Well hey there strangers! You may have noticed (or not, haha) that I haven't blogged in quite a while. And if you follow me on social media, you may have noticed I've been barely there too. Let me explain...
I really do enjoy writing these blogs and I LOVE seeing how everyone is doing online and cheering on their successes and giving words of encouragement when they're down. Not to mention all the funny videos and beautiful photos. BUT, blogging was starting to stress me out. No one asked me to blog, I will never make any money off my blog. I started it for fun. I enjoy writing. The way it stretches my brain to come up with, not only the topic, but the flesh of it. What to say. I extra love writing about games, books, and shows that I enjoy. Giving props to folks who worked hard to create something amazing. And of course sharing words of inspiration and wisdom when I can conjure them up. However, I put pressure on myself that if I started a blog I HAD to write every week. On top of that I decided I HAD to write twice a week, a Monday post and a Thursday board game post. I began to stress about what to write about and the words were harder and harder to find. Not to mention some weeks are just so slammed that when I have a moment to sit I don't want to be on the computer. Which ties into why I have put distance between myself and social media. I was posting something every single day. Just one thing, in the morning. A positive quote or something. Just to make sure everyone who saw my content had something positive in their feeds. But even just that brief little posting would lead to scrolling and spending more time than I should with my face stuck in my phone. Not doing things I should be doing and often times ingesting a lot of negative content. Because, for all of the positives, there is no shortage of angry rants and judging posts. Trolls and unnecessary rudeness. Not to mention the fact that every second I spend on line is time I don't spend looking up and out. It's time taken away from my kids and husband. It's time taken away from nature and the things around me. Time I could spend exercising or doing things that NEED to be done. So back in February I decided to take the month off of social media all together. It was lovely. I have spent more time reading books and things that I enjoy, I've been more productive with necessary things, and I've just had less anxiety and felt less stressed about the impact of a social media presence on my ability to obtain work.
Now I'm not saying I'm done with social media. There are still things I enjoy about it and it's how I stay in touch with long distance family and all of the spectacular friends I've made around the world, but I'm definitely going to maintain my reduced presence. I'm also going to start blogging again. When I feel like it. Maybe every week, maybe every month. Maybe not for a few months. I want to continue to share, but without guidelines and "requirements". I'm going to continue to work on keeping my expectations for myself (and others) realistic and focus on what really matters. I encourage you to do the same.