What is FOMO and How to deal with it

 

Do you find yourself checking your phone every 5 minutes or more? Do people complain about you being not paying attention to them because you are looking at your phone? or do you feel that while you are left at home, all your siblings and adults are having the best of their time and enjoying and you are missing out on all that? Then you might be having FOMO or Fear Of Missing Out.

What Is FOMO?

Fear of missing out is not a disease or anything its just another trickery of our brains. It is a social anxiety that makes us feel like we are missing out on something because we aren't there and meanwhile others are having fun. With the rise in people being home and easy access to internet its getting more common recently. Most of the students get FOMO at least at one point in their academic life. We humans are social creature, we seek acceptance and relations. but when we are presented with loneliness and when we get alone, our natural instinct to get together activates and makes us look for a group, a gathering where we can belong. and this originates FOMO. We start to feel the need for always being connected, and with the rise in social media this urge is getting more and more common.

Who are most vulnerable

There is a specific group of people who are more vulnerable to FOMO than others, which mainly includes youngsters, teenagers and young adults. Because it is these three stages where we start to feel all sort of relations and emotions, we start making really important connection and start to get the hang of life. But some of us get too involved and feel like it is always necessary to be connected and when they aren't they start to get anxious and when that happens FOMO gets triggered and sucks us into its voids.

How to deal with it 

There are many guides and tutorials on how to deal with FOMO or anxiety in general but the rule of thumb is: If its getting noticed by many people then you need to see a psychiatrist/psychologist. If not and its just you who thinks like you are having anxiety then these steps will help you:

• Practice Mindfulness: Be present where ever you are live the moment feel every inch/ every second of it, and remember that you can enjoy only one moment at a time. You can be at one place only at a moment.
• Be grateful: Practice gratitude, feel grateful for being alive, being healthy, having good food, feel good with whatever you have because many people out there don't even have their basic necessities fulfilled
• Accept yourself: You don't need to prove to someone, accept that you are enough, but don't be rude. Be humble while being content in yourself.
• Meditate: Be it praying or the general meditation whatever feels best, just do it.
• Learn that nothing is permanent: Everything you know will be gone at one point in time, your family, friends,YOU!, but enjoy and live till they are still present.

 

"The Best moment of life is now that's why its called present"