A BIT MORE POSITIVITY - Issue #13
Because, there can never be too much positivity
Hi There!
Welcome to issue #13 :) It’s great to have you here! And if this is your first time here as a new subscriber, then doubly welcome. I hope you find something of relevance here for you.
In this issue - issue #13 - I look at how social media affects us women in mid-life, and how important it is that we’ve known life pre social media. I’ve also included a couple of positives features in this issue - we always need a waft of positive don’t we?
The first waft of positivity is something I’ve seen online - be that a tip, and inspirational message or even just a graphic - that resonates with me. And I’ll endeavour to pass these on to you each issue, my lovely readers :)
The second waft is the latest episode of my podcast, which, quite unintentionally turned out to be a wholly positive interview. When, given the subject matter, it could have got quite dark. But thanks to my lovely guest on the episode, it didn’t.
The whole newsletter is around a 7 minute read. Enjoy x
SOCIAL MEDIA & THE MID LIFE WOMAN - Part One
As a mid life woman, how do you get on with social media?
leave it to the youngsters
love it - I’m in - no holds barred
I’m too old to care
What’s social media ?
I have to admit, there are times when I absolutely hate social media and the working world’s dependence on it. Whether you have your own business or part of your job involves helping to market the company you work for, there’s no way you can avoid it. And then, there’s the personal aspect. You are expected to have a presence on at least one platform.
It’s been well documented about the negative effect social media can have on mental health - we’ve all heard the stories of online bullying and trolling severely affecting the mental health of users.
But, given that we’re that little bit older than most users, and can certainly remember a time before social media that was far more carefree, does it affect you as much as it does the younger generation?
I’d like to think that given our age and experience, coupled with the fact that we spent our most formative years in a society that was free from online bullying and didn’t have “perfection” constantly pushed into our consciousness, we possibly have more resilience to deal with these online negative experiences.
But that doesn’t mean we are immune to negative feelings following a trawl through our social media platforms. We can feel just as inferior as the next Millennial who has severe FOMO after looking through their feeds.
And it’s this very issue that the owners of the platforms are choosing to ignore. There are frequent stories in the media about social media’s affect on mental health and, in some tragic cases, how it has been a trigger for suicidal tendencies etc.
Because this is such a major topic, and there are various strands I want to bring in concerning women of our age, I’m splitting this feature into two parts as it could fill the whole newsletter with just this subject.
So, in the next section which I’ll cover in the next newsletter, I’ll be giving tips on how to still use your favourite social media platforms and stay relatively sane and happy.
A POSITIVE UPLIFT
Fulfilling my promise to include something that’ll lift your day. Hopefully :)
When it comes anything positive online, I’m a bit of a squirrel. Anything I see that provokes a positive reaction from me, I copy and file away. So, on re-visiting my “library of positivity”, I’ve decided to include the best of them in the newsletter and I’ll endeavour to include one per issue. We all need that during the working week, don’t we? And especially so at our age. So here’s the first one:
“When things go wrong, we tend to be overly critical of ourselves. When this happens, make a list of the negative messages you are telling yourself. Don’t judge them, just write them down. Next, make a list of 10 positive messages to yourself. Imagine you’re speaking to one of your closest friends and consider the positive support you would offer without hesitation.
Read them aloud and become your own reassuring best friend”
CHARLOTTE FOX WEBBER - PSYCHOTHERAPIST
FROM MANCHESTER ARENA BOMBING SURVIVOR TO DRAMA STUDENT - Episode 20 of the 45 Not Out Podcast
And for the final bit of positivity:
It was my total pleasure recently to interview a young lady who I’ve watched grow up, as she lives in the same village as me. Freya Lewis found herself catapulted into the nation’s conciousness after suffering horrendous injuries in the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017 after an Ariana Grande concert. Salman Abedi was suicide bomber who targeted the mainly young concert-goers and unfortunately Freya and her best friend, Nell Jones, were caught up in the blast. Nell, also from the same village as Freya, sadly lost her life that night, at age 14, and Freya herself suffered horrendous, life-threatening injuries.
However, a battling Freya endured an immensely tough journey back to health, and now, at age 18, she is ready to leap into the next chapter in her life. She will be setting off later this month to take up a place on a performing arts degree at LMA in London, with her long cherished dream of becoming an actress.
However, before she left, Freya agreed to speak to me about her life now - the experience of doing her A-Levels in lockdown conditions and the resulting joy of achieving the results that allow her to follow her dream of attending drama school and hopefully a successful career as an actress.
The resulting interview is ultimately uplifting and inspirational. If you need a bit of an uplift, it’s worth giving it a listen for the 50-odd minutes length of the podcast. You can do that here
So, that’s a wrap for issue 13. Thank you for staying with me and for continuing to subscribe. It means a lot.
All that’s left to say, is to wish you a safe & happy couple of weeks and I’ll see you in a fortnight’s time.
Till then, take care,
Una x