Grab a tea and I’ll share a tale of how an encounter with a deer in my neighborhood inspired me to quit Instagram and help me find focus, grace, and mindfulness.

Since moving to Vancouver Island, I have had the pleasure of experiencing more nature than what I’m used to. Instead of a couple eagles, I see soars of them in the skies. Instead of a lone deer I come across miles away from home, I find families of them in local parks. It’s been humbling and inspiring to be more connected to the wildlife here. I’m very lucky.

Connecting to nature for insight

Historically, I find that by connecting with nature, we can glean insights into how we might or if we should take action in our lives.

My recent encounter with a deer had me feeling inspired to take the lessons nature was trying to teach me and apply it to my life.

The encounter

I opened my front door one night and found a deer waltzing down our street, feeding on grass in my neighbors front lawn. This was a little strange as we live in an area with multiple cul-de-sac’s so it wasn’t the most ideal place for wildlife to get in and out of.

This made me take notice – just as the deer took notice of me standing in the doorway, watching it.

The deer was gentle. Mindful in its steps. Graceful in its actions. And acutely aware of its surroundings, ready to bolt if it felt it was in danger. It didn’t multi-task. But instead, focused on one thing and used its senses and intuition to react accordingly and get what it needed in that moment. No questions. No wavering.

Taking lessons from nature

This tuned me into my own awareness, senses, feelings, and my actions regarding them.

• Was I being gentle with myself & where I was in my business?

• Did I have a focus of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do?

• Was I being mindful with my decisions and where I was spending my time & energy?

• What could awareness of my feelings tell me about what I & my business needed?

• Did I need to move at such a fast pace? Or could I slow down a bit to explore the pastures?

Big questions for a 2-minute encounter but I came to realize some things that were misaligned for me. And it started with Instagram.

Making decisions from a place of awareness

Over the last year, I had been struggling quite a bit with Instagram.

I was spending endless amounts of time and effort to build a sense of community, offer value to that community, and help grow my small business by trying to reach new audiences.

I adjusted if what I was doing wasn’t working. And even hired consultants, took classes & employed everything I learned to improve. I posted more, posted less, and uploaded variations of posts to keep it interesting. However nothing seemed to help and in the process, I found myself LESS focused on my business & the creativity required to grow it, and MORE focused on creating for “the ‘gram”.

This clouded my judgement, scrambled my intuition, and affected my mental health. Which only negatively affected how I showed up in my business and in my personal life. And yet, I continued to try. Hoping it would change.

But when the deer appeared, I decided to stop. To listen to my intuition and feelings about being on the platform, and gracefully quit Instagram. As contrary as that may be.

The conclusion

Whether it’s me not delivering valuable or engaging content, the dang algorithm, or a combination of both at play, it’s really hard to say. In the end, Instagram may just not be for me anymore.

All I know is that tuning into that deer helped me realize I needed to step back and reassess my motivations, purpose, and goals for being on the Instagram platform - and if I could honestly say that I was achieving them there. And it didn’t stop there!

I started wondering about other areas of life and business where I might feeling misaligned or out of step with my true goals.

Those decisions and insights are to come I’m sure!

So what happened after I left?

The decision to quit Instagram came with some doubts and judgement. So, thank you deer for reminding me to have grace with myself during this time.

I also experienced a two week habit-breaking period. Followed by a reallocation of energy.

• Check. Check. I’d reach for my phone to check Instagram multiple times in a day, only to remember, I wasn’t logging on unless I had a message or comment to reply to.

• Content no more! When I went for a hike, I’d reach for my phone to record content. Only to remind myself, I didn’t have to make a post about it. I could just observe, take this moment for myself, and truly, turn “off”.

• FOMO. For an entire month, I experienced a huge fear of missing out as my creative friends continued to post and share their amazing work and all of their successes. But, I found ways around that by keeping in touch offline, checking their websites, or signing up to their newsletter if I wanted to know what they’re up to.

• Focused inspiration. To that end, I’m signing up for more newsletters now so that I get a weekly or monthly blast of inspiration at one time vs. an overwhelming deluge of it throughout my day. This feels more intentional and a slower “feed” of information I’m looking for.

• More time. Since I have more time, I created an artist intro video for all of my sales channels – and super proud of the results. This has been a backburner item for a couple of years now.

• More balance. I’m finding more balance in my week as I can focus on business and my art. No longer am I spending additional time planning, strategizing, writing captions, and designing for my Instagram feed. I’m getting more time for my business, my personal life, and designing for myself again.

• Finding opportunity elsewhere. In spite of my fears of missing opportunity, they are somehow finding me OFF the platform. I continue to connect with new customers, keep in touch with business partners through email and virtual calls, and recently signed a new license deal which I’ll be sharing in my newsletter in the new year. This is proof that Instagram isn’t the only way to succeed - in spite of what we might believe.

• Missin’ some stuff. But mostly not. While I may be missing some stuff, I don’t miss the platform which is confirmation I may have made the right choice. Instagram has changed so much since I started posting on it that it has morphed into a platform that is no longer a fit for me - and that’s ok. Onwards and upwards!

With such positive changes made from such a relatively minor shift in behaviour, I wonder what my productivity, creativity, and business look like in 2 or 8 months time? I’m curious! And I can’t wait to share.

Tell me I’m not the odd woman out here!

Have you left or reduced your time on, or even quit, Instagram? If so, I’d love to hear your reasons and how you’re feeling about it. Comment below to get the conversation started!

UPDATE MAR 7, 2023: I returned to Instagram in early February to promote my upcoming release. However, I may have done too much - again! So I may be pulling back - again! The struggle is real my friends.

UPDATE MAR 29, 2023: I’ve finally found a balance that is working for me - regardless of what the algorithm says. I’ve been posting twice a week in my feed and popping into my stories to connect with my community one-to-one and share exciting new things on an as-needed basis. This has allowed me to develop a stronger strategy for content as I put my blog at the core of my content creation which informs what the rest of my content (elsewhere) might look like.

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