The Most Mindful Thing You Can Do? Log Off

(cursor clicks) (bright music) Headspace Studios. (light music) Hey, friends. It's Rosie. Welcome to "Radio Headspace." It's Sunday morning. I've got my tea, a cozy blanket, the windows open just enough to hear the birds doing their thing. I'm curled up with good intentions. Maybe I'll meditate. Maybe I'll just be still for a minute. But first, I'll check Instagram. Cue ominous music. I tell myself, "It'll just be five minutes. I'm just catching up." 42 minutes later, I've somehow cycled through 10 reels of morning routines I'll never replicate, three couples who just got engaged in Bali, a friend's subtle flex about her latest brand partnership, and an account that exists solely to make fun of other people's outfits. And what I'm feeling: not inspired, not connected, just emotionally tight, a tad overstimulated, a little judgy, and also weirdly ashamed of being judgy. And that's when I asked myself, "Where is my compassion? Not just for others, but for me?" Because social media can be beautiful. It can be full of connection, creativity, and education. But if we're not paying attention, it can quickly become a portal to comparison, outrage, and emotional exhaustion. So let's talk about it. From a psychological perspective, there's something called social comparison theory. It was coined by psychologist Leon Festinger in the 1950s. It's the idea that we determine our own worth based on how we stack up to others. And social media is a comparison machine. It's all highlights, curated, filtered, timed for max engagement. But our nervous system, it doesn't know that. It just sees someone else's after and compares it to our in progress; someone else's filtered joy next to our unfiltered moment of self-doubt. Research from the University of Pennsylvania found that limiting social media to just 30 minutes a day can significantly reduce levels of anxiety, depression, and FOMO. That's how potent this stuff is. And we're not just comparing. We're reacting to comments, to strangers, to information that's often incomplete or emotionally charged. We're being flooded with inputs and expected to form instant opinions. But compassion doesn't work like that. Compassion takes time. It takes pause. It asks, "What's the most generous assumption I can make right now?" And let's be honest. When's the last time you paused in the middle of a scroll to make a generous assumption? Same. (gentle music) (birds chirping) That's why I've started treating my social media use like I treat caffeine. There are times it fuels me, and there are times it makes me jittery, anxious, and unable to sleep at night. So here's what I try to practice. Key word is try. When I log on, before I scroll, I pause and I ask, "What's my intention right now? Am I here to connect, to learn, or to zone out?" If I feel judgment bubbling up, I gently say to myself, "This person is doing their best just like me." And when I catch myself spiraling into comparison, I close the app,...