Social Media Detox

Are you considering doing a social media detox?

Do you find yourself constantly on your phone and comparing yourself to those perfectly curated [Instagram] feeds?

Have you lost your sense of purpose and are you forgetting what life is like outside the matrix?

If you answered yes to all the above, then I’m so happy that you’re here.

So, let me share my story. If you’ve been following me for some time, you may have noticed my absence from social media a year and half to 2 years ago. What started out as a 30 day social media detox turned into a 3 month detox which lead to a whole 12 months of being offline. Yes, 12 months!

You’re probably wondering why? Well, at the time I was going through a transition phase in my life, a “spring cleaning” of sorts and desperately needing to clear out all things toxic to make room for bigger and better things. Social media was just of one the many things that I decided to clear out. But, I’ll dive more into this subject at a later time.

So, I decided to do this for both my personal and business accounts.

I went from sharing + posting every week to not. It was drastic, I know. Especially, deciding to not post via my business accounts for that long (I will share my do’s and don’ts along with how I found balance between real life vs. the online life in the next post).

To be honest, I didn’t think I would make the first month let alone the first week. Haha.

5 Things I Learned

Here’s what I realized + learned during my year long sabbatical from social media:

(1.) I didn’t die + life goes on. If you’re considering doing a social media detox, you will survive. I promise. Just take baby steps. But start by logging off and committing to being offline for a certain amount of time. Start with a week or even just a day. By the way, this is coming from the person who would religiously be on her phone all the time. So if I could do it you can do it too. I’m cheering you on and will be your personal cheerleader.

(2.) Real life is so much better. Once I completely unplugged, I realized how much free time I had. Instead of checking my phone first thing in the morning, I replaced that with quality reading + me time. Instead of checking my phone when I was bored, I would go work out instead, hang out with bae or do some activity that was enjoyable to me. Overtime, I replaced the time I was using for social media and started focusing on more productive things. I started enjoying my own life so much so that I stopped caring what other’s were doing. So go out and live! There is so much more to life than what goes on in these social media feeds.

(3.) I started being more present + appreciating the things around me. It’s amazing what can happen when you decide to keep your phone inside your purse or pocket over dinner. You start to enjoy the taste of your food + the conversations with the people right in front of you. Savour the moment. Enjoy + appreciate every little thing. Being off social media will allow you to be more present. Start with dinner.

(4.) I was still booking + getting business. Essentially, the brand + business that I worked so hard to create started to work for me even though I wasn’t marketing on social media every day. At first I was a little concerned, I’m not even going to lie. I used to blog once every week and post on social media consistently every week. So, to go from that to quitting cold turkey was a big change. BUT, I was quite surprised that I was still receiving tons of inquiries via referrals + google (I love you google). Ha! Also, I found other creative ways to market my business. For one, I would go out and meet people face to face (more on this in another blog post cause I think marketing deserves it’s own section).

(5.) I stopped comparing myself to others + found my purpose again. When you can be more present + enjoy and appreciate the things right in front of you, you’ll stop focusing on the things that don’t really matter. Being offline allowed me to dig deep and to start living life outside of the matrix. I stopped focusing on what others were doing + stopped comparing my life to everyone else’s. In return, I was able to find meaning + purpose again just by clearing out old habits and replacing them with positive ones.

Logging off of the matrix was just one thing that I did to help get me back to my optimum self. And I’m so glad I did!

Ready to commit to your social media detox? Do it! Sign off today + unplug + get ready for a little spiritual awakening/tweaking. You won’t regret it, I promise.

Please email me after (or during) and let me know your thoughts after the matrix cleanse. 😉

Did you enjoy this post? If so, please share below or fill out the contact form here. I’ve been wanting to post more personal + business stuff so if there are any topics you would like me to cover, feel free to message me at janet@lovejanetphoto.com or just leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!