I have this place I go when I need inspiration, love, comfort or direction. It’s a place that I go when times are tough, or I need a moment to reflect. I try go there every single day. When I visit, I’m brought back to this single moment that serves as my center. I’m walking along the beach. The sun is rising. I listen to the calming waves of the ocean and watch the world wake up around me. For a single moment, the world stops and everything is perfect in the world. And I think to myself I really need more moments in my life like this one. I mentally begin planning my next vacation to a new destination.

It’s in that moment and that place where I find peace and where I find strength. It’s in that moment where I send peace and strength to others. Because right now, my life is pretty amazing. My family is healthy. We have a roof over our heads. My daughter is thriving. I have a great husband, job and circle of friends.

Why I Left Facebook

I haven’t always taken this time for self-reflection. Something else was getting in the way. I’ve been focused on the wrong things. Until recently, you could find me every single morning and sometimes at 2:00 AM not pontificating on the secret of life or writing in my journal but with my eyes glued to my mobile device connected to the world through a magical social network called Facebook.

This weekend I made the decision to take a Facebook vacation which admittedly is very hard. I’m currently in withdraw. I am addicted to the need to know everything that’s going on in friends, connections and family’s lives. I’m in need of a reset. I need to decompress. I don’t need to know everyone’s interests, opinions and political affiliations. I want some mystery so I’m resetting things.

Finding the Beauty in Restraint

For nearly the last nine years I have shared nearly every moment of my life via social media and the web. I tweeted when my water broke when I was pregnant. I looked for comfort when my father in law passed away and I wrote openly about my miscarriage and the struggles I encountered. I do believe talking about life struggles, challenges and success is important. However, I think there is also beauty in restraint.

I think most people are like me. They don’t find success or make new better habits going cold turkey. They need to ween off their social medias or the internet where the world is your stage. This is something I’m experimenting with. It doesn’t mean I’m giving up the blog, Facebook or my digital soapbox. It just means that I’m evaluating, pontificating and reflecting in that there might be another way to engage, learn and grow. And I figured why not give it a go to see what the future brings.

Before social media, there was this thing called a phone call, coffee or a backyard barbecue with friends. I’ll be reading books instead of electronic documents and playing at the park with my family. I want to do more of those things. I want to hear from my sisters about their kids first day or school instead of reading about it and looking at pictures on a social network. I want to enjoy my downtime by really living.

So you’ll see less of me out there on the social medias, particularly Facebook and the world wide web as I experiment and using that found time to find the beauty in and fall in love with other things. Because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. And while I’m crazy, I’m not insane. Yes, I’m focused on less time on the internets and leaving Facebook, but the goal for me is quality interactions and connections not quantity. And that’s a good thing.