To me, Facebook has become the ‘Ugly’ regarding negative posts about Politics, Religion, Humanity, Nature, Ecology and the Welfare of Animals, and sometimes life in general. Years ago when people shared their lives, it looked like everyone was living a great positive life – look at all the photos of family, pets, traveling, etc., etc. The good life. It’s changed though, and the great majority of posts now have all turned into a platform to sell or share our opinions and thoughts to others (yes, exactly as I am doing now).
To me, Facebook has become like a great depression.
Let me explain:
Several years ago I went through a depression. It came on slowly and lasted for about three or four years. Even before I opened my eyes upon waking every morning, I felt the deep dark despair inside of me. It’s a feeling that comes on like a tickle in the throat, and you hope that it will abide before turning into a full blown cold. For me it did turn into full blown depression – not diagnosed, but I knew what it was nonetheless.
I had a comfortable lazy chair that sat near my living room window, where I could look out over our beautiful aspen-treed acreage. I’d try to work and carry on with my day normally, but at some point I would end up sitting in this chair. During my toughest times the tears would come immediately – great sobs of sorrow. Other times I’d just sit like a zombie in the depths of a darkness so acute I never thought I’d be able to climb my way out. Then the sobs, tears, anger, frustration, loneliness and despair would rage.
Some days I’d find it difficult to get out of the chair. Family would be home soon and life needed to carry on, so that motherly/wifely dutiful person would rise and carry on as if nothing else mattered than seeing her family safe, well and cared for.
Facebook has become that ‘chair’ for many people. They sit in it through posts of ugliness and despair and sorrow. They have yet to learn how to climb out of the chair.
Let me tell you how I did it:
Even before I woke up in the morning during those dark times, I’d lay in bed wishing and praying for the darkness to disappear. If I waited long enough, a phrase would pop into my head. Something positive that I could wrap my despairing brain around. I’d repeat the phrase over and over, then I’d get up and write it down. Through the day I’d read and reread the positive, hopeful words allowing them to sink into my very spirit. Over time, my days wallowing in the chair became less and less. I worked much more at self-healing, through other exercises such as journal writing and reading self-help books. Eventually, I got so that I hated that chair. I’d remember my episodes sitting there and really didn’t want a reminder of the darkness I fought so hard to escape from.
Has Facebook become your new chair?
My wish and invitation to you is this:
How about we pick a day – I know – how about today? If you are wallowing in writing or reading posts, wondering if life has anything better to offer, how about for one day, you empty your mind, and let a positive thought, statement, photo, or activity light up your feed. The next day think of a positive twist on an otherwise negative post about Politics, Religion, Humanity, Nature, Ecology and the Welfare of Animals, and life in general. Post this positive aspect too.
I bet if everyone did this, over time, Facebook would no longer become a platform for the ugly negative that everyone who is sitting in that ‘chair;’ thrives to read, but a platform that lets people share the good in humanity. The everyday good.
If you’ve read this far, I bet right now, your mind is roaring, “How dare she? My platform is important to me.”
I agree, yes your Facebook posts are important to you. My time in the chair was necessary for me too. I just didn’t want to live there in that unhappiness for years to come. I wanted to move on, create, and share positiveness with those around me, those I touch through any means including Facebook.
Wallowing in the chair does not make for a happy, good member of society. I agree we can’t be happy all the time. It is a choice. All I know is that I just can’t go back there – to that darkness.
I do have bad days where I want to share all that strife, anger and despair. I make a choice not to. Why? Simply because it’s so easy to slide down the banks of that pit of depression. I will do anything to make sure I have safe footing on the edge and the ability to walk away from it.
Eventually we moved from the acreage. Of course the chair came with us. Every time I looked at it, I was reminded of memories from my dark time. I tried not to sit on it too often. Yes, I’ve since sold the damn chair. It’s gone. I don’t have a ‘special’ spot to wallow in. I no longer wait upon waking in the morning to see if that feeling is coming back, as I know it is gone (I hope forever). I try not to read the ugly Facebook posts, as I don’t want to fall into darkness and despair. Life has so much more to offer than those feelings.
I invite you – today – to climb out of the ‘chair’ and post one – just one – uplifting part of your day.
Photo Credit: http://amigasdanoivablog.blogspot.ca/2016/02/casar-no-inverno-decoracao.html
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