I Did a Social Media Detox and Survived

---

In June of this year I hit reset on my biz.  

I will be unpacking the learnings from that in a later post - because: oh my word 2018, you have been a CORKER! - but one thing I needed to do (and I mean NEEDED, for my sanity) was to step away from social media for a while. 

Now, this is a really interesting exercise for so many reasons:

For one, I have been blogging since 2006 and the overshare gene is strong in this one. 

For another, as someone who works alone (albeit on remote teams), my friends on social are a lifeline. 

But sometimes social media hurts us; sometimes being hyper-connected is more damaging than good, and this was certainly the case with me at this time. 

You see, I am a big believer in sharing what we learn, but while we are in the mess?  

Not so much. It is, by definition, a mess. 

I wanted to retreat, to get back into my flow, and to quitet literally step away from the noise. 

After just a few days my mind was quieter; I didn't feel the need to share every living moment online, and realised how much TIME we spend documenting our food, coffees, musical interludes, outfits, thoughts and so on. 

It was also refreshing to be away from the constant barrage of business online, where the conversations often feel so contrived and salesy that even a normal interaction becomes a funnel and well scripted sale.

I turned, instead, to real life conversations, messages, emails and calls.

I had more time to do this as I wasn't documenting minutiae, and the few daily connections felt deeper.  

In the 3 or 4 weeks away from mainstream social (I was still using Whatsapp and Messenger, so technically "dark social" ) I felt my habits reset.

In fact, when I popped back onto Facebook it felt like a wall of narcissist noise, and really felt odd. 

You certainly discover, too, who your friends are- people find a way to contact you if they want to, and the cool kids quickly move on if you aren’t out to play online. And that's ok. 

Now, social media is a huge part of life and biz, and I have come back online- just in a much more mindful way. 

I avoid the cliques, and I notice if the FOMO starts to creep up on me.

As soon as the noise feels too much, I dial back my time, knowing that the world won't stop spinning on it's axis if I don't post my breakfast on Insta for a day or two. 

For me, flow is CRUCIAL for my brilliance, and to be able to function in a healthy mindful way.  When I notice my flow is suffering, I look at energy leaks and the time spent on cat memes versus productivity or creativity ratio, and make adjustments.

Have you ever stepped away from the social machine? If so, how did you feel, and did it reset your habits? 

I would love to hear in the comments. 

Giff xox  

P.S: For freebies on taking your time back and all sorts of other goodies, head over here.