Honestly, it seems like everyone has instagram. Your mom, your best friend’s dog, your favorite celebrity. We all use the platform to share snapshots of our life. What we eat, where we’ve been, what we’re currently loving.

This can be a place full of positivity and encouragement if done well.

Unfortunately, when left unchecked, this platform can fuel our negative self-talk. We may compare our lives to snapshots of someone else’s. We begin to desire things that are realistic for us.

I know this can easily happen to me, if I’m not selective about who I choose to follow.

I wanted to share with you today, how to curate an Instagram feed that provides encouragement, inspiration, and joy! I’ve done with my own feed, and I know you can too!

So let’s get started!

First Things First

Decide what you want to see. This could be dogs, certain types of food, whatever your heart desires. Then find those accounts. I go through their feed, read a few of their captions. This is to ensure that their captions are congruent with their message. A happy picture with a caption that leaves me feeling meh isn’t helpful.

Second, decide what you don’t want to see. This is more important than you might initially think. Personally, I don’t like seeing nutritional breakdowns of foods or non-medically necessary diets. So this means that when someone starts talking about their Whole 30 or Paleo diet, I unfollow them. No questions asked. I don’t want to see, so I make sure I can’t see it.

Caption Conversation

This is an often overlooked aspect. What are these accounts (people/companies) actually saying.

I’ve unfollowed accounts that post the most beautiful pictures for what they say underneath. If their words leave me feeling less than, disappointed, or discouraged, I unfollow them. This online space you’re creating is yours. You decide what stays and what goes. You have the ultimate authority on this.

For this reason, I read at least 5 captions on an account before I choose to follow. If I can’t get a sense of authenticity, or I feel like I’m constantly being sold something. I leave. That simple.

Selling the Dream

This one is a huge point for me.

I don’t like being sold things. Maybe it’s because I’m a millennial. Maybe it’s because I’m frugal. Or maybe I just genuinely don’t like feeling like I’m constantly at the car dealers. Because that’s what it feels like.

When a majority of the posts on an account become a sales pitch. I’m out. I’m not buying your supplement, your skincare/skincare tools, or your subscription to a meal replacement program. I like eating my food. I worked really hard to like eating my food. So, no thank you.

TLDR:

Ask yourself these questions:

What do I want to see? What do I not want to see? What do I want to read about? What do I not want to read about? How do I want to feel? How do I not want to feel?

By asking yourself those questions, you can easily clean out your feed. Within minutes you can have images to scroll through that reflect what is important to you.

You are the final authority on your feed. Nothing can stay there without your permission.

Today is the best day to change your life!