{"id":2734,"date":"2017-12-09T17:34:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T16:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2017-12-09T17:34:37","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T16:34:37","slug":"break-free-caterpillar-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/main\/lifestyle\/break-free-caterpillar-butterfly\/","title":{"rendered":"Break Free: Caterpillar Butterfly"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was probably never a time other than today that made it more compelling to try to be someone else. Thanks to social media, within my opinion Instagram and Facebook at the top of this phenomenon, having a sneak peek into other people’s lives has been very easy. This isn’t an inherently good or bad thing. As with almost anything in our lives it depends on our relationship to it and how we make it part of it. Unfortunately, many people struggle with this. You have more and more people feeling depressed when they go through their Facebook feed, you have a rise of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out<\/a>), distorted body images (for female\u00a0and<\/span> male, young and old) and nutritional disorders. It also creates a mindset of following in people, never really becoming who they want to be, as they keep chasing other people’s goals. This article\u00a0tackles this last part and I want to encourage you to break free of this caterpillar butterfly situation and turn yourself from a caterpillar into a butterfly.<\/p>\n

InstaGratification<\/h1>\n

You can see those holiday pictures, before and after changes, fancy fashion lifestyle and what not. The perfect life can be easily portrayed online. I shared a few thoughts on this a while ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Caterpillar<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Caterpillar Butterfly: The Social Media Cocoon<\/h1>\n

To me, it feels that this trend has accelerated quickly. And it’s ruining so many lives of people who could be otherwise perfectly happy with themselves and their way of living. Those pictures are snapshots of more often than not completely staged moments, and when it hits the topics of nutrition and fitness, enhanced by filters and what you don’t see.<\/p>\n

Sure, it can be exciting to follow those social media influencers and if you can handle the staged part of it, you can even use it as an extrinsic source of motivation; only do this if you know your “why” and have intrinsic motivation too – otherwise you risk being miserable in the long run.<\/p>\n

\"Caterpillar<\/a><\/p>\n

The problem is, as hinted above, that you don’t know – and that is by design – what happens offscreen.
\nI use social media a lot and I aim to be as honest and unfiltered as I can. This means that<\/p>\n