I often speak of self-love when it comes to embracing your natural hair, but today I want to talk about self-reflection and mental health.

After over a month of no social media, I return feeling refreshed and enlightened with a new sense of direction.

During my time away I realized how important it was that I change my approach and relationship with social media. My break started with me feeling very strange being off socials, like I stepped out of a bubble.

Although relieved, I couldn’t help but realize the mental toll social media took on me. I felt a sense of clarity I hadn’t felt in a long time. For the past year, I felt very foggy and I just couldn’t pinpoint it. Initially, I thought it was because I was juggling so much with content creating and my personal life, but once I took a break, everything seemed to fall into place and what seemed unbearable suddenly seemed more manageable.

Social media, especially Instagram had become such a huge part of my day. I woke up to it, I checked it multiple times a day to check my posts performance, to engage or to make sure I was just “in the know”, I even checked it before bed. I didn’t realize how much energy I put into it. Not only this, so much time went into making, editing content and planning, all to please the mysterious algorithm!

Given it’s mysteriousness, you are constantly trying to engage or push content to be successful. There is this chase game that goes on, especially when you have a piece of content that does well. You kind of become obsessed with trying to figure out why that post did so well and how you can replicate it. It’s a never-ending cycle that leads to feeling burned out and uninspired.

While away, I honestly questioned if I wanted to return to Instagram, but after thinking about the community I built and how much I enjoy inspiring women to embrace their natural hair, I knew I had to come back, but with another approach, which included care for myself.

On my break, I reflected how important it is to guard your peace because if you're not ok, you are not able to operate at your highest level nor are you able to pour into the community your apart of. Because of this, I encourage everyone to take a step back to implement healthy habits and a sustainable schedule. Not only for the Creators, but for all 2 billion active monthly Instagram users.

The app has a way of drawing you in, having you spend countless hours watching content endlessly keeping you disconnected from real human interactions.

I think in the future we will realize we may have gone too far with social media. Like a bad social experiment. Social media is all-consuming, it’s permeated our lives and has pulled us away from real face to face human interactions.

While away, I spent most of my time connecting and it’s what rejuvenated me. I truly felt this was the missing link. I felt so renewed reconnecting with God, friends and family. This is what we were created to do - connect.

Since the pandemic I think our want to connect is at an all-time high and social media is all we had. Our dependency on social media has grown but so did the rates for loneliness, depression, and anxiety. We need to find a better balance of human interactions verses digital connections.

Limits and Boundaries

Here are some suggestions to implement to help set healthy limits:

1. Plan and schedule (for Content Creators) - Plan and schedule your content to prevent anxiety throughout the week. When it comes time to post you can post with ease and enjoy the interactions with your community.

2. Set limits - iPhones has a built-in feature that allows you to set usage limits. You can set it so an app locks after a certain time period, which is always something you can turn off. Just go to Settings, Screen Time, and App Limits. You can also set your own personal limits and keep them.

3. Delete the app from your phone - Try deleting the app off your phone and keeping on another device that is not so accessible to you throughout the day, like a tablet.

4. Try not to start or end your day with checking social media, try not using it for the first or last hour of the day. Try by putting your phone in another room before bed so you aren’t tempted to reach for it as soon as you wake up.

5. Try engaging in activities that do not involve technology. Praying, meditating, working out. Try being 100% present with yourself and your loved ones.

Lets normalize taking breaks from Instagram - plan them!

Please share with me if you have felt you needed a break from social media or any healthy habits you have implemented. Also, if you have taken a break, how did you feel during your time away?

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