I am literally in love with this beautiful picture place named Instagram. I really enjoy it for the beauty of the picture, the information I can grab, the idea on wellbeing / decoration / mindfulness to inspire me, and of course the community that always support me and that I fell I participate to it too!

I read yesterday a nice article [1] that was saying that “studies have found that time spent on social media – particularly photo-based platforms – is associated with poorer self-esteem.” [2]

I am not onto looking after perfection and I wasn’t touch so much as they say in the article by the need to compare myself; I even would say that I am seeing IG like a big community for support and learning and so I am pretty positive about it! I never received bad comments and ultimately I feel empowered by the women I am following. So, why was I feeling the need to shut down for a while my account?

Lately, I get tired and lost in the same time. I lost myself in the post, comment and, following, and I felt it wasn’t expressing my true self anymore. I put pressure on myself to post, to keep in touch, to connect… and I don’t really feel happy and motivated anymore doing what I was doing. I needed a change but before that, I needed a pause from social networking. I needed to do what I was doing for myself and only for myself. I needed to stop losing time to film/ select/ write/ post and enjoy this new free time to enjoy the moment and family. And it’s what I did!

The first day was like a release. The moment I posted on my account that I decided to stop my IG for a week, I felt a huge amount of peace coming from within and happiness. And I breathed deeply watching at the lake. I felt so much energy coming back to me.

The next days were also pure bliss and surprisingly I never felt the need to connect to check something on it! It was also a bit energizing not to have to post a thing! Ehehehe no duties!!

I also take advantage of that time to reflect more on my life at that right moment and to rest my body. As I didn’t have to post my daily workout-yoga, I may have practice less. On the other hand I take more time for meditation and journaling, as for self-care bath and a lot of walk by the lake!

Balance is the central word in life. This time allows me to focus on topics that I needed to consider more and find more balance with my body and mind.

As funny as it is, 2 days ago was the final day for my “no IG week”. I didn’t come back on this day because I didn’t desire it. And as a matter of fact, now I say to myself I could go back to it, I felt sick and without energy.

I don’t know if this is link to that but sure thing, I decide to connect less and to post only when I feel the need-envy to do so.

So right now I want to share things that make me happy, like my beautiful açai bowl, or the beautiful clouds of my morning wall, but feeling so weak I may wait a little bit before coming back to IG.

I though my ego was speaking to high when I decided to express myself on that matter; who am I to think IG need me so much? Or better who am I to think that people can be interested on my issue?!! But then I thought that others may feel the same or can be interested in this topic, and I needed to speak out. I think it is always interesting to read the experience of others and sometimes it makes us realize things that we weren’t really thinking about.

So here it is just my very personal experience and my learning about a week without IG:

• more time to read-walk-share moment with others;
• more time for personal thinking
• more awareness of the now
• deeper true and enjoyable practice
• feeling of release and freedom
• coming back to the real me
• pushing myself less strongly
• lack of the community support

Again this is my personal experience and my personal way to live my IG. It is also a good lesson for me to manage my IG in a more peaceful way.

Happy social life everybody

❤

[1] Glamour USA, September 2017, “50 states of women” article by Shaun Dreisbach.

[2] Jennifer Webb, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Charlotte.