By midmorning on Saturday I had come to conclusion that I needed a vacation from my social media platforms. I was running late to my yoga class that I was teaching and the only option I had to get in touch with my students was via Facebook. I sent them each a message letting them know I was running behind and left it at that.

I arrived at my class exactly 30 minutes late to a room full of no one.

I quickly checked my phone and realized people had only just saw the message and probably came to the class thinking I just didn't show up. I felt crushed. I felt like an irresponsible person.

 I sat in silence for about 10 minutes when the thought came to me. I needed to get my priorities straight and a big part of that was disconnecting from social media and taking more to phone calls and face to face time with people.

I sent message off to my students asking for their phone numbers (the place I teach only asks for email on the registration sheet). In the future I would call everyone to let them know if there was a problem before they made the trip to the class.

Once I had the messages sent, I uninstalled Facebook from my phone. I had previously uninstalled Twitter as my phone was getting full and I don't use Twitter half as much as Facebook.

I made the decision that social media was too distracting and wasn't always reliable. From the moment I removed the app, I began to think about all of the other things I needed to achieve for the day. I did find myself  checking my phone for the first hour, but after that the habit seemed to pass.

I had a massage and then went a bought myself lunch. After buying lunch I went into a few stores. I bought myself a nice plush blanket for the fall and winter months and I headed home. I had the day to myself as R was out of town for the day.

I made myself a hot cup of coffee and downloaded a new book on my Kindle and cuddled up on the couch with my new blanket (yes it was chilly enough at one point to do this!). It was nice knowing I was controlling my own feelings of the world at that moment.

There was no social media to sway my thoughts. I didn't have to scroll across the latest Trump drama or see a friend ranting about something that was probably important for them at the time but would also probably realize later that it was silly to post.

My feelings and thoughts were in the then and now and the only one who could change them at that point was me.

I enjoyed the New York State Fair yesterday without distractions from my phone. I was with my friends and her kids and I had so much fun interacting with all of them then messing with my phone. My husband was impressed that I was able to control not being on my phone all day. I was proud too, but a part of me knew already that it wouldn't be hard.

I continued to live off the "social  media grid" through last night around 7pm. I did sign in to check my Yoga page messages to make sure I didn't have any issues I needed to respond to and I signed back out.

I think I am going to continue to keep myself off of social media, other than to do work stuff. I will post for my blog and keep up with my yoga page, but other than that I am going to focus on other things. I am going to get other things done first.

After 31 hours of being off the grid I realized, I didn't miss much. If someone needed to get in touch with me, they did. When I scrolled through my feed quickly I didn't see anything so important that I felt I missed something. It was pretty magical.

Now to continue this week as this coming weekend I am literally going off the grid to the mountains of North Carolina where they may or may not be any form of cell service.

Bring it on!

Namaste.