Wow, I really need to get into the hang of posting! I’m sorry y’all. I really thought I had a solid plan coming along. I’m talking calendar printables with color coded social media planned posts, but of course that all went out the window? Cheers to maybe letting go of planning and perhaps taking an Instagram break? What…

Work has been draining and weirdly fulfilling at the same time, BUT I’d be the first to admit I wasn’t exactly taking care of myself. My days usually go like this: work, workout, eat, chill and scroll. This is a super high-level overview, but you catch my drift. I was feeling a bit down bc I wasn’t doing the things I wanted to.

Early on in March, I had signed up for graphic design + blogging courses. You know, typical Shazie trying to learn all the time and gain new skills.

Yeah no. Ya girl was DEAD TIRED from staring at the screen for 10+ hours/day (laptop, phone, TV, etc). So randomly last week, I decided to go cold turkey and cut IG out for a bit. It was only supposed to be for the weekend, but I’m finding it a bit “free-ing” to letting go of these social media chains.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still #TeamTwitter and I love Facebook for random nostalgic connections. The thing about those apps is I don’t spend hours SCROLLING.

Prior to this cold turkey cut off, I had set a timer on my phone to spend only 1.5hr across ALL social media platforms.

Last week alone, I received multiple notifications giving me a 5-min warning when it was only early afternoon! I started mentally assessing how much time do I randomly scroll on IG. It started becoming a distraction, I was less present, and I kept going down a rabbit hole of comparing myself to others. I also started DROWNING in politics/news that everybody and their moms are sharing, so that truly was the icing on the cake.

I was dead tired, unfulfilled for caring way too much about what others were doing, and it was honestly affecting my relationship with myself and others.

Exhibit A: I felt intense pressure that I wasn’t doing enough fall things. It’s stupid, I know, but it got to a point where I started getting upset if I didn’t see a cute orange-y tree. I hate how shallow this all sounds, but my mindless scrolling subconsciously affected my habits and mindset. Just last week, I was upset with Brian bc my outfit wasn’t “fall” enough.

MY. MINDSET. WAS. TRASH.

I became slightly obsessed over doing EVERYTHING and wanting to capture it all. As a 9-5er and part-time blogger, I’m already faced with pressure to continuously create content to potentially pave its way to more brand collabs/partnerships and it all just became a tipping point on the iceberg.

I wasn’t enjoying creating and my content just lacked authenticity, which is also why I stopped posting still photos. My two latest IG posts were reels bc it was fun, freeing, and it showed more of my personality.

Exhibit B: I follow way too many UNRELATABLE influencers. Picture this: your feed is full of cute, picture perfect influencers sharing sales, their fav products, etc. All of this sounds great, but it gets TOO MUCH. I was constantly trying to gauge what else to buy next. And if my fav content creators were pushing out content left and right? I played the comparison game, and it hit me hard.

I know this only echoes the internal work I have to do, but I just want to take some time to share this in case it resonates.

You are doing enough. You are enough.

I say this with a bit of a caveat. You are enough… WITH room and potential to grow. This doesn’t mean we should stay complacent at where we are now, but we should celebrate nonetheless.

Exhibit C: I felt pressure to be this performative ally. If I didn’t donate to a certain organization, I felt guilty. If I didn’t share about a certain cause every single day, I felt guilty. If I wanted to post my day-to-day life, I felt guilty. It became this game that subconsciously affected my mind. I dreamed of social causes, charities, politics, you name it.

So naturally, I had to call time out on the app.

So IF and only if you need it, take that break. Declutter your mind, remind yourself of your purpose, and why you choose to do the things you do. Take that “free” time to stare out the window like I am (LOL kidding??) but seriously though, be still. Read that book, watch that show. The best part of all of this is refocusing on yourself and then going back on the app better than ever!

Have you ever broken up with IG for a bit?