On Taking Mini Breaks from Social Media

These past couple of weeks I spent off of social. It wasn’t a planned thing, nor did I have much insight into how long I’d go. It just felt natural and organic to take a pause and step back from posting.

My head always goes, “no, you need to post on social in order to stay relevant and productive”, or “if you don’t post on social, you’ll lose all the progress you’ve accomplished”. I find myself being really punitive with the whole thing and it completely irks me.

At the end of the day, I just felt completely gassed. As in, I would turn to my phone and think–none of this feels organic. Posting on social doesn’t feel natural right now. For me, its a double edged sword because posting often makes me so happy–I adore getting to share moments of my life, or creating beautiful moments to inspire others. But sometimes, life is just life and it doesn’t need to be shared. And more importantly, I realized there is a preciousness to our work that we need to nurture and protect. I’m not a machine, or a production pipeline. I’m a human being, creating art, living, and going through a giant transition period in life right now.

I started feeling this way earlier in the summer and just wasn’t what it really was. But I vividly remember being in New York venting to Jackson about the constant pressure I put on myself to “remember to post” every time I do something. I was trying to explain that even though I’m on vacation, I want share bits and pieces. Yet event that requires you to stop, remember to pull out your phone or camera and capture something. It’s kind of like always needing to remember to be “on”.

So without explanation or even personal justification I sort of just ghosted social for two weeks.

I stopped posting and kind of stopped creating too. For me, these two are hand in hand. I know some folks would argue that I should plan out my content more–get ahead so I can give myself purposeful time off. And yes, while that all sounds lovely, I’m just not there. I like posting my everyday, because those moments are real and exactly what I’m going through at the time. So I then feel a more intentional connection with what I’m sharing and those seeing it. It’s all one experience as opposed to a choreographed rehearsal.

I do think there is a way to strike the right balance. Maybe it is more planning and more natural small breaks in between. I’m not entirely sure. However I do know that some days, I feel more creative than others. Some weeks I’ll dive head first into projects and not even think twice. Other weeks I can barely even look at my phone.

Something else that is circling around my brain is this idea of when social media stops (when I take a break from social) does the art stop too? Does the creating stop, or does the capturing beautiful photos on my camera stop? Sometimes yes, it does. During these periods, I catch myself being really passive when it comes to creativity. Instead of sitting at a cafe with a coffee or glass of wine and snapping a photo or two, I sit and people watch, neglecting my phone or camera in favor of the honest real-time moment. Or another example might be when I’m really trying to take care of my physical and mental health–I often neglect posting on social media and sharing. I want to get better at striking the right balance there.

However usually when I naturally stop posting, it’s a sign I need a break. And when did cutting ourselves slack become a bad thing? When did it become a sign of weakness to ask for space, time, and rest in this space? I think it goes hand in hand with the comparison game. Where we see others creating everyday, or posting everyday and we then feel an intense need to do the same, even if it doesn’t align with what our mind and body is asking for. I’m reminded during these times that social is just an app…which could poof and go away in a second. And yet we put so much pressure on it. I’m just kind of…over it? I’m loving long-form content more and more like youtube and blogs. I love reading peoples thoughts, or watching a thoughtfully edited youtube video as opposed to a hodgepodge of reels to trending audio.

One thing that I do think has helped me, is morning pages.

I’ve been doing morning pages (nearly everyday) this summer for the first time ever. It helps me clear my head first thing in the morning. Sometimes I find myself coming out of a morning pages session with a nice little game plan for the creative day a head. Or a theme that I’m focusing on for the day. I think little habits like that are so helpful to us content creators.

Another thing I’ve found so incredibly helpful is talking to other creatives.

Sharing stories, having little rant sessions over the current climate that is social media. It does wonders for the soul to come together with likeminded folks. I always come away from those little chats feeling so connected in that many of our struggles are similar and that I’m not alone.

I'll end this post with the notion that breaks in creativity and sharing are completely normal. And I think we can all feel it, but the genesis of social media is shifting. During this time in particular, I think its incredibly important that we turn inward (without losing focus of the world around us) to understand the unique offering and intention that we bring to the table. If we have our “north star” let’s say, it’ll make continuing to create that much more easy and enjoyable. It’s never not a good time to just take a seat, pause and reflect on what we’re doing and why–even if that means taking a prolonged break from anything at all.