☀️ The Nicole Magnusson Newsletter

A fresh hot cup of truth and inspiration delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Thursday morning.

📆 Daily Issue 90 | ⏱️ Read time: 3 min

Breaking Free: Embracing Your Authentic Self Beyond Social Media

I have just faced my biggest addiction: SOCIAL MEDIA.

I stopped spending hours of my day (yes, HOURS) watching glamorized and fabricated lives of people I don’t know. I’ve known this was a huge addiction for some time, but I wasn’t ready to face my reality yet. I wasn’t ready to face myself and truly look at the woman in the mirror.

But recently, through some newfound courage, I was ready to face my own reality… and I came to a shocking realization: IT WASN’T THAT BAD.

I’d been hiding from my life, from the shadows and demons and failures. I’d been covering up the rubble of my life with the sparkly lives of others. And when I finally peered underneath the hood, I found that the monster I’d been hiding from was only a little mouse.

But now I’m faced with a new monster: how do I spend my time?

How do I fill the hours a day I spent lost in the lives of others?

How do I fill the mental real estate that was once the rumble of negative and catastrophizing thoughts?

How do I interact with the world I spent so long retreating from?

I feel like a newborn chick. I don’t need to be incubating in the egg anymore… but I feel too fragile for this world.

What if I put myself out there, but I have nothing interesting to say?

What if I put myself out there, but I’m still invisible?

What if I put myself out there, and I find I’ll never be able to live a life like the ones I romanticized?

I feel defeated before I even begin. And I’m finding this void of empty space to be so much more intimidating than I could have ever imagined.

How do we face the reality that our unlived dreams are not a result of some external force, but rather our own inadequacy?

A clear schedule is a lot like a clear mind. It leaves space for the truth to emerge. And far more terrifying than our true selves being hostile and disgusting… is that we are boring, uninteresting, and lifeless.

I guess the only thing to do is to create an accepting environment for this boring version of myself to feel safe. I need to allow myself to be underwhelming. I need to allow myself to not be as epic as I thought I would be.

We have to give up on the fantasy of who we thought we would be under all the disfunction, to uncover the true potential of our authentic light… the true potential of our authentic purpose… the true potential of our authentic selves.

Keep inspiring,

Nicole