Disappointing Affirmations is a popular instagram handle that pairs the comedy of sarcastic affirmations, a parody of the current trend in wellness content, against the beauty of nature and landscape photos.
There is an overwhelming amount of wellness content out there. Assuredly, people are becoming fatigued by it.
The verdict is out on whether practicing too much self reflection is a bad thing, but what we do know is this:
Social media is addicting. We’re using these attention absorbing platforms in such a way that has exceeded the capacity of our human minds and bodies. We did not evolve to stare into screens for several hours a day.
While perpetual and never ending exposure to wellness content can remind us of the progress we’ve made, it also does what social media does best — signals to us the shortcomings that we need to correct for.
There is a distinction to be made between healthy self-awareness and never sad. But due to the race for our attention—and revenue—there’s a natural push to publish more compelling and engaging wellness content, leading to a minute by minute barrage of content informing us of ideas, tools, and methods to make ourselves better. Much of which implies that if only we tried harder, we could find “real” lifelong happiness.
This mindset has a shelf life.
Pain is inevitable. Happiness does not happen without some sadness.
The worst thing we can do is ignore the pain. Maybe it’s okay to sit in it for a while. Feel what we feel. Learn from our experiences.
If the pain is self-inflicted, we can learn what we can do to prevent the same action from occurring in the future. We can learn how to let go. We can learn that pain is temporary.
If the pain is out of our control, we can also learn from it. We can process to the best of our ability, and be grateful for the things we do have.
But to ignore pain is a joke. And in my opinion, that’s why disappointing affirmations has become so popular.
View Disappointing Affirmations from writer Dave Tarnowski on instagram at @disappointingaffirmations