(The following is just my personal experience and not a judgement on anyone who disagrees) Life has a funny way of teaching us lessons. A few weeks ago I got verified on Instagram, and while I wanted that and was admittedly happy about that, it has coincided with undoubtedly the worst time in many areas of my life, specifically my health. I’ve gotten messages like “I see you bro👀” or “blue check 👀” and I just laugh to myself because it’s like, this person has no idea how I’m actually doing and the last thing they assume is that I’m actually at my lowest. They just see something that we’ve been taught to chase and assume that this person must be doing great bc they got this social stamp of approval that comes from ??? (No offense to anyone who sent me a message like that🤣). I guess my point is, my Instagram account might be doing good, but I am not my Instagram account. And I think we can lose sight of that as a society and attach the person to the job, or the social media account, or the achievement and look up at, or down at someone based off of that. This has also allowed me to reflect on the many times in my life where I have seeked external validation and then lied to myself and said “I don’t care what anyone thinks.” But I did. You probably did at some point to, and that’s okay, we’re in a society that glorifies that and tells us that is the benchmark for success and how we should judge ourselves is how much attention we get. How do we get past that? I dont know, I wish I had the answers, everyone might have their own path. If you care and want my experience: I would say start by meditating and breathing intentionally every day for like 10-20 minutes. You might not feel any different immediately but stick with it for a few weeks and see what comes up. In my experience I started felt much more connected to my body, my emotions, nature, and my loved ones after a few weeks. Hope this helps someone🫶🏾 (This is not to say that social media is bad or that social acceptance doesn’t matter and I’m also aware that a lot of peoples businesses are on Instagram/social media so go crazy.)