Waves of relief washing over me- I’ve quit social media

When we step back from our current mental entanglements and breathe life back into our bodies we can see that things aren’t as they appear.

I had known for a while that I did not want to be on social media anymore in any capacity and yet I maintained that it was necessary for my art career. I truly believed that I had to persevere for a chance at being ‘successful’. The longer I stayed on those platforms the more energy leaked. I took an 2 week hiatus a month ago but during that time I observed tendrils of impact upon my psyche and wellbeing of engaging with those realms. It hurt to see that I’d let it go on for so long.

After reaching six months postpartum with my sweet little babe I realised that something was very wrong with my energy. I always felt so heavy- despite being extremely well rested (my little one and I co-sleep and she is an amazing little sleeper at night and always has been), well nourished (always eating incredible organic produce and toward the end of my pregnancy started eating sustainable game meats for my iron deficiency), exercised (frequent walks and yoga) and had healthily bonded to my daughter after such an amazing freebirth. I realised I had mostly outsourced my social life to social media which had become extremely isolating because I no longer really yearned for real life human contact, and spent so much of bubba’s nap time scrolling!!

I made a sharp decision to end my presence on these platforms and commit to finding loopholes that worked to nourish my energy and felt more aligned. I realised that I could funnel everything into my website and so I rebranded and revamped the site- and put money into creating physical promotional material (stickers, cards) with my art on them, inviting viewers to the site. The ease felt in making all of these decisions, even creating the rebrand has been astonishing and flowed effortlessly. I don’t feel oriented around the model that sales=success because that’s never been why I do what I do and forcing that only creates frustration. I share my art because I love to create and it is part of my humanity. It will always end up where it needs to be.

And now I get to do it all on my own terms.

Just before I deleted everything from instagram and Facebook I shaved my hair. In doing this, I became extremely sensitive and could more intensely feel the blockages in my throat, third eye and crown chakras from scrolling on social media! I don’t need to be a voyeur of people’s lives. It will be magical to have things to talk about when I actually catch up with friends. I’m excited about the lightness and clarity that I’m feeling being rid of it all. I truly feel that it was blocking my access to my higher potential.

I also am excited to embody my own values for my daughter. I didn’t want her to grow up seeing me scrolling and thinking it’s normal. I want her to be able to enjoy much of the outdoors as possible and I want to be right there with her.

Funnelling everything through my website also allows minimal phone/laptop interaction so I can have stronger boundaries with ‘online work hours’ and can keep them to an absolute minimum.

Never forget that you always have a choice and you are not a slave to social media. Your attention is precious.