Here's where I'm at. There is so much happening. Once I have heard and accepted one thing, then BAM, something else posts on social media that turns my head on my neck in a totally different direction.
But I know I am not the only one feeling like this lately; otherwise, I wouldn't be called to address the pink elephant in this digital room. I know at least one of you who stopped to read this is feeling the same way—call it intuition.
I feel like we're all at this point where things are wild, and we truly might be having to WORK at keeping our mental health in check right now.
I decided to set a boundary with myself and only tap into social twice daily. I decided on Sunday because when I got my screen report for the week, my screen time was up by 6 hours! That was 6 hours of human existence I missed because I got sucked into the man-made world of social.
My average for anyone who cares is 3 hours and 35 minutes a day (as I write this, I am already down 50% of my consumption from last week) - however, I am having a hard time because I allowed myself and chose to be on social media for that much longer. <Insert Eye Roll Emoji>
If you are also feeling like you are having a bunch of thoughts and feelings about what is going on but that you need to ignore what's going on, act like everything is fine and "normal," and keep posting as if nothing is going on, it's like I'm sitting right next to you, friend.
I post content, and in the back of my mind, a day after another unprecedented thing happens, I'm thinking, "Do people care about this product, service, or whatever? In my mind, the people on the other side of the screen who will see this are either doom scrolling for information or disassociated and in freeze mode, looking for dog or cat videos to entertain them and not looking to book a session or buy a product.
And then I hit post because I'm a professional, and it matters to keep the algorithm fed because, at some point, that post will matter because we kept the algorithm fed.
What I wanted to remind you of today is that you are not the only one mentally exhausted from social media.
Our brains are not biologically made to ingest and handle this amount of content at this rate, including posts, podcasts, and memes. Your brain is overloaded.
It's okay to step away, schedule some generic posts to pacify the algorithm so it doesn't think you're gone forever, delete the apps from your phone for the weekend, and reinstall them on Monday.
Because, fellow business owner and entrepreneur, your mental health is the foundation of your entire business; you've gotta focus on getting that right. You are a human first, and then a business owner, whatever number on your list of who you are. Your human brain needs a pause; your customer's human brains need pauses. And for now and the foreseeable future, your biggest content competition is the news cycle. It's always going to grab attention first.
It's summer. Leave people on for more than 5 minutes, hug a tree, swim in a lake, dine al fresco with people you love, take your dog swimming, read a book on a beach, get out there, have a human experience, and enjoy the real world. I plan to do all of that with this week's "extra 6 hours." My business will always be here, your business will be there, and things will swing back when people regain their bearings.
For now understand you're not alone in all of this.