If you read my blog “Mexico or Bust,” then in continuation of that conversation, this one is about the intentionality that ensues from taking the space to unplug and gain awareness of choices that either bring life or distract its places of growth.
My husband and I did indeed getaway to a beautiful location in Mexico for a week and to have a solid seven days of marriage investment, uninterrupted, was a gift beyond words. Although I could write a fullness of lessons learned on marriage on that trip, that is saved for another time.
I wanted to share with you one of the life-giving lessons that my soul traveled for two weeks – the intentional pursuit to unplug from social media was shared between us.
Social media holds its strength for joining passions together and mobilizing teams throughout the world for impact and for community. It can be an avenue of awareness to highlight the plights of social injustices and rally troops to battle on their defense. People who have lost touch can rekindle old relationships even states away.
Social Media Pros:
- This can be a place of growth if intentionality to nurture its purpose is involved.
- It can create avenues of teams and participation in groups that empower and increase confidence.
- Connects families and individuals with connection of similar seasons and encouragement.
Areas of Awareness:
- This can be a place of distraction from what truly matters when the scroll and roll and comparison/envy overshadows.
- It can be a place where your YES and your NO to join all the things gets intermingled in ways that do not build you up and strain your schedule and your time in misplaced ways.
- Instead of serving as business growth, it keeps you webbed in the not-good-enough category as “likes” competition spin your view out of sync.
- Instead of connecting people together for encouragement, it gives space for posting in ways that are all about self-promotion and disconnect happens in its place.
While traveling through the airport with my love, flying high above the clouds together, sitting days on beautiful beaches, and investing in romantic dinners together, logging off of social media was the VERY BEST KIND OF YES!
Taking this break while we invested in our marriage so intentionally was life-altering, and it has spun my spirit into some hard questions to ask myself consistently as I travel forward using social media in the right kind of ways. While sitting over the ocean waves and quietness of heart, this six-question social media inventory came to my spirit and I would love to share it with you.
- What is my screen time engagement? What time of the day am I on social media/my phone (this includes binging/watching of shows)?
- What are my conversations centered around? Whose voice am I listening to on my feed and what voice am I using in sharing my story?
- Am I oversharing our moments or connecting them with purpose?
- What groups am I participating in and how involved am I? If so, take intention with my YES and participate with purpose. If not engaged, then it is the best NO and I need to delete it from my account.
- How is my business growing through this space?
- Ask my tribe: have you felt the phone between us where connection of quality time should have been?
This is the thing, my friends. Phones can be used for beautiful places of connection and growth. I live states and countries away from many people I value, so Facetime and social media connection is a deep gift I treasure.
However, I recognize my quick distractor of letting my scroll and roll and Netflix binging overshadow moments that are legacy building in my story, and I never want to wake up one day and voice the ones I missed simply because of a lack of self-control that was my phone was between them.
2020 for me is about aligning and syncing in the strongest parts of myself, and stripping my availability and presence for my phone is of utmost importance.
I would love to hear from you in this area and hear ways that you are intentionally choosing to monitor phone presence and connect authentically in its place?
