My Social Media Detox Revelations

I have always felt like a fish in the water with social media. I would bravely say that I know how to consume it, that I am not affected by other people sharing their seemingly amazing lives, and that it rather inspires me, actually, to keep doing whatever it is I am doing.

I am not saying this is not true, I still believe, at least with my rational mind, that I do have a grasp of how I see others on social media, saying that I truly wanted to reevaluate my relationship with social media, especially Instagram and TikTok.

I kept catching myself picking up the phone, without any reason and mindlessly opening Instagram to check for those red notification signs whenever I am stuck in something that I am doing or when I have nothing else to do with my hands. I noticed that I would also get frustrated after catching myself in the act of doomscrolling.

As I want to gain more awareness in my life and in my everyday actions, and I want to dramatically improve my creativity and go deeper in understanding myself I decided to delete Instagram and TikTok for a week. I had multiple signs in my life pointing out that this is a challenge I should partake in, so on one Wednesday, out of blue I just deleted those apps! Just like that, without announcing that, without making a big deal out of the whole situation, because it just really felt like the right thing to do.

And you know what – it was easy, easier than doing a Full or New moon fast!

I really thought that I would have more adverse withdrawal symptoms, but the first days went by and I was doing just fine.

So here are my observations as the week went by:

Day 1 – 5 – I keep picking up phone and not finding what to do there and just putting it back down

Day 3 – I pick up my phone and start to reorganize my apps on the screen, prioritizing the activities that I benefit from. A running app, meditation app, calendar, maps, Gmail and Dualingo are now on my home screen and my social media folder has been moved to the next slide screen. This helped me reorganize on what my priorities should be and minimize distractions later when I eventually do get social media apps back.

Day 4 - 5 – Hikes and adventures with my community and I am fully present in all of them, having my phone purely for photography and video making. Having a spark of inspiration for a video I want to create.

Day 6 – I realize that my mind is so much clearer and my focus has improved, that I decide that instead of 7 days I will do 10 days social media free!

Day 7 – Having a structure and a plan for a day has never been something that I found myself capable of doing. I listened to the people who organize and schedule their days by hours and was always amazed, just dooming myself incapable of these kinds of actions, but here I was on day 7 planning this day and the next day and putting them in my calendar, like a real responsible adult, that is adamant of improving her life and achieving her dreams!

Day 8-10 – I feel structured, immersed, and driven. I see how my manifestations are slowly coming into being, and how many synchronicities are aligning and guiding me. Quite incredible!

Day 10 – I wonder if anyone even noticed that I was gone.

My biggest takeaways from this detox were –

• My screen time dropped by 40%, meaning I gained 2 more hours in my day

• I felt a boost in my creativity that resulted in more structured actions.

• I was able to tune in my own higher guidance more acutely, without the obstructions and noise of the outer world, and act from the place of my inner knowing.

• I reevaluated my thirst for knowing everything at all times, as something that stems from being self-conscious and insecure in my own wisdom and power. And how I was feeding that monster of insecurity by unconscious comparison.

• I became more aware of my unconscious actions, of how I would pick up the phone and look for distraction or inspiration whenever I would feel remotely stuck, instead of sitting with that feeling, with myself and trying to muster the power to shift it on my own

• I discovered and researched more on the topics I feel called to, read and sent e-mails, followed through on my own plans, read more, and had more time to integrate my knowledge.

Overall it really wasn’t that hard for me to drop social media for 10 days, it was such a refreshing experience that I surely needed at this point in my life to cleanse the palate, to take a gulp from my own wonderous, beautiful being and inspire myself for more aligned action. I feel like I am now able to tune in on my own voice more acutely, to hear my heart’s whispers and nourish them.

It has been such a big healing and learning process and I am so grateful for this experience. Now I want to invite social media back into my life, but on my own terms. Social media apps are not all evil and bad, they are a great way how to tell your story, express and connect. I still feel like I want to share and document my journey through expressing myself online, but now I am clearer on my own values and more aware of how the tool can become a master of you, instead another way around.

Looking forwards I think I will engage more in these social media breaks in my life, to get more stuff done and to clean my own cache memory.

What are your social and other media habits? Maybe instead of Instagram, you open the news first thing in the morning? Maybe you scroll every night, before sleep? Or this one is good – you pick up the phone to check the time, forget all about time, and 10 min later find yourself answering all the messages, scrolling reels, and saving that vegan banana bread recipe that you know full well, you might never get around to cook. See if maybe write down that recipe, put down the phone, and go cook it now, or whatever. I have no right to tell anyone what to do, but when you feel called to go cold turkey on social media - just do it, you will know when that time is in your life and be ready to discover that you have more time and space to fill with yourself, by yourself and be ready for transformations.

That's that, see you back on Instagram! 📱