Last January I challenged my Young Living community to delete their social media apps every weekend. I gave the challenge because we were focusing on a fresh mindset for the new year, and let's be honest, our social media is distracting and can cause a lot of unrest in our spirits and home.
Instead of scrolling, I suggested reading a book or catching up on that project that we can never find time for. Instead of texting, call a friend and go out for coffee with them and look into their face as you catch up.
“Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.” ― Mark Buchanan, 'The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God'
So, for the month of January last year, I took up my own challenge and deleted Instagram and Facebook every Friday evening. Can I be honest with you that it felt, kinda weird? But you know what else? It felt GOOD. So good in fact, that there were a few weeks that I would forget to download the apps to my phone again until Wednesday afternoon. I enjoyed the quiet.
Every weekend that January, I found time to read and to nap. Jesse and I were able to go through all of our closets and dressers and hidden away spaces and
get rid of so much stuff. We went places as a family and I still took pictures, but I didn't upload them to Instagram or Facebook.
I felt
freedom.
I really love social media. I love being able to be
inspired when I scroll Instagram. I love being able to catch up with my friends on Facebook and seeing what everyone has been up to, seeing cute pictures of their kids and reading articles that catch my eye.
What I don't love, is what social media takes away from. Sleep. A game with my kids. Being creative on a project. Watching a movie with Jesse. Spending an evening with friends, eating and catching up.
Finishing the book that I started months ago and never finished.
After that January challenge, I ended up deleting Facebook forever off my phone. Now if I want to go on Facebook, I open up my laptop.
I did keep Instagram, but now with the "screen time tracker" that available on my phone, I keep trying to lessen each week how long I am on screen time.
This January, I am revisiting this challenge, but tweaking it a bit. I am not deleting Instagram off my phone, but Sundays are my day to be social media free. I don't open up my laptop, unless I am watching a movie with Jesse or writing a blog post. No Facebook, no scrolling Instagram.
Sunday afternoons and evenings are now my day to actually REST. Rest my mind and rest my social media scroll. It is my time to read, to nap, to play games with my kids, to blog, and to visit with friends.
For the rest of the week, I am trying to be very intentional about not opening up my phone until lunch time. That means, no quick catch up on Instagram or checking my email. I leave my laptop closed on my desk. I find that if I open either, my mornings get away from me and I am distracted even when I am trying to focus on homeschooling because I am thinking about what I saw or read.
I leave my phone upstairs in my bedroom, so I don't even get tempted to open it in the mornings. The mornings are our homeschooling time and I want to be very intentional in how I manage my time with my children. They deserve a focused mom, not a distracted mom who is on their phone.
In the afternoons, after I do a quick workout, is when I open up my phone to catch up on messages, do a quick scroll of Instagram, post pictures or stories, and go on Facebook to answer messages and do what I need to do for the day.
At 3:30pm, I close down my phone and laptop again and it's time to focus on the house, supper, and the kids. This is the part I still need to work on - not opening my phone again until the kids get to bed, but maybe writing it down can be a good accountability for me.
Social media is good. I really believe it. I have been so encouraged my many moms and women from around the world that I follow on Instagram. Social media has challenged my thinking and the way I see the world. It has opened opportunities for me that I would have not thought possible.
There is a way to use it intentionally and we owe it to ourselves and our children who are watching us, to find a way to do so.
Do you have any tips on ways that you live intentionally these days on social media?
