The Trap: How Social Media Hijacks Your Energy
It’s 7 AM. You get an email notification and there it is: LAST CHANCE!Your heart skips a beat as you race to check your other notifications, more urgent messages, posts, and promises. The fake emergencies: last chance, final hours, only a few spots left. The language is everywhere, pushing you into a state of constant urgency. You’re always behind, never quite doing enough, and somehow, you’re always supposed to be running.
This feeling isn’t accidental. Social media thrives on urgency and manufactured scarcity. Every email, every post, every headline is crafted to make you feel like you’re missing out. But why? Because urgency breeds action, and action fuels profits. The pressure to act quickly and aggressively is a tactic, one that makes you feel like you’re failing if you aren’t in constant motion. And when you aren’t moving fast enough? The guilt sets in.
The Language of Hustle: A Patriarchal Playbook
Take a moment and look at the words being used in social media and business culture: bootcamp, hustle, slay, crush, challenge, grind, fight. Everything is a battle, a race, a war. Hustle harder. Fight for what you want. Dominate your day. These words are military, competitive, and combative. These words are designed to evoke images of war and conquest, the very ideals that have been dominant in patriarchal systems for centuries. Dominate your niche. Crush your goals. Slay your to-do list.
The hustle culture taps into an old, masculine code that says success is a battle. To win, you must fight your way through, step on others if necessary, and prove your worth constantly. For women especially, this language not only mirrors oppressive systems but reinforces them. We’re told that to be successful, we need to compete and push ourselves into exhaustion: there’s no room for rest, creativity, or balance. It's all about proving ourselves through achievement and external validation. The language doesn’t leave space for nurturing or embodying a holistic version of success. It’s relentless. This whole aggressive urgency thing has infested social media and business culture is exhausting, and so patriarchal.
And the way it seeps into marketing? It’s like every email is screaming at us, demanding we drop everything and engage in some capitalist gladiator match. (And if we don’t? Well, then clearly we didn’t want it badly enough.)
Through a feminist lens, the language of hustle culture is a reflection of the patriarchal obsession with control and competition. Historically, patriarchal systems have placed value on domination, efficiency, and constant production, often at the expense of emotional well-being or sustainable growth. This competitive language (slay, crush, dominate)perpetuates the idea that success is only achieved by outworking and outperforming others, ignoring the importance of rest, collaboration, and balance. Women, in particular, are often pushed to adopt this aggressive mindset, even though it goes against natural rhythms of creativity, intuition, and care. By framing success as a battlefield, this rhetoric sidelines feminine values of nurturing and growth, reinforcing the notion that doing more is the only way to be worthy. Why is simply existing never enough? Why does everything have to be conquered?
Opting Out: A New Vocabulary for Success
What if we didn’t have to subscribe to this high-stakes, stressful language? What if we chose different words to define our success and happiness? Words like flow, alignment, growth, ease, nurture, expansion, embodiment, gentle, sustainable progress, words that honor intuition, and deep, slow, meaningful work?
These words suggest something much different: a pace that celebrate your energy, a rhythm that is less about constant competition and more about self-awareness and personal growth.
Imagine if instead of crushing your goals, you were simply moving with intention. Instead of a bootcamp, you embarked on a journey of discovery. Instead of fighting for your spot, you were aligning with what feels true for you. Instead of a challenge, you embraced an invitation, one that honors your rhythm, your energy, and your own definition of success. What would your life feel like if you didn’t have to hustle at all?
The best part? You actually don’t need to fight for your worth. You’re already worthy. Success doesn’t require exhaustion; it requires clarity, creativity, and listening to your intuition. Opting out doesn’t mean opting out of success; it means opting out of the hustle narrative that doesn’t serve you.
Here’s how you can start opting out:
- Mute (toxic) accounts that constantly push you into a state of urgency.
- Unsubscribe from FOMO-heavy emails that rely on scare tactics to make you act.
- Set boundaries with social media. Take control over how much information and pressure you let in.
- Shift your language: Replace the fight with flow, the grind with grace.
- Celebrate the small victories, not just the big ones.
A Call to Slow Down (and Still Win)
Success is not about how fast you can move or how many battles you can win. It’s about finding what aligns with you and moving forward in a way that honors your well-being. So, the next time you see LAST CHANCE flashing across your screen, take a breath. You don’t have to act in a panic. You don’t need to hustle to be successful.
You already have everything you need. Rest, relax, and let your own rhythm lead the way.
I’ve been working on that for years, both as a "client" and as a business owner. Trust me when I tell you, my nervous system and my peace of mind are paramount t me… and they have benefited these strategies sooo much!
It’s time to step away from the pressure and reclaim a way of being that honors your energy, intuition, and well-being. If you’re ready to set boundaries with the hustle, join me for Sacred Boundaries: Social Self-Care with Persephone, a masterclass on navigating social spaces with intention, protecting your energy, and choosing alignment over exhaustion. Because true power isn’t in the fight, it’s in knowing when to say no and when to walk your own path.
Reserve your spot now:https://isayabelle.thrivecart.com/self-care-with-persephone/
Voilà.
I believe that is all for today.
I would be so happy to hear from you.
Please like, comment, share and subscribe to my content if you find it inspiring.
I send, as always, love, light and gratitude.
Isaya
PS: I am now on Substack, sharing my writing adventures over there too… If you’re interested, you subscribe for free here:https://substack.com/@isayabelle