I’m Doing a Social Media Detox

Aug 1

“We’ve been so indoctrinated by hustle culture and the resilience myth that admitting to yourself that your runaway stress is influencing your health and adding to your symptoms can often feel like defeat.

Yet, there is a relief to relinquishing the ongoing battle against yourself, knowing that it’s a no-win situation unless you make the changes.

It’s actually a sign of strength to choose to look at your mounting unhealthy stress and decide to take action even if you never imagined yourself in this position.”

— - Aditi Nerurkar, MD, “The 5 Resets” (pg 148)

“The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience” by Aditi Nerurkar is a must read!

I appreciated her explanation of “The Resilience Myth” that leads us to feel guilt for not being able to handle stress.

She also shares multiple stress abatement and prevention strategies categorized into “5 Resets,” and I plan to incorporate many of them into my life.

To start, this book, along with a few other signs I’ve received, has inspired me to go on a social media detox.

I posted a reel last week on my struggles with social media, but I wasn’t able to share everything.

Since starting my minimalist journey my perspective has shifted and so have my values. I don’t feel compelled to share my life on social media, and if I didn’t have a business, I don’t think I’d be on here at all.

I’m tired of playing by social media’s rules and feeling like I’m never doing enough.

I’m a firm believer that small businesses do not have to post daily to be successful businesses, but my business is online-based, which means the marketing strategy “should” be social media heavy.

But I just can’t bring myself to post every single day or use my personal life to get engagement.

I still have so much to say, share, and teach, but I’m exhausted.

I feel like I’m giving so much and receiving little in return (views, likes, comments, but especially revenue).

And while these metrics don’t matter when your business targets a local market, they do matter for online-based businesses like mine.

And I refuse to jump through the algorithm’s hoops to improve these metrics. I’d rather not play the game at all.

Social media is distracting, it leads to unworthiness, and it alters our brain chemistry.

And because I’m already pushing myself through low energy, I don’t need that working against me too.

I’m sharing this because I want you to know that even if you work so hard to grow a business and become self-employed, it can still make you miserable.

But I want to inspire you that if you ever get to this point, it’s ok to take a step back before giving up completely.

I’ll still be working over this next month, but I’m pausing my social media posts and will refrain from using these platforms to give myself the space to focus on restoring my energy and reflect on what I want my future to look like.

And whether that includes social media or even my business.

And coincidentally I’ve been seeing other content creators do the same, which leads me to think that if we didn’t feel so much pressure to show up all the damn time, would it lead us to this point?