Let go of the past and
the past will let go of you.
It can make you feel lonelier than you really are, less loved than you really are and less beautiful than you really are.
How many likes you get or don't get can affect your mood and your day, especially if you expect your friends to like your photos or comments and they don't.
To spare yourself all those negative feelings and any questioning of your worthiness, I have a few things that I've found helpful.
Create a separate Instagram account.
I now have two. One for public viewing and the other where I post more vulnerably, sharing meaningful photos without the added stress of wondering who will like them. This also serves as a place for me to add all the celebrity/non-real-life-friends Instagrams I follow, separating them from my real world.
Remove old or inactive accounts or strangers.
Or people who haven't liked any of your pictures in a long time. They are just taking up space on your Followers list and this will give you a better idea of how many real people are actually following you.
Un-follow people who no longer follow you.
This was a rude awakening for me, because there were unfortunately a lot of these—people who were acquaintances or friends in earlier seasons of life. The ones I considered "friends" hurt worse and of course this played into my feelings of unworthiness. So I vetted each Follower and if I wasn't on their list, I un-followed. I was willing to say goodbye and closed a chapter. Believe it or not, people are a lot quicker to close chapters today than we realize. With the beginning of social media, I think at first people felt they had to be connected to everyone they had ever met. Now we're in that stage where privacy is more important. I used to feel guilty about thinking about unfriending or un-following ex's, friends of ex's, ex-friends...I felt obligated to be tied to them infinitely. But this...this was a sign! A sign that people are OK with closing doors and chapters! Hallelujah!
If you're struggling at all with social media, I hope you'll try a step or two from above. I am feeling better after compartmentalizing and separating pieces of life. Maybe you'll feel freedom. Freedom from expectations or questioning you're worthiness. And freedom is definitely worth making some tough decisions.
