I know many of you have been following, or rather not following my 40 days off social media experiment and so I wanted to sit down and share with you what I learned in the hopes that maybe it will help you think about your own social media usage.
Maybe it will inspire you to also take 40 days off or change the way you use socials. Maybe this post will help you better understand the people in your life who are constantly attached to their phones, or maybe it will make you think about the things you do give your power away to in your own life and take that power back!
So, Why did I take 40 days off social media?
I haven’t had a break from social media since I first signed up for MySpace. I was going to say Facebook, but actually, it started long before that! I dabbled a couple of times with taking weekends off, Sundays off and I did try to take a week off at one point before I went in for 40 days, but in the interest of transparency, I did look at my feeds more than a few times via my laptop during that time!
Anyway, that’s a long time to be on social media without a break and I was really starting to feel it.
I love social media. I love connecting with my community and friends on these platforms and I love finding new people and accounts. I’ve actually made some amazing lifelong friends from meeting on socials!
But as we are all only too aware these days, social media is a double edged sword.
As much as I was loving the connections and community, I was also starting to notice some negatives. I was spending more time on socials than I wanted to, not just posting for my biz and connecting in positive ways, but scrolling mindlessly and I was also become aware of just how much I fell into comparison and (self) judgement at times.
Cats don’t use social media and they seem pretty happy!
I also started to notice that when I spent too much time on socials my energy didn’t feel so good and my intuition didn’t feel so clear, and not just in the moment of scrolling or briefly afterwards, but longer term.
When I took time to meditate on that I could clearly see that social media was part of the problem. Not only was I picking up on waaaay too much of everyone else’s energy, it was also messing with my nervous system putting me in flight or flight mode and making me feel like I had to constantly be doing something – posting more, having a bigger or deeper impact, commenting more, just generally doing more.
And while I was still able to set some boundaries for myself (not using socials on the weekends for example), I knew I had to do something big before socials became a big problem.
Why 40 days?
40 days is a pretty magical amount of time.
Jesus went into the desert for 40 days where he was tempted by the devil.
40 days is considered the amount of time needed to break a habit and change your conscious mind.
In Kundalini Yoga we often do a specific kriya (set of movements) or meditation for 40 days to not only change a habit but also your destiny.
40 days is a long time, but it’s also not really. It’s achievable. It’s not like you’re signing yourself up for being off social media forever, but it’s also enough time to really get a break and notice the changes.
My findings
OK, enough rambling, so what actually happened when I took 40 days off social media?
I felt relieved.
While I was a little hesitant to put up that post that I was getting off socials for 40 days (meaning I had to go through it!), once the posts were up and the apps were deleted off my phone I actually just felt a deep sense of relief.
I played a lot of Homescapes.
With no social media or work email (I removed that off my phone a while ago!) on my phone, whenever I had nothing to do and picked up my phone, I played Homescapes. As of writing this I’m on level 3290 but although I’ve played it a lot, I can easily just play a few rounds and put my phone down again. I actually also find it really helps when my anxiety pops up to say hello. If you play too add me as a friend! :P
My business did not suffer.
There was actually one week where I sold more digital courses and kits than I had in ages! I stayed in contact with my newsletter subscribers and let them know about workshops and other offerings and while I know that social media is good for my business it was nice to know that people are still finding my work whether I’m posting constantly on socials or not.
Getting off socials also helped me to get clearer about my business, what I’m creating and how I want to show up in the world! I got loads of downloads and ideas about new offerings and workshops.
Time went slower.
When I posted I was back, one person commented saying that the time went quickly, but actually I felt like I was off social media for ages! If time feels like it’s moving too fast, take a break from socials and see if you feel the difference!
I enjoyed the moment.
Without thinking about posting on social media I found myself more present in the moment. Instead of thinking – I have to get photos of this for social media, I was much more able to just be. I still took photos, but they were for me, my friends and family, not for the whole world.
Spent more time walking on the beach than taking photos on the beach, except this one. 😅
I found some deeper self-love.
Without trying to take selfies for socials or scrolling through and judging myself against a bajillion selfies and pics of stunning humans, I found myself letting go of some old, outdated beliefs I had around my physical appearance.
I read more books.
Less time scrolling = more time reading spiritual books and romance novels! I fell in love with so many incredible authors and stories which lit me up so much more than scrolling does!
I realised that social media wasn’t my only problem.
Sometimes when you take away what you think is the problem, you realise what’s really going on. Being addicted to scrolling (or anything) is often just a symptom of something else. I did a lot of shadow work, healing, deep diving and contemplation and uncovered some prickly truths and hidden gems I really needed to see but couldn’t until I removed the obstacle.
I didn’t miss it at all, until the end.
I actually didn’t really miss social media at all until about a week before I was due to come back. At one point I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to get back on socials, but during that last week I had a little buzz of excitement at the idea of getting back on social media, a buzz that I haven’t had in ages, and now I’m feeling more excited than ever to post and share and connect!
I’m making changes moving forward.
Right now, I’m not planning to put the apps back on my phone permanently. I think I’ll put Instagram back on when I have workshops or other offerings to share as posting on stories can be a good way to let people know about those since the algorithm doesn’t always put things in people’s feeds, but I don’t plan to be posting on stories otherwise. I’m also going to be posting like the “geriatric millennial” that I am, and stick to just posting photos for a while and see what happens.
And of course, that’s not set in stone. I evolve and change my mind all the time. But if you do see me posting my breakfast, lunch and dinner every day on stories, feel free to send me a DM and ask me if I’m doing okay! :P
In conclusion:
Take time to smell the roses!
Wow, I didn’t mean to turn this into an essay, but here’s the conclusion – getting off social media for 40 days was awesome. It gave me so much clarity, space, peace and really helped me reconnect with myself again.
I’m not going to leave social media. I love being connected to my soul fam all over the world. But I’m not going to be on social media as much as I used to be, and I’m going to take longer breaks whenever I feel called.
I feel more empowered, confident and conscious about using social media. I feel like I can move forward with social media as a tool I can use for connection and for my business and it no longer has any power over me!
The world doesn’t end when you take time off social media, in fact, it may just help you to see the magic in the world that’s right in front of you.
With love,
Vix
x