Taking a month off from Instagram/social media has been one of the most eye-opening things I have done in a while. First off, I don’t think I have ever spent this much time OFF of social media since it became a thing. Maybe a week here and there, but never a full month. I highly recommend you try it.
I got time back. I didn’t realize how truly dependent I was on doom-scrolling when I was bored or just because it was a habit. I will say, it took about 4 days to not look at my phone every chance I sat down to take a break, or when I felt bored. It was a habit to just open my phone and immediately go to my instagram, email, facebook, whatever may have had something to grab my attention. I eventually got to a point over the last month where I would leave my phone somewhere for HOURS and forget where I put it. This neverrrrr would have happened before. (Before, this would give me anxiety, but it became very freeing) With the time I got back I was able to:
Make more home cooked meals and meal prep, I even started baking more
Appreciate my time with my son more, mostly because he was my only focus, I didn’t have anything lingering in the back of my head “I need to post this, I need to look up this, I need to do xyz”. Fully present with him. The best thing in the world.
Enjoy walks more. Listen to the birds, notice things outside in my community I’ve never noticed before, like different houses, different tress, flowers blooming, etc. I felt more calm, more open, had time to explore my environment which helped my stress levels tremendously.
Spend more time journaling & reading gratitude mantras to help me focus in on what I actually care about. It’s so easy to get lost in the sea of everyone else’s thoughts & your IG feed
Spend less time reading the news. I literally disconnected and became unaware of what was going on in the world. Ignorance is BLISS. I owed it to myself to truly disconnect, and it feels amazing. I got some news here and there from my husband, but not being glued to things has lifted many of my anxieties, some of which I didn’t know I had. Realizing, I don’t need to know everything that’s going on, it’s okay to live in your own world sometimes, and worry less.
Learned a few cords on a ukulele & got much better at playing said chords
Started drawing again
Read 2 books on my kindle
Started writing more emails to my Wholeistic PT Clients & writing blogs, getting ideas together for future projects
Implemented a daily pilates routine and started focusing on my pelvic floor after months of ignoring it
Analyzed my time management. Began asking myself these questions: What do I truly wish to do. With my business, with my personal goals, with my son & my family.
A realization: I didn’t truly understand how many of my thoughts were heavily influenced by others. Like most of them. When you disconnect, and allow yourself to quiet the noise and allow yourself to do your own thinking, you can learn so much, feel really empowered, and feel free. I was getting so easily triggered by random topics. I would forget that everyone has an opinion and that’s OK, and we can disagree on things, but I also realized I don’t always have to proclaim my opinions to the world. I can sit with them on my own. I didn’t have to believe what other people thought or posted about, but simply acknowledge them and then move on. It’s really easy to get caught up in the “sides “of everything. And on Instagram, it seems all of these opposing sides are to both extremes. Too many carbs, not enough carbs. Too much positivity, not enough positivity. Sleep training, no sleep training. All the Toxins, everything Non-toxic. Vaxs, No Vaxs. Clean eating, processed food. Medications, no medications. The list goes on.
Taking a step back, and disconnecting from the noise has reminded me to look at the balance in my life and really strive for that. We don't have to live so extreme, and in an all or nothing kind of way. Leaving the perfectionism mindset at the door and truly being okay with disagreeing with others. We really aren’t all meant to think the same, and that’s the beauty of our world. I just wish there wasn’t so much hate around it all.
I have been “on” for years, and I am leaning into the fact that I don’t have to be “on” all the time. I don’t have to be caught up on the latest whatever, because it may not impact my life directly, so why put time and energy into certain things that can cause me stress when I can put my time and energy into so many other things. I need to put time and energy into me, my family, my health & the present moment.
The comparisons are real. Throughout my social media life, I would always compare, even when I didn’t want to. I do believe some comparisons are good, but not constant.
Comparing myself to others
Women
Athletes
PTs/Practitioners
Mothers
Take-aways:
Happier
Less anxiety
Less stress
My cycle improved (Longer luteal phase by DAYS) - you can read my last post to understand this more and why it's so important
More time to achieve my actual goals
Better sleep
Moving forward, I will be implementing some new things
Strategies:
Limit my time on social media daily (goal 30 min - <1 hour)
Delete people who trigger me, all of them
Spend the majority of my time doing what I sought out to do in the first place: educate, motivate & empower people
Become aware of when I am getting triggered and step away. Be okay with taking a few days away if needed, especially if there’s something going on in the world that hypes everyone up, because that energy gives me anxiety and stress.
Since technology and social media are so heavily embedded into our daily lives, it may be interesting for you to also take a little bit of a digital detox and see what you notice. For many individuals, chronic disease is driven by stress. An overlooked stressor for some people may be social media. This is not to say we can’t enjoy and utilize social media, but there’s a time and place for it, and I think it’s important to bring awareness to what it’s doing to our mental health. Digital detoxes can help ground us, disconnect us to reconnect back to ourselves, and help us improve our lives. Social media can be an addiction without us even realizing it, and taking time away from it can get us to understand that.
Let me know if you try it!
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