I have.

Many times I have scrolled through my Facebook feed, reading status updates, inspecting photos and surveying ‘life events’ that have triggered feelings in me like anger, jealousy, and doubt.

Sometimes I would go as far as to ‘hide’ those people so I wouldn’t see their updates.

We are all bombarded with this information. Information that comes from all different directions leaving us consumed with wanting to know what others are doing. The result? We find ourselves constantly checking Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram… You name it.

We create an entire world in our heads about others, storyline after storyline about other people’s lives. We make assumptions about who they are, form beliefs that we know how they feel, and then compare ourselves to this mental manuscript we have created. 

Sure it might appear that these others are traveling the world, eating delicious meals, and living the ‘good life’, but we don’t really know what they are experiencing on the inside. I have personally had several experiences where, after seeing someone’s fabulous posts on Facebook I ran into them in public or talked to them in person and their real ‘story’ was quite different from the one my mental manuscript had suggested.

The pain these stories created caused me to hide and avoid. As humans we don’t like pain, we pretty much do everything we can to avoid it. Yet in the process of avoiding we create more.

Everyone has triggers, but when we can acknowledge them rather than repress them we stop the avoidance and can start to heal. {Click to Tweet}

But in order to heal we must be willing to feel. 

THE KEY STEPS:

• You get triggered
• FEEL those feelings, acknowledge them.
• Be CURIOUS. Explore where they are coming from.
• CHALLENGE your perspective.
• Work to SHIFT to a more loving point of view.

One of my favorite authors, Gary Zukav, states it beautifully:

“Emotions reflect intentions. Therefore, awareness of emotions leads to awareness of intentions. Every discrepancy between a conscious intention and the emotions that accompany it, points directly to a splintered aspect of the self that requires healing.”

I finally realized that when others triggered my negative emotions it was an opportunity.  My emotions were showing me a part of myself that needed to heal. So I stopped ‘hiding’ these new teachers on my Facebook feed, they were showing me where I needed to look inside.

Society demands that we live at such a fast pace, it leaves us very little time to connect with our bodies and stay connected to our hearts. I realized when these triggers come up I could slow down and take a minute to look inward, instead of jumping to my mental manuscript I looked at my own storyline.

Learning to stay and sit with this discomfort ultimately lead me to a deeper understanding of myself and a discovery of a infinite source of peace.  The world outside, a Facebook feed, a Twitter conversation, is not the source of my pain, but rather my state of mind is the cause of my distress.

And that, I happily can say, is within my control to fix.

Now when something triggers me on Facebook, I inquire, “What about this makes me feel jealous?”

I began this practice and noticed something very interesting. When my mind was more calm, relaxed, and confident I interacted with social media differently. As I scrolled through my feed with a compassionate mind, understanding that we all suffer, wishing others’ suffering to dissolve, and knowing we all have the same wish to be happy, I began to see so much more love and connection.

I stopped shutting out feelings that I didn’t like and began to open my heart.

What if you use your Facebook feed to become more aware of your ego and support your spiritual development?

The next time you see the #selfie of your Facebook friend on a beautiful beach, just check in, what happens to your mind?

Sit with that discomfort and let it lead you to answers and compassion.

Imagine living a life comfortable, confident, and so relaxed in your own skin that you don’t ever have to compare yourself to anyone else.

How much happier would you be?