As a company that uses social media as our platform to grow as a business we feel blessed to be able to use it to our advantage. Social media has become a world of expression. Expression of self, business, culture, and just a means of sharing diverse information. Despite this world of positive expression and sharing; the danger of warping true reality arises. With people scrolling daily through pages and pages of peoples positive representations of themselves: the awesome things they get up to, their best hair day, their skin filtered and even bodies warped to create this ‘perfect’ illusion. As a ‘scroller’ we begin to believe this is reality and contribute to it. So where does true expression come in? When did we stop thinking negative expression is natural and normal? We need to be mindful of reality and know that everybody has bad days, despite its lack of appearance on their social media page. Coming away from the social media and just focusing on our daily lives and feelings, we still illustrate this view that happiness should be our only form of expression, our main goal. If we aren’t happy all the time then we are doing something wrong. Right? Or we feel people will judge us for not leading a good life? Whatever the reasons, we all shy away and fear the feeling of sadness. Despite how good it feels to be happy, any suppressing of emotion is unhealthy even if it is negative. Happiness can only be acknowledged and appreciated when compared to our experiences of sadness. We need to address the emotion we are feeling instead of ignoring it and masking it with other things, because when it is too late we begin to hold grudges and mistreat our bodies and minds with the distraction of television or comfort eating. We start indulging on things that make us temporarily happy but can create long-term issues. Such as unhealthy lifestyle habits and addiction. Feel the emotion and address the cause. Tears are produced in response to feeling a strong emotion, positive or negative. It is our body’s natural response to release those hormones, and fighting that, no matter how strong you want to seem, is unhealthy. Ever noticed how much better you feel after a good cry? You are actually releasing a chemical found in emotional tears called Leucine-encephalin which is an endorphin that works to improve your mood and reduce pain. Some negativity unexpectedly can be considered positive. For example voluntarily choosing to put on the most traumatic emotional movie to cry your heart out feels amazing. Now I know people don’t want to be scrolling through pages of people that have ‘had bad days’ and ‘look at my food baby from last nights dinner’ but because it is such a huge part of our lives we do need to understand that social media may not be a true reflection of peoples lives, and not to beat ourselves up about the way we look or what we get up to. Don’t use social media to compare and compete. Use it to inspire and learn. Use it’s advantages and avoid getting caught up in its disadvantages. Be happy for those that are posting about their promotion, or their engagement or their new bikini body they worked hard for, but don't let it bring you down. Enjoy it but know that we are probably all suffering in one way or another no matter what we see on our news feed.
We’re all fighting different battles. Support each other’s weaknesses and admire people’s strengths. As a company we use social media to help improve peoples lives through inspiring healthy eating, an active lifestyle and encouraging people to have the confidence for individual self expression and self love. We use it to teach. To give people natural, beneficial ways of improving their lifestyles.
Emma Kitching Primal Human Needs