Welcome back to Blush & Camo! As many of you may know, I took a 10 month break from social media (to read the post on why click here!) and wanted to share some of the positive things that came from that break. I notice that bloggers, who rely heavily on social media to promote their business, are hesitant to take a social media break and I totally understand why! While I am never going to advocate taking 10 months off, I will say there are benefits to even unplugging 1 hour each day (baby steps!) and dedicating that hour to something completely unrelated to blogging or social media!

Ok, so here are the top four pros to my social media break! If you have ever experienced these let me know in the comments below:).

1.) LIVING IN THE PRESENT 

During my social media break it was so nice not to worry about if I had enough content to post, reorganizing my schedule to post content, or worry about taking time to relax because that time wasn’t spent doing something productive on social media. I learned to live in the present and really enjoy time with friends and family instead of having my mind wonder to what the next picture I was going to post would be.

2.) I GOT OUT OF MY CREATIVE RUT 

About a year ago I was going through a creative rut and I learned this was because I wasn’t taking time to unplug. Eventually, not relaxing and unplugging led to complete and utter blogger burnout. During those 10 months I was able to recover and find inspo from various places such as Pinterest, nature, and doing activities in Nashville completely unrelated to blogging.

I also learned a lot about myself in how I am able to recharge my creative batteries and understand what my limits are for creating content each day. Three years ago I was hard-charging, wanting to accomplish everything in one day, and determined to push past my limitations. While pushing past your limits is usually a good thing, I was taking it to extreme.

Now, I set goals and time limits each day for what I want to accomplish for the blog. This allows me to sustain creativity without burning myself out.

Without that 10 month social media break I never would have figured this out about myself and grew from the experience.

3.) DEFINING MYSELF PAST SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT 

It’s SO easy on social media let your engagement dictate your mood for the day. A year ago, low engagement meant people didn’t like you and high engagement meant people loved you. I know this sounds utterly ridiculous, but that was how I interpreted my social media engagement. I was scared of having low engagement knowing this would alter my mood for the day.

After 10 months, I was able to define myself on my own terms and not let vanity metrics get in the way of my self esteem. No amount of likes on a picture is going to determine if you are a genuine, kind, or funny person. That’s all they are- numbers.

I would be lying if I said I still don’t get wrapped up in this today, because some days I do, but those days are few and far between from where I was a year ago!

What did you think of today’s post?! I would love to hear your comments below! Thank you so much for stopping by Blush & Camo!

xx Julianna

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