Finding balance with social media.

This time last year, I decided to take the plunge and unplug myself from social media and TV. 

Yes yes, I can here you saying “but you still have a Facebook page?!” 

And your right, I still have a business page, a personal facebook account and Instagram. So I've kinda unplugged.

I think it would be pretty much impossible for us to grow the business in the way we have if we completely went cold turkey.

What I have done however, is completely unfollow every single friend, group, page etc on facebook. Now friends, this might seem slightly mean, that I never like, comment or post to your wall to share your news. The thing is, I would really much rather speak to you, see you and receive a text to hear your news or see your beautiful children, hear about your holiday etc etc. 

How many of us, have fallen in to the trap of scrolling through the newsfeed mindlessly, several times a day without giving much thought to the care, connection and relationship we have with that person. AND half the time, are you even paying attention to what’s real? Because there really is a whole heap of sh*t on there. 

That all being said, this probably wasn’t the crooks of my reasoning behind unplugging myself. I realised how much of real life I was avoiding and escaping through my use of tv and social media. More so then that, it was having a real knock on effect to my self esteem. 

Social media isn’t always the most positive of places, and always seeing what other people are doing, getting, having …..well I think it takes a pretty strong minded person not to cast judgement or bring that back onto yourself and feel like you should be having/ doing more. 

I had a heap of fitness and healthy lifestyle coaches which filled my newsfeed everyday; staring a girls with a tight six pack, with perfect hair and tanned skin- well it certainly did nothing for my self acceptance I was working on.

It was an amazing distraction away from what I should be doing, building and creating, and honestly a lot of time I think I was lonely, bored and trying to fill a void.

So from here I decided enough was enough and to use all that wasted time and energy and put it back into me. 

When you cant see what anyone else is doing you have no choice but to look at what your doing. 

I pretty much put this choice among some other pretty big lifestyle choices down to why 2017 was such a fantastic year of growth for me- especially personally. 

I met Oliver at the start of this unplugging, and it was such a breath of fresh air to us both to not fall into a familiar pattern on a evening after work of eating and putting the telly on. I think in the whole 11 months of being together we’ve probably only clocked up 1.5 hrs of tv time together. It is actually great, and I genuinely look forward to the end of each day where we sit down and talk to each other. 

As for the kids, well they still have TV- but not very much, and the best weekends we have altogether is when I take the power plug away and hide it in a cupboard.

So a year on, I conclude, in light of business and the power of technology, you probably have to find a balance. The biggest thing I learnt is if your going to be on it, surround yourself with happiness and the people that inspire you- and that goes for off screen and on screen. Make the effort to connect with friends and family, after all, a cuppa tea with a dear friend far surpasses any facebook ping pong over messenger.

Finally, next time you catch yourself having a scroll for the sake of having a scroll, put your phone down and go and do something for you- even if its doing nothing and just sitting and enjoying your own company, because that in itself is a gift just for you.

B xxxx