've compiled a list of 15 actionable tips to help you regain control over your social media habits. Here's a sneak peek at some of the strategies we'll explore: 1. The 5-second rule for breaking the scrolling cycle 2. Setting intentional time limits for social media use 3. Curating a more positive feed 4. Practicing mindfulness while engaging online 5. Using digital wellness apps to support healthier habits If you're ready to reclaim your time, energy, and peace of mind from the clutches of doomscrolling, this episode is for you. Tune in for practical wisdom, spiritual insights, and a touch of humor as we navigate the challenges of modern technology together. Resources: Join the Soulful Women's Network: https://www.facebook.com/groups/soulfulwomensnetwork Receive daily inspirational email messages: bit.ly/LoveLightNotes Need support? Go to engagewithgloria.com to schedule a call. Connect with Live Love Engage: Send Gloria Grace a message ☕ Support the podcast ❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating LinkedIn: Gloria Grace Rand Facebook: Gloria Grace Rand YouTube: Gloria Grace Rand TRANSCRIPT Mindful Scrolling: How to Use Social Media Without Losing Yourself Opening Confession Gloria Grace: Namaste. I've got a confession to make. I have fallen into a terrible trap lately of going out to Facebook first thing in the morning, getting sucked into posts about politics and arguments and endless updates about things I just can't control. If you're like me and you have entered doom scroll prison, then today's episode is for you because we are going to plot our escape together because it's got to stop. And actually today I did better doing one of the things we're going to talk about today. But first, I do want to welcome you to Live Love Engage, especially if this is your first time joining us. I am Gloria Grace, midlife empowerment guide, confidence catalyst and self love advocate. And I empower mission driven women over 50 to boldly live life on their terms. And I do it through my signature love system and energy healing. The Problem with Social Media So it's interesting this idea about social media—it can be really great and it really helps bringing people together, and it's natural to want to go there to seek information and stay informed. But when it gets into a habit of where you're wasting time or spending too much time reading negative stories, studies have shown it can actually harm your mental health. It can worsen problems like depression and certainly cause anxiety, or worsen things like obsessive compulsive disorder and PTSD. As I said, the tool is not inherently bad. It's that unfortunately, as we all know, the algorithms love to serve up stuff that kind of gets you going. I want to share with you a bunch of ways that we can stop this doom scrolling because it's not good for us. And if we want to be empowered women and we want to be able to make a difference in the world and to make a positive difference—I know that you are here to make a positive difference in the world. And the more that we can fill our lives with positivity instead of the negativity, then that vibration will go out in the world. And even though right now it seems rather dicey at times, especially here in the United States, but even around the world, there's lots of sadness and chaos and violence and war—we've all been here before. Maybe not me, but our ancestors have all lived through this stuff before. And we will get through this too. We will. Because love always wins. Light always shines out of the darkness. Strategy #1: The Five-Second Rule So here's number one—you might want to get a pencil and piece of paper and write these down. The first one is to use the five second rule. So when you notice that you're starting to keep going and going and going and you're scrolling and it's like, "Oh, wait a minute, do I really want to do this?" just stop, take a breath, count to five. Well, count down from five—five, four, three, two, one. And then close out of your phone, or if you're on your computer, close out of that window and go do something else. I'm sure you have something else that you could be doing, whether it's in your work or your family life, whatever it is. Strategy #2: Set Time Limits Number two is another time related one, which is to just set a time limit. Set a timer and just do that so that when the timer goes off, if you want to set a timer on your phone or you can set a timer wherever else—my mother used to have actual real timers, remember those actual timers that you would turn? I used to have one of those to help me do laundry. Now it's like our phones, but the old analog days. Set a time, and then when that timer goes off, you're done. You gotta stop. Don't keep going. Honor yourself. Keep your commitment to yourself—that's one of the four agreements. Be impeccable with your word. So if you're telling yourself, "Okay, I'm going to honor that, I'm only going to spend 15 minutes on Facebook today," maybe just 15 minutes of going through the newsfeed—probably less than that might be better. Maybe five minutes might be enough, frankly. But then when that timer goes off, then say, "Okay, I'm gonna honor, I'm gonna be impeccable with my word, and I'm keeping my commitment." That's it. I'm done. Strategy #3: Seek Out Positivity Number three: seek out positivity. You get into this negative stuff. All right, you know what? Take a break and go find a funny video to watch on YouTube instead. Cat videos, baby videos. Oh, babies are so sweet. They always make you laugh. Read something good. Maybe find a spiritual passage to read. I subscribe to the Daily Word from Unity, and I always get them in my phone. So I have the Daily Word message. And those are really uplifting. Something to read. Practice gratitude. Say, "Okay, I'm off of this now. Let me just be grateful that I had a phone to use. I am grateful that I'm alive. I'm grateful that I can see or hear or whatever it is." Strategy #4: Notice Your Body Number four is to notice your body. If you're gonna go through social media, be mindful about it and pay attention to how your body is feeling. I know for me, when I get upset, my stomach starts to tighten up. So that might be something for you. Or maybe your neck tightens or your shoulders get tight. Pay attention to your body because your body is giving you a signal, and it's a wonderful thing. [Note: Gloria becomes emotional here, mentioning seeing her late sister Michaela in her reflection] Pay attention to how your body's feeling. And pay attention to what's your mind doing? How's your mind reacting? And if you don't like how you're feeling, that's your signal to say, "Okay, I think we're done. Let's take a break and go do something else." Strategy #5: Avoid Catastrophizing Number five is to avoid catastrophizing. Isn't that a lovely big word? Which basically means instead of jumping to "Oh my God, the world's gonna end, this is terrible," be more discerning and use your critical thinking skills and question what is a more realistic outcome of this situation rather than just immediately going to worst case scenarios. Instead maybe even ask, "Okay, what could be the best outcome of this happening?" Let your imagination run wild and try to think of something more positive about it. Strategy #6: Engage in Thought Stopping Number six is to engage in thought stopping, which means to pick up the phone consciously and with purpose. Just say, "Okay, I am consciously going to go in, I'm going to just review, scan a little bit just to see what my friends are up to on social media, or just do it for business for a little bit. I'm going to be really purposeful about what I'm using social media for right now." Approach it from that aspect because when you, as opposed to just going on and being mindless about it, we want to be more mindful and purposeful and say, "Okay, I'm going to go in and I'm going to comment on a bunch of posts. I'm going to check in with my Facebook group if you have one, or if you are a member of Facebook group, I'm gonna just go in the Facebook group. I'm not gonna go on the news feed, frankly." Strategy #7: Slow the Pace of Scrolling Number seven is to slow the pace of scrolling. So instead of just going blah, blah, blah, looking, looking, looking—no, focus on quality of content. So if you see something that catches your eye, then actually really stop and read it and then sort of take a moment to digest the information and again,...