What My Soul Taught Me About Instagram

When your Soul speaks, do you listen?

First, let’s be clear. Your Soul is always, always speaking from a place of pure love for you. Its language is never blaming, critical or harsh. Its tone is never demeaning or punishing. The Soul’s language and tone are full of love and compassion, or neutral and simply stating a fact.

At times you may respond to your Soul’s message with thoughts and emotions that feel uncomfortable to you. When that happens it’s very important to get curious about why you’re having this reaction.

This is how our learning takes place. This is how we gain clarity. This is how we come into alignment.

Here is a personal example of processing an intense reaction to a Soul message. This feels especially important to share because a lot of moms need help reducing their time on social media.

A couple months ago, my Soul started encouraging me to reflect on how I was using Instagram for my business.

At first I felt drawn to evaluating my feed’s style, format, content . . . but it soon became abundantly clear that my Soul was encouraging me to reduce the time spent on my Instagram feed. And dramatically.

First, I had a very strong—surprisingly strong!—reaction against my Soul’s message.

So many thoughts rattling around in my head about what a small business today “should” do. So many anxious, fear-based thoughts and feelings about how reducing my time investment on Instagram would affect my content generation, brand establishment, client attraction, creativity, etc., etc.

My reaction to my Soul’s message was a general sense of panic.

Because I knew my Soul’s message was based in love, it was clear that I needed to understand my intense reaction.

So, when I had time to myself, I took a good deep breath, placed my hands over my heart and sent myself love and compassion. I reminded myself that my Soul loves me beyond measure.

Then, I acknowledged and appreciated my self-awareness. Observing our own mind is vital for personal growth and evolution.

These acts calmed me, so I could more easily enter observer mode. And then I spilled my thoughts and feelings out on paper. I connected with how each thought made me feel, and take action, and the results these actions were generating.**

This helped me see that the number of likes and follows had started to become a subconsious barometer for how “well” I was doing with my young business. And I was able to see the disempowerment of this thinking. I had allowed myself to become subject to the whims of Instagram’s algorithms.

I saw how the fleeting and addictive dopamine hits after receiving likes and follows kept me coming back for more “validation.” And I could see this was a negative feedback cycle. This also explained the panicked reaction to my Soul’s message; I was confronting an addiction.

But the real kicker for me was when I realized that I was almost always on the hunt for my next post’s content—especially when I was in Nature—rather than opening myself to experiencing an expansive connection to Nature, to my intuition, to my wisdom.

My time in Nature was subtly becoming shallow, surficial. A means to an end. And I was suffering from it.

This one hit me hard. Really hard.

I actually cried, at first with sadness, but then with deep gratitude for having gained this clarity.

The next day I took a long hike in a place that was new to me. Before, I would have my phone at the ready, seeing things as photo opportunities and thinking of possible captions. This time, I put my phone in my pack but never took it out. Didn’t take a single picture.

For awhile I repeatedly found myself content hunting. A few times involuntarily reaching for my phone.

But as soon as I recognized what was happening, I’d lovingly remind myself that it had become a habit and that I was retraining my brain. I wouldn’t berate myself for the thought or the involuntary action. Instead I’d thank myself for being so self-aware. Then, I’d speak a little mantra that I’d created for myself.

My content hunting became less frequent during that hike, not completely going away. And that retraining continues. I recognize this will be a process.

Happily, I’m already receiving from Nature more deeply than I have in several months. It’s beautiful and freeing. I’m reconnecting with my presence. And this is the best kind of validation.

Moms, if this resonates for you regarding social media, or another aspect of your life, I invite you—no, I implore you—to listen to your Soul. It is pure compassion and love. For YOU.

If your Soul’s message is hard to hear, that’s a sign of its importance.

If you’re having trouble processing the message on your own, find the help you need: a coach, a mentor, a trusted friend . . . and work through it.

This is your life. Listen to your Soul. Honor yourself.

** I learned this method from the fabulous Brooke Castillo at The Life Coach School. It’s called The Model, and is a highly effective approach to mind management.

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Ready to reconnect with your intuitive, natural wisdom?

Schedule a Breakthrough Session and let’s get started! It would be my honor to support you in finding the clarity you seek, with Nature as our companion.