As some of you know, i’ve been on a social media detox for a whole week. Now it’s time to post my findings! so why did I do it in the first place? well i wouldn’t want anyone to think that i was unhappy or suffering some kind of crisis and leaving social media to sulk, it was purely experimental. I can’t help but notice that social media was consuming quite a bit of my life, whether it was posting for my business, scrolling, scrolling and more scrolling or just keeping up with what friends are doing. I thought, “what would i do if i wasn’t social media-ing?”. it seemed like an interesting experiment, and in deed it was. some of my findings were pretty dull, and others pretty deep. so last Friday i started my detox at 5pm (great time to start Nicola, very clever, i had a class at 5 so i wouldn’t be on Facebook anyway….excellent!)….to my horror, the first thing i did when my class finished was reach for my phone! obviously i stopped myself, but i had my phone in my hand only one hour after the start of my detox without even knowing about it! maybe i’m more of an addict than i thought? I’m not going to lie, i found it particularly difficult that evening to not post anything about how wonderful my yoga class was and didn’t know what to replace my obsessive scrolling with, so made no use of my social media free time at all. Saturday, panic kicked in…..no one will know about my pilates class at 10am, no one will come because i haven’t been able to remind anyone. literally everyone has forgotten me already (since 5pm yesterday). needless to say, it didn’t effect my class and thankfully most people had remembered me and my class….phew! over the next few days i had certain thoughts at various times that i felt compelled to tell the world. i wanted to show everyone a photo of my perfect cappucino with a heart on the top, i wanted to tell the world how much i loved an evening with my friends, and i felt compelled to thank the universe for my blessings. Now i have to laugh at these urges (although very real at the time) because firstly, i would never have instagramed my watery instant coffee in my less than perfect chipped mug at home, secondly, i was with the friends who’s company i was enjoying, so i’m pretty sure they knew about it without reading it on Facebook and thirdly, since when did the universe only respond to Facebook, twitter or Instagram? Have i become one of those people who only show you the perfect moments in their life? am i incapable of telling you to your face that I like you? have i replaced God/Budda/the Divine/the universe/my higher self with Facebook? I’m pretty sure when i put my good vibes out to the universe it can be done without technology of any kind……or maybe God’s on Facebook too???? I’m joking at my own expense of course, but you’ve got to see the humour in it. How our words actions, thoughts, behaviour has changed since the invention of social media. It’s not all bad though…..by Tuesday (less than 4 days in) i had completely forgotten to even take my phone out with me. “I’m free….I’m cured!!!” well….not quite! I realised that Facebook is a useful tool for checking on my children when they don’t answer my texts. At least i can see that they’ve been on Facebook recently so are still alive! lol. there were also a couple of moments that jordi shared with me via messenger because i missed them on Facebook (again related to the children). so can you ever let social media go or will it always be part of our lives? part of me now feels like i could let it go completely but another part says it’s so practical for business and family communication. how do we get balance? the truthful answer is, I don’t yet know. what i do know is that this week in the absence of scrolling, i’ve met with friends that i don’t normally see, i’ve read a book, i’ve had time to meditate/reflect and work on personal stuff and i’ve overcome FOMO (fear of missing out). My classes have all been great (without having to constantly tell everyone where i am and what i’m teaching and then posting “well done!” posts), my friends and family still know i love them, i’ve had some perfect looking food and some pretty ordinary food, all of which was appreciated without the need for instagram and filters, I’m still funny (sometimes) without the need for proving it with witty social media posts (which weren’t even mine to begin with) and my battery life on my phone is outstanding! you would think that with such positive findings i’d be off social media for good, but i will be back this evening! Why? i’m not entirely sure why, except I am a people’s person, so i do enjoy connecting with people. My aim is to use Facebook twitter and Instagram more mindfully though. No more mindless and time consuming scrolling. Please note, that everyone’s life is not perfect (including mine) my cappucino may look perfect on instagram but for every artistic, frothy coffee there is a half cold, instant coffee in a chipped cup that leaves ring marks on my table. I may miss my Facebook notification that tells me it’s your birthday, but that doesn’t mean i think any less of you as a person, it merely means i’m human and i forget stuff! I may not shout my blessings so loud, but that doesn’t mean i’m any less blessed, it just means i’ve accepted that the universe isn’t reading my timeline, it’s responding to my actual real life actions. I’m going to read more (i always thought i didn’t have time) i’m going to reflect more, i’m going to connect more with people in real life, i’m going to allow myself to do nothing (sometimes) instead of the only other alternative in that moment (social media) and i’m going to try and enjoy my life as a human “being” not a human “doing”. I may lose followers, I may lose friends, I may seem uninteresting……I’m going to try really hard not to worry about it…..if you know me, if we connect, if we’re on the same frequency I think we’ll always find each other and always remember each other. I totally recommend a detox to anyone who is brave enough to give it a try. You can learn a lot about yourself, and you’ll find yourself with some free time you never knew you had. I’ll be back on social media later, but i may not have time to respond to everything i’ve missed….it’s not personal!
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You'll notice that 2017 sees the launch of brand new yoga classes. our main
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