Have you ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media, only to realize you’re feeling more anxious than before? If so, you’re not alone. As someone who’s recently fallen into the trap of “doomscrolling,” I understand how easy it is to get sucked into the vortex of negative news and heated debates online. In this Live. Love. Engage. episode, I’m sharing my personal struggle with social media doomscrolling and offering practical strategies to break free from this harmful habit. As a Midlife Empowerment Guide and Self-Love Advocate, I believe it’s crucial for mission-driven women over 50 to protect their mental health and cultivate positivity in their lives.
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Show Notes | Transcript“Be honest about your behavior. If you find that this (doomscrolling) is becoming a habit, ask yourself, what’s going on? Why am I doing this?” – Gloria Grace Rand
Why Breaking Free from Doomscrolling Matters
Studies have shown that excessive consumption of negative content on social media can:
- Worsen depression and anxiety
- Exacerbate obsessive-compulsive tendencies
- Trigger post-traumatic stress symptoms
As empowered women seeking to make a positive difference in the world, we need to be mindful of how we engage with social media and protect our mental well-being.
Practical Strategies to Escape the Doomscroll Prison:
I’ve compiled a list of 15 actionable tips to help you regain control over your social media habits. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the strategies we’ll explore:
- 1. The 5-second rule for breaking the scrolling cycle
- 2. Setting intentional time limits for social media use
- 3. Curating a more positive feed
- 4. Practicing mindfulness while engaging online
- 5. Using digital wellness apps to support healthier habits
If you’re ready to reclaim your time, energy, and peace of mind from the clutches of doomscrolling, this episode is for you. Tune in for practical wisdom, spiritual insights, and a touch of humor as we navigate the challenges of modern technology together.
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TRANSCRIPT
Mindful Scrolling: How to Use Social Media Without Losing Yourself
Opening Confession
Gloria Grace: Namaste. I’ve got a confession to make. I have fallen into a terrible trap lately of going out to Facebook first thing in the morning, getting sucked into posts about politics and arguments and endless updates about things I just can’t control. If you’re like me and you have entered doom scroll prison, then today’s episode is for you because we are going to plot our escape together because it’s got to stop. And actually today I did better doing one of the things we’re going to talk about today.
But first, I do want to welcome you to Live Love Engage, especially if this is your first time joining us. I am Gloria Grace, midlife empowerment guide, confidence catalyst and self love advocate. And I empower mission driven women over 50 to boldly live life on their terms. And I do it through my signature love system and energy healing.
The Problem with Social Media
So it’s interesting this idea about social media—it can be really great and it really helps bringing people together, and it’s natural to want to go there to seek information and stay informed. But when it gets into a habit of where you’re wasting time or spending too much time reading negative stories, studies have shown it can actually harm your mental health. It can worsen problems like depression and certainly cause anxiety, or worsen things like obsessive compulsive disorder and PTSD.
As I said, the tool is not inherently bad. It’s that unfortunately, as we all know, the algorithms love to serve up stuff that kind of gets you going.
I want to share with you a bunch of ways that we can stop this doom scrolling because it’s not good for us. And if we want to be empowered women and we want to be able to make a difference in the world and to make a positive difference—I know that you are here to make a positive difference in the world. And the more that we can fill our lives with positivity instead of the negativity, then that vibration will go out in the world.
And even though right now it seems rather dicey at times, especially here in the United States, but even around the world, there’s lots of sadness and chaos and violence and war—we’ve all been here before. Maybe not me, but our ancestors have all lived through this stuff before. And we will get through this too. We will. Because love always wins. Light always shines out of the darkness.
Strategy #1: The Five-Second Rule
So here’s number one—you might want to get a pencil and piece of paper and write these down. The first one is to use the five second rule. So when you notice that you’re starting to keep going and going and going and you’re scrolling and it’s like, “Oh, wait a minute, do I really want to do this?” just stop, take a breath, count to five. Well, count down from five—five, four, three, two, one. And then close out of your phone, or if you’re on your computer, close out of that window and go do something else. I’m sure you have something else that you could be doing, whether it’s in your work or your family life, whatever it is.
Strategy #2: Set Time Limits
Number two is another time related one, which is to just set a time limit. Set a timer and just do that so that when the timer goes off, if you want to set a timer on your phone or you can set a timer wherever else—my mother used to have actual real timers, remember those actual timers that you would turn? I used to have one of those to help me do laundry. Now it’s like our phones, but the old analog days.
Set a time, and then when that timer goes off, you’re done. You gotta stop. Don’t keep going. Honor yourself. Keep your commitment to yourself—that’s one of the four agreements. Be impeccable with your word. So if you’re telling yourself, “Okay, I’m going to honor that, I’m only going to spend 15 minutes on Facebook today,” maybe just 15 minutes of going through the newsfeed—probably less than that might be better. Maybe five minutes might be enough, frankly. But then when that timer goes off, then say, “Okay, I’m gonna honor, I’m gonna be impeccable with my word, and I’m keeping my commitment.” That’s it. I’m done.
Strategy #3: Seek Out Positivity
Number three: seek out positivity. You get into this negative stuff. All right, you know what? Take a break and go find a funny video to watch on YouTube instead. Cat videos, baby videos. Oh, babies are so sweet. They always make you laugh. Read something good. Maybe find a spiritual passage to read. I subscribe to the Daily Word from Unity, and I always get them in my phone. So I have the Daily Word message. And those are really uplifting. Something to read. Practice gratitude. Say, “Okay, I’m off of this now. Let me just be grateful that I had a phone to use. I am grateful that I’m alive. I’m grateful that I can see or hear or whatever it is.”
Strategy #4: Notice Your Body
Number four is to notice your body. If you’re gonna go through social media, be mindful about it and pay attention to how your body is feeling. I know for me, when I get upset, my stomach starts to tighten up. So that might be something for you. Or maybe your neck tightens or your shoulders get tight. Pay attention to your body because your body is giving you a signal, and it’s a wonderful thing.
[Note: Gloria becomes emotional here, mentioning seeing her late sister Michaela in her reflection]
Pay attention to how your body’s feeling. And pay attention to what’s your mind doing? How’s your mind reacting? And if you don’t like how you’re feeling, that’s your signal to say, “Okay, I think we’re done. Let’s take a break and go do something else.”
Strategy #5: Avoid Catastrophizing
Number five is to avoid catastrophizing. Isn’t that a lovely big word? Which basically means instead of jumping to “Oh my God, the world’s gonna end, this is terrible,” be more discerning and use your critical thinking skills and question what is a more realistic outcome of this situation rather than just immediately going to worst case scenarios. Instead maybe even ask, “Okay, what could be the best outcome of this happening?” Let your imagination run wild and try to think of something more positive about it.
Strategy #6: Engage in Thought Stopping
Number six is to engage in thought stopping, which means to pick up the phone consciously and with purpose. Just say, “Okay, I am consciously going to go in, I’m going to just review, scan a little bit just to see what my friends are up to on social media, or just do it for business for a little bit. I’m going to be really purposeful about what I’m using social media for right now.” Approach it from that aspect because when you, as opposed to just going on and being mindless about it, we want to be more mindful and purposeful and say, “Okay, I’m going to go in and I’m going to comment on a bunch of posts. I’m going to check in with my Facebook group if you have one, or if you are a member of Facebook group, I’m gonna just go in the Facebook group. I’m not gonna go on the news feed, frankly.”
Strategy #7: Slow the Pace of Scrolling
Number seven is to slow the pace of scrolling. So instead of just going blah, blah, blah, looking, looking, looking—no, focus on quality of content. So if you see something that catches your eye, then actually really stop and read it and then sort of take a moment to digest the information and again, think about it a little bit and see, do you really agree with it? Do you not agree with it? Is it worthy of a comment? Or maybe it’s worthy of just saying, “You know what? I don’t like this at all. I’m not going to follow it anymore.” And that’s okay, too.
Strategy #8: Curate Your Feed
Which gets me into number eight, which is about curating your feed, because that’s the thing. You do have control, at least when it comes to Facebook. You can snooze people, you can X out. When you’re going through the newsfeed, if you see a post that you’re like, “I don’t want to follow this person”—and of course, now the lovely algorithm of Facebook is showing you all this stuff, giving you all these different people and pages to follow now and groups to follow. It’s quite annoying. But there’s some different ways around this that you can go.
Number one, there is a friends feed, essentially. Right on your phone, up at the very top, you’ll see like two icons of two people. And so that’s your friends feed. So you can just look at posts from your friends on Facebook as opposed to all of these other people. And I need to remember to do this more often, frankly.
But in the regular newsfeed, if you see something you don’t like, you can click on three little dots and it gives you your choice of “interested,” “not interested,” “more posts like this,” “less posts like this,” “hide posts.” And then you can snooze the person or unfollow them. You have the prerogative, you have control about what you want to be served up. So even though Facebook will figure it out, you still have control. So curate your feed. That’s a really important one.
Quick Recap of First 8 Strategies
Let me recap because we’re like halfway through. So we’ve got:
- Use the 5 second rule – breathe when you notice, breathe, count down for five and then do something else
- Set a timer
- Seek out positive stuff instead – focus on how your body feels
- Question, use your critical thinking skills
- Be mindful about it, be conscious about what you’re using social media for
- Slow the pace of scrolling, really focus on quality
- Curate your feed – unfollow accounts or topics that upset you
And also then seek out positive ones and follow those. That’s one thing I’m going to do more of. I want to go back in and look for uplifting pages and people and things like that that I want to follow if I’m not following them already. I want to do that so that I have more of that to look at. Because as I said at the beginning, and I’ve talked about this in other podcasts before, and I’m sure you’ve heard this: what you focus on grows. So if you’re going to focus on negativity, that’s what’s going to be served up to you, and it’s what you’re going to see and it’s going to lower your vibration and your day is probably going to be blah. So instead, focus on positive stuff.
Strategy #9: Practice Affirmations
Which brings me to number nine, which is to practice affirmations. Put positive messages around you. You could even have a positive message on your phone. Maybe it’s like your wallpaper so that you always see that. Now I have a picture of a hot air balloon. That’s my positive message. Because my son treated me to a trip to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival a few years back and I just loved it. And so that always puts me in a good mood to see that balloon.
But yeah, have those positive messages around you. Put them on your computer screen, put them on your bathroom mirror, put them on your bedroom dresser or wherever you’re going to see them. Put them in the kitchen. We’re always in the kitchen, right? Put them on your refrigerator and surround yourself with positivity.
So I have a vision board up in my office here. And it’s got lovely things like “with God, all things are possible” and “I am open to receive” and “I am worthy.” Those things are great to be able to see, to feed your mind with that stuff as opposed to all the negative stuff.
Strategy #10: Focus on the Present Moment
Number 10—again, some of these are a little similar, but they got slightly different flavor. So number 10 is to focus on the present moment. So again, if you find yourself scrolling and suddenly not feeling great about it, just stop and say, “Okay, what can help me feel better right now?” And then maybe it is just completely turning it off, or maybe it is seeking out positivity, looking for something fun or going for a walk. Maybe it’s like, “I’m gonna get outside for a little bit, give me some fresh air and just get away from the nonsense that’s out there.”
Strategy #11: Be Honest About Your Behavior
Number 11, this one’s really good, is to be honest about your behavior. So again, if you find that this is becoming a habit, which I’m kind of thinking even for me too, is to start asking your higher self. Ask yourself, “What’s going on? Why am I doing this? Am I bored? Am I looking for guidance? Am I looking to confirm my fears?”
But be curious and maybe do some journaling about it. That just came to me, that wasn’t on my list. There’s number 16—journal about it and ask yourself, “Why am I letting myself do this when it doesn’t feel good? What is the payoff for doing this? Is it to confirm a bias?” We’re humans. We do like to do that. We like to confirm our how we see the world and confirmation bias. So are you seeking that? And that’s okay, sort of. But is it really going to serve you in the long run? So yeah, that might be something to do to really be curious and wonder why are you indulging in this habit.
Strategy #12: Use Digital Wellness Apps
Number 12 is you can use some digital wellness apps to ease your mind. So this is where you can do things. There’s lovely apps, and I know there’s one that does a lot of meditation, so you might want to do that again, do some positive readings. And I’m sure there’s apps on the phone that serve up positive content. Like I mentioned, I get the Daily Word. And I think actually Unity does have an app as well.
Another app that I’ve used, I think I’ve talked about it on the podcast before, is something called the Triple Flame app. And this is an app that helps you create pauses during your day where you can just stop and contemplate and just look out the window and just think of things. And it also has some other resources as well. It has some videos about the art of contemplation and how to do that. It has some articles and some other audio journeys. I think it has even meditations as well. So it’s a really cool app. So I highly recommend it. And free. Hey, can’t beat free. I like free stuff. That always makes me happy to have something for free.
Strategy #13: Turn Off Notifications
Another thing you can do is to turn off your notifications. So if you’re one of those people that sees notifications—I have like for messages when I’ve got messages, but I turned off my notifications from Facebook, so I don’t want to be told when to go on there. I want to decide if I want to go on there. I don’t want it yelling at me like, “Oh, you’ve got 15 notifications.” No. So consider doing that. And if you’re also maybe getting news from an app on the phone, you might want to turn those notifications off as well if that’s getting you where you’re going through the news too much. I’ve been picking on social media, but it could also be the same thing as going through news. Then you might want to turn those notifications off as well. And just again, be mindful about when you’re gonna just check in.
Because I do like to at least get the headlines just so I have a sort of an idea about what’s going on in the world. And then if there is something really interesting, then I’ll go in depth and read an article. But I don’t want to be constantly bombarded.
Strategy #14: Screen-Free Self-Care Time
Number 14: Have some screen free self care time. And if you are a regular listener, you know I talk about self care, the importance of self care a lot on this podcast. It’s so important to your physical well being, your mental well being, your spiritual well being. So make sure that self care is a non negotiable for you.
So for me, I always go for a walk in the morning and I meditate. Those are my two non negotiable goals. I also endeavor to journal every day. Sometimes I will skip a day, but I give myself a little latitude with that one. But exercise and meditation, I have to do those first thing in the morning because I’m a morning person and if I don’t do the exercise in the morning, it might not ever get done. So I make sure that I do that first, either exercise or meditate. I sometimes will shake it up and do one first and then the other, but I make sure those are done.
But if you’re a night person, then exercise at night or meditate at night. It has to fit your schedule. You need to decide what you want to do. Also a gratitude journal. I’ve talked about that, the importance of that. Some people like to do their gratitudes in the morning, some people like to do them at night. I like to do it at night before I go to bed. I kind of think about the day and think about specific things that happen that I’m really grateful for. And that way I go to bed with a positive frame of mind.
Strategy #15: Get Support
And number 15 is to get some support. Share your intentions to quit doom scrolling with a loved one or a significant other or a best friend or somebody who will hold you accountable. Because especially if this has become a really tough habit for you to break, letting somebody else know, having someone check in—maybe have them message you maybe at the time of day when you would typically do this and say, “Hey, what you doing? Are you doom scrolling right now? If you are, stop.”
So yeah, because you don’t have to do this stuff alone. You can always get support. And if you’re still doing it, even with support, then you might want to start talking to a professional about it. And that’s okay. Consider talking with a therapist or a mental health professional. You can even just call somebody—they have helplines that you can find online and you can talk to somebody anonymously if you want rather than making an appointment to speak with someone in person.
Actually they even have—what is it? BetterHelp. I see a lot of podcasts I follow have BetterHelp as a sponsor. And they are an online app that helps you to connect with a licensed professional. So you definitely want to do that, or even talk to a coach. I mean, even somebody like me, I could help you. There’s nothing wrong with that.
If you did ever want to talk with me, maybe you have questions about some of this stuff, if you want to schedule just a conversation, go to engagewithgloria.com and you can schedule a call with me. It takes you right to my calendar and you can book a time to chat with me.
Recap of Strategies 9-15
So let me go back and recap now. The second batch:
- Practice affirmations
- Focus on the present moment
- Be honest about your behavior – ask what’s going on, why am I doing this, be curious
- Use digital wellness apps – there are a ton of them out there to help you ease your mind a bit
- Turn off the push notifications
- Have self care time where you’re not on the phone or the computer
- Share your intentions with someone to quit doom scrolling and get support and accountability
Light Language Healing
And I’m going to share one other thing with you that I believe can help you certainly right now and to be able to maybe release some sort of block that is getting you to want to do this. So I’m going to set the intention today that I’m going to share what I call light language with you. And this is a type of speech and a type of song that I channel—it comes through me that comes from higher dimensions and it is something that your logical brain won’t necessarily be able to translate because it’ll sound like a foreign language. And I can’t actually translate it word for word. I will have impressions of themes about what is coming through, but it’s not word for word. But it’s something that is intended to speak to your heart and your soul and to help clear up energy blocks and to really be a way to frankly just to relax, to have a little stress relief in your day.
So I’m going to invite you to, if you’re listening to this podcast while you’re driving a car, to come back, pause it and come back to this later when you can be somewhere where you can have your feet on the ground or feet on the floor and you can be in a comfy chair and just see about closing your eyes and set an intention that the message that you’re going to receive will be for your soul’s highest good and the highest good of all concerned. And that is the intention that I am setting right now as well.
So close your eyes, take a deep breath, let it out, relax and let’s see what comes through today.
[Light Language segment]
Closing
I would love to know if you find one of these ways helpful today. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn @Gloria Grace Rand and you can also go to my website, you can send a message. I’ve got a little contact box down at the lower right hand corner where you could send a message to me and I’d love to hear your progress.
I know I am going to be trying a few of these things and I know today one of the things I did was I realized that I was scrolling and I was like “stop, no, stop. You got other things to do, stop.” And that’s what I did. So I didn’t do the five second rule exactly, but I stopped. That’s the important thing. So I encourage you to do that as well.
Next Episode Preview
Now next week I encourage you to join us because I’ve got an interesting conversation with a gentleman. His name is Gerard Wouters I believe is how you pronounce it. He’s a Taoist therapist from Holland and he is going to be sharing with us how you can explore this 2600-year-old Taoist philosophy and use it to transform your hectic life into one of peace and abundance. And I think we all could use more peace certainly in the world and a little more abundance. And it doesn’t have to be just money—there could be abundance of love and of friends and of joy and of happiness. That’s a wonderful thing too.
So make sure that you are subscribed on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube if you’re watching us there and that way you’ll get notified when the next episode comes out.
So until then, as always I’d like to encourage you to go out and live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.
Connect with Gloria Grace
- Website: engagewithgloria.com
- LinkedIn: @GloriaGraceRand
- Contact: Message box available on website
Resources Mentioned
- Daily Word from Unity
- Triple Flame App – Free contemplation and meditation app
- BetterHelp – Online therapy platform
- Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
This episode provides practical strategies for breaking free from doom scrolling habits that can harm mental health. Gloria Grace’s honest sharing about her own struggles with social media creates a relatable foundation for the 15 actionable strategies she provides. The episode emphasizes personal empowerment, mindful technology use, and the importance of focusing on positivity to raise your vibration and contribute to positive change in the world.
