Living your best life…

…and how much pressure that puts on ourselves

Nothing matters and what if it did

John Cougar

As a young girl growing up I was very aware of what everyone else had and did. Now don’t get me wrong, my life wasn’t bad. However, in a child’s mindset, it was more apparent to me what I didn’t have than what I did. I distinctly remember there was a designer bag made by “HEAD”, which everyone had for their school bag, but I had a brand called “Dunlop”. I never felt like I was quite cool enough for the popular group of girls because of this material difference. This feeling then transitioned with me into my early adult life. I called it “keeping up with the Joneses”. Living in London there was a certain lifestyle concept attached to everything. I was hyper aware of everything that my friends and family or celebrities in magazines had or did. I felt a sense of needing to be like everyone else. The one thing that I will be forever grateful for during this time in my life was the lack of technology present, because even if I didn’t feel like my lifestyle was perfect, I never had the rest of the world to instantly compare it to at every second of every day. I just lived within my own walls of criticism and self-deprecation. Nowadays it is all too easy to compare at the blink of an eye and see what everyone else looks like or owns or is doing. The constant pressure of the media through social platforms now makes it very apparent if we don’t have the “living my best life” routine.  

Since I had time to grow out of my insecure need to fit in before social media became the world’s obsession, today I don’t feel the need to cater to others with my posts. I do it all for myself.

Who do you post for? Be honest. Is it to make a boyfriend jealous? To show your friends you are having a great life? To prove your life is good, perfect even? Or is it actually for you?

Now time for more honesty. Regarding social pressures, how much did we all enjoy hibernating and hiding away from the real world over the last 16 months? 

Not wash our hair for a week, no problem! Leave our legs unshaven, who cares! No need for us to attend every event on offer just to be seen. I personally felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. The social pressure to act and look a certain way for only the benefit of others was lifted. The need to be “perfect” was put on pause.

But what is perfection? What is living your best life? Is it materialism or looks? Is it mindfulness? These phrases and words are thrown around quite a lot. Do we even know what they mean to us?