Taking Care Of Ourselves On Twitter

Written By Don Shetterly

One of the things that I think we forget to do is take care of ourselves on Twitter.  It is far too easy to get sucked into the social media unconscious world before we know it.

There is so much that I enjoy about Twitter including many of my followers.  I love great discussions by others on my follower list.  I love it when others share how they are coming through their own struggles.  The ones that strive to make a difference in the world get my utmost respect.

How can you take care of yourself on Twitter?

Follow The Right People

Yes, I know it isn't easy sometimes to know who the right people are too follow.  There's a lot of games played on Twitter and even trying to check out a profile and the tweets of someone, sometimes you just get fooled.  Be careful and when you see people crossing the line, kick them off.  When they really cross the line, that's when I report them.  Sorry, but when someone is bullying or abusing others and being disrespectful, they need a time-out!

Mute Words

You may not know it on Twitter, but one of the best features is the "muted words" function.  If you go up to you your profile picture, click on the "settings and privacy" menu item, you should see one in there that says "muted words."  All you have to do is start adding in the words you don't want to see.  It doesn't mean you stop following people.  You no longer have to look at those conversations which you don't want to see in your Twitter Feed.  It is a way of taking care of ourselves on Twitter especially when things trigger us.

As new words come up, I just add them to my list, and that is the last of that issue I have to worry about on Twitter.  I'm not trying to hide my head in the sand.  I just don't wish to see tweet after tweet all day long of stuff that gets far too overwhelming.

It's Not Our Circus

One of the best things we can do in taking care of ourselves on Twitter is to realize that not every issue is one we need to engage.  If we remind ourselves that it's not our circus, we can give ourselves permission to walk away from the tweet.  After all, sometimes you're better to walk away than engage and bring yourself down into the mud pit with everyone else.  I've written about rolling around in the mud pit with everyone else.  When you do that, no one can tell you apart from the ones you're fighting.  A mud pit makes both people look the same.

Put A Stop Watch On Your Twitter Time

One of the things with social media is that it can suck you into this world.  Before you realize it, the hours have passed by quickly.  There is something about this behavior that is almost unconscious, and it can consume your time.  Put a stopwatch on your Twitter time.  It helps us take care of ourselves on Twitter.  The world will exist if we are on Twitter or not.  The world will continue regardless of what we tweet or not.  We've traded in taking care of ourselves in life with spending far too much time on Twitter and social media.

Don't Be Part Of The Problem

I see a lot of tweets that come through where they make me scratch my head in disbelief.  Even people who claim to have love or are enlightened or have the answers.  Sometimes those people can be some of the worst offenders.  We often tend to respond on Twitter without thoroughly thinking.  Sometimes the words we say can inflict great harm on others unintentionally.  Of course, you can't always know that, and you can't always prevent this.  Everyone has their own triggers.  Just make sure you think before you type.  Respond with compassion and respect and love.  Before you respond, think about how you would react if someone said the same words to you.  Make sure you're not a part of the problem you despise because very often, we are.

Here's to taking care of ourselves on Twitter!

Taking care of ourselves on Twitter is essential.  I'm sure there are things I'm missing here and please leave a comment below on what ways work for you.  Let's help everyone by sharing what we do.  After all, we're in this social media world together.  

Follow me on Twitter, @MindBodyThought

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Blog Post And Images (c) 3/04/18 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required in writing before any part of this blog is reprinted, reworded, transmitted or used in any format. 
• Feel free to share the blog post LINK and a brief summary.  

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Too Busy To Take Care Of Myself

I know, we all have many demands on our time.  I get it.  I understand.  For a long time I was traveling every week and that did not always leave much time to stop and smell the roses.  It did not allow me to take care of myself and do the things that I needed to do.

If I am too busy to take care of myself, at some point my body will stop me in my tracks.  If anyone thinks that they can go forever and ever without something happening, you're just walking on thin ice in the lake and getting lucky.

I am talking from experience after having a Conversion Disorder and being paralyzed, then trying to piece my life back together.  You can find out more about that in my book, Hope And Possibility Through Trauma.

Sure, I went through other stuff in life that contributed to it, but right before the Conversion Disorder hit, I was working 6.5 days a week almost 18 hours a day trying to be the best employee I could be.  I was too busy to take care of myself but I was never too busy to overwork myself.

It came at a price and almost cost me my life.  It was a wake up call.  Even though I know all of this, I still went through a job recently that just about killed me again.  I guess I am too hard headed to learn and so I went back down.  I'm still recovering from that time of being too busy to take care of myself.

You may not get a Conversion Disorder and paralysis.  However, there are things like cancer, heart attacks, back pain, and many other conditions that creep up on us.  If you ignore your body, there is a high probability that at some point, your body will get your attention.

You can pay now by taking care of yourself or you can pay later when things are pretty serious.  It is your choice in all that you do.  We choose to do like I did and work day and night or we choose to enjoy life and take care of our mind and body.  No one else does that for us although we often think they do.

We only have one body and one mind.  If we waste it and exhaust it and overwork it, what good will it be to us in  20, 40, or 60 years?  When we are younger, we think we have all the resources and time we need, but as we get older, all this stuff starts to accumulate and then begin knocking on the door to get our attention.

Let's try not to be too busy to take care of ourselves.  Our body and mind will thank us for it.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Take Care Of Yourself

Many years ago I thought that if I did everything for everyone that expected me to do things for them, I was some kind of nice person.  Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that to exhaust one's self is really not the best you can give to others.

Sitting in a group session, the therapist asked us if we were at a banquet and there was only one chair left but our self and one other person had not been seated, what would we do?  Everyone went around the room and had differing viewpoints of what they would do.

I remember when it got to me and of course I responded enthusiastically that I would let the other person have the seat at the banquet table.  Why would I take it?  That would be selfish and mean.  After all, I put others before my own needs because that is what I thought I should do (or what I had been taught).