Hi, I’m Melissa Brumm
I used to think the best job ever would be Social Media Manager.
You could be on Facebook and Instagram all day?!
Yes please, sign me up!
And then, one day I got what I wished for. I got to be an Instagram Account Manager which then turned into Social Media Manager.
Dream job, right?
Wrong.
My sleep suffered, my self-worth suffered, and my personal relationships suffered. Nothing seemed more important than social media.
I was on social media all the time. I couldn’t focus on anything else. I would go on right after waking up and not put the phone down until I went to sleep. I spent hours creating posts and captions and then posting and watching for comments and likes. I was always worried about the likes my personal and business pages were getting. If I didn’t get likes, I was terrible at everything. If I did, then I was a good enough person.
I took my post engagements on social media for my own self-worth.
Once I recognized this pattern, I knew I needed to take a break from it.
So for my new year’s resolution, I decided to turn my phone off for 1 day/week. Needless to say, it didn’t work (LOL). It wasn’t sustainable to go cold turkey for me.
My compromise was to get space from my phone for a couple of hours each week.
I would either turn it completely off for a few hours or leave the house for a walk without it. I explored nature, read books, went to yoga classes, and spent time with my family during that time.
And I felt so much happier. I was clearer on how I wanted to spend my time, who I wanted to be with, and more mentally available for everyone around me. I didn’t feel I was missing out on anything. This was one baby step that led to more intentional use of my phone.
Instead of being anxious when I turned to social media, I knew I didn’t have to look at it even though it felt urgent. I could take control and not let social media dictate who I was.
Giving myself the space to think and dream, taking time to get to know who I was, and spending quality time with people that lifted me up were the perks of limiting my screen time.
Delving into the practice of yoga helped me to slow down to understand and process my anxious feelings, and meditate to clear my mind, leading me to getting my 200-hour yoga instructor certification.
Being a practitioner and instructor of yoga for 10+ years and experimenting with my own thoughts and feelings around social media has shown me how we can take back control of our lives and live meaningful, well-intentioned, loving lives with each other.
Through my work advocating for more intentional phone use, I help empower people to create real changes in their lives and the world around them, to understand their role in the world, and to create a more compassionate, environmentally and socially conscious community.
I’m an avid music fan and musician and I believe in the power of yoga, music, animals, and nature as forms of therapy to help alleviate anxiety, depression, grief, etc. I’m also a writer, designer, explorer and traveler.
I’ve embraced all of these varied interests to help me slow down, live in the moment, and stop and smell the roses (quite literally - one summer I spent a month pruning roses at a Chateau garden in France). And I’m sharing them with you in the Slow Life Revolution.
I started this when I felt I was getting too deep into social media -- when I found that my life was being lived more online than in real life, and discovered others were having problems disconnecting from their phones also.
Do you feel too deep into social media?
Let me help you take a foothold to get out of it.