WHY I’M TAKING A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

If you follow me over on the ‘gram, you may have noticed that things have been a little quiet lately. Over the past few weeks, I have only posted a handful of photos and the occasional story. 

This wasn’t something that I planned. After all, my word of the year is consistency. And for first 1/2 of the the year I have stayed pretty consistent – posting daily, publishing weekly blog posts, promoting those posts across all social platforms, engaging with my audience, churning out a weekly newsletter, taking on various projects with brands and continuing to grow by attending conferences and online workshops.

Then about a month ago, I hit a creative wall. I was on my way to the lake for a weekend away with friends, scrambling to upload a post promo to Instagram before I lost cell service and feeling way too much anxiety about it. 

That weekend, I wasn’t able to post at all due to the lack of cell service and I had an absolute blast with my friends, my dog and my Russian. But I also felt waves of pressure, guilt and anxiety that I wasn’t sticking to my posting schedule. I knew that if I didn’t show up on the platform, I would be “punished” by the Instagram algorithm. 

On my way home at the end of that weekend, I realized I hadn’t planned out my posts for the upcoming week and my heart started to race at the idea of not having Insta-worthy content ready to go. 

And so, I didn’t post anything. I told myself I would wait until Tuesday and take a day to edit photos and plan out my feed. Then Tuesday came and went and I still didn’t post. Then several weeks came and went and I STILL didn’t post. I showed up on stories here and there to recap my weekends or share highlights from my day and I continued to write and publish articles on my blog, but I didn’t post. And you know what happened?! Absolutely nothing…the world kept right on spinning and my follower count stayed the same. 

But what I didn’t expect was how relieved I felt. I gave myself permission to step away from the platform and it felt great! I realized that being constantly inundated with other people’s content wasn’t inspiring me, it was making me feel less than. I was forcing myself to show up even though my heart wasn’t in it and what’s the point of that?!

So, I’ve decided to take a break from social media until I feel ready to create content that excites me and that I want to share. I have a trip to Morocco planned for September that I’m really looking forward to. 

I’m hoping to re-connect with what initially made me fall in love with travel. It wasn’t waking up before sunrise to put on Foley dresses and makeup and pose for photos. It was the people, the culture, the food, the history and finding connections with others. Don’t get me wrong, I love planning and shooting content, I just know I need to find more of a balance.   

Until then, I’m taking some time to just enjoy life away from social media! I want to focus on being present and spending quality time with family and friends. It’s not always easy. My brain is now trained to think in terms of creating and capturing moments, but I’m working on it! 

Have you ever taken a social media detox? What made you decide to take a break and what inspired you to start creating again? Share your comments below!