After her husband took a pay cut, Taryn Garner, a teacher and mother of two, began searching social media sites like Pinterest and blogs to find ways to save money. She soon became overwhelmed feeling that she could never pinch her pennies enough when compared to the women she found online.

“I don’t grow our food in the backyard, sew my kids clothes or get $300 worth of groceries for only pennies,” Garner said. “I only get overwhelmed when I look online and feel even worse.”

While a recent survey from Today.com revealed that 42 percent of women feel stressed from the site Pinterest, the stress doesn’t necessarily stop there. Stacy Kim, life coach and founder of Life Junctions, believes women become stressed from blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites as well. 

“There are all these message promoting perfection that women get from everywhere,” she says.

Kim shares these five tips for battling social media stress—without banning Blogger, Twitter feeds or your favorite Pinterest boards.  

Stay focused on your own personal growth.  Seeing endless pictures of friends who make their children’s clothes or bake over-the-top desserts can feel discouraging. Try focusing on where you are personally and take small steps from there. “Rather than saying, ‘I have to be like Martha Stewart,’ say, ‘I want to learn how to make soups or desserts or dinner, so I’m going to focus on that,” suggests Kim. 

Have an objective. Without a reason as to why you’re looking at social media, it’s easy to get wrapped up in what others are posting and compare yourself to them, so go in with a purpose. “Maybe it’s connecting with friends or getting some ideas,” Kim says, “but be intentional about what you’re looking at.”

Set a timer. Before typing in a favorite blog address into the web browser, set a timer on your phone for 10 minutes. “Women don’t realize time is going by and get carried away,” Kim notes. “Then they feel really horrible because suddenly three hours have passed and they haven’t done anything instead of look at what everyone else is doing online.” 

Put a sticky note in the middle of your screen. Having to take something off of your screen before being able to use it helps you pause and consider if you really need to browse blogs or Facebook. “It’s a way to stop yourself and be more intentional," Kim says.

Write things down. When you come across something on Pinterest, or other sites that you want to master, write whatever it is down. She mentions, "This practice allows you to take it out of your mind and park it somewhere to come back to later."