I’ve been on a sabbatical, a social media (IG) sabbatical.

Although at times it’s been challenging (what am I to do in the waiting room of my oil change, the FOMO I feel in thinking about all the fuckjerry memes I could be sending to my coworkers about our job, or even just posting all the cool sh*t I’m doing for the world to see). I have taken this time to be gram-free, in hopes of just enjoying me and my life a little more. The more I think about social media, the more I think about how numb we are to our behaviors. No, I’m no behavioral psychologist, but I’ll be dammed if there isn’t some insane disorder named after this technology phenomenon that we have with our idea of reality, and what we portray on the good ol’ World Wide Web.

I’m not sh*tting on it at all. I feel like I’m able to view parts of the world I didn’t know existed through the click of a feed, laugh so hard I snort over some of these memes (shout out to these meme makers who read my soul) and to the bathing suit companies who continue to target me in all the right ways. I love that I can support small businesses from all over the world. But I do have a huge problem with losing hours on this platform, probably creating some beginners stages of carpal tunnel, and subconsciously discrediting my f*cking fabulous life because I’m not on a PJ, spending a week in the Maldives to celebrate buying my dream home.

Majority of us do it. We become so consumed with checking up on people we don’t even know, that we forget to check up on ourselves. How did this happen? I personally needed a break. So I took one.

What impactful things did I learn from this social media hibernation?

1. I had more time to do sh*t I’ve been talking about doing. There were no excuses, I had the time, I was pretty much isolated from fake news and focused on myself. I felt more in alignment because I wasn’t distracted with all this white noise. It was eye opening that I put some of my totally awesome goals on the back burner, all while picking up this idea that the more I saw other people win and do all the cool stuff I wanted to do, the less attainable I believed it was for me. BULLSHIT. There’s plenty of everything for any and everyone. You just need to sack up and put a plan and a dose of action to your dreams. You don’t just wake up one day and own a business. It doesn’t show up in a box by your front door. You gotta make that sh*t happen. Get out there, have a conversation with a stranger, always carry your compassion, and network like it’s the only job you have. Believing it’s available to you is half the battle.

2. I got back into a relationship…with myself. The less time I had to compare myself to other strangers online, the more time I had to exercise my mind, body and soul. This is my only body that I will have for my entire life. HOW POWERFUL IS THAT? I want to love it, flaws and all. It’s mine! And it’s absolutely beautiful because there isn’t another one out there like it. There is nothing more disappointing to me than to have women in the lime light promote an image that isn’t even reality to them. With all the bells and whistles we have at our fingertips in photoshopping our own photos, ANYONE can adjust their images to be thinner, toner and brighter thus creating this image that we must be perfect, or we’re not good enough until we look like these photoshopped idols. Promoting to young girls that this is what we should strive to look like…an image that is not even humanly possible (naturally) is so F*CKED. Building each other up, instead of tearing each other down (yourself included) is the only way we can continue to combat these misconceptions, and strengthen our most important relationship….the one with ourselves.

 
3. I was more present and SO grateful that this is MY life. I had more time to appreciate how cute my humble abode was, sit in solitude in the beautiful city I call home, make new friends, and show those friends who have been with me since day uno, how much I truly appreciate them. There’s nothing more rewarding than enjoying a moment, thanking the universe for placing you right here and now, and watching other beautiful coincidences unfold. There are no amount of likes or follows that could fulfill me in a way that this does.

 

Will this be the end of my handle on IG, you ask? Probably not. But unplugging every once in a while can be a nice little way to recharge, stop and smell the roses, and remind yourself how freakin’ cool you really are.

 

The most love,

xx katlyn