I'm Taking a Social Media Time-Out

Dear Readers,

As of this week, i’ll be taking a social media vacation.

Over the past year I left a job I loved, uprooted my life and moved to a new country, traveled to an additional seven different countries, finished graduate school in a rigorous program (nearly half of the credits where completed in the last 9 months alone), and alongside you have endured the stress of a global pandemic.

I feel like I am coming off of an adrenaline rush.

It has been the best kind of adrenaline rush – the kind that keeps you craving more of your own brain chemistry.

I can tell you though, even in what has been a beautiful year, one I would absolutely relive if given the chance, I damn near committed an act of self-abuse with how many things I relentlessly did with very little time, and very little rest. This year of accomplishments and unfettered hard work and constant motion came at the cost of regular sleep, a balanced diet, time with friends, and quiet time. These things were accomplishments absolutely, but not all parts of the process were healthy.

To be honest, my life has run at this pace for a very long time. I thrive in chaos, so much so that I tend to create it if my pace slows too much. Honestly, I don’t now how to slow down very well.

And that is just the reason to do it.

I recognize my need for rest. I recognize my need for quiet time.

With God.

With my husband and my dogs.

With myself.

With a good book and a long hot bath and a couple glasses of beer and an abnormally early bedtime (i.e. anything earlier than 1 am).

Personally, I can’t do this with a phone constantly insisting I engage in a media platform that is failing to feed me…sucking my head space from it’s place of peace, to a place of annoyance at keyboard warriors overly aggressive in their ambition to be right over being kind, to a place of comparison of lifestyle and ideals, and from a place of reading a book to a place of mind numbing scrolling that spikes my screen-time report without even having done anything of value.

Amongst the hard work that has left me a little dry, I am tired of the polarized nature of people and social media.

We are living through a time in history which proves more than ever, our affect on one another…and yet we are consumed by our position as individuals while failing to recognize that our place in this world exists elbow to elbow with our neighbor.

We are so busy questioning whether we should have to care about our neighbor, that we have forgotten the true power that exists in putting another person first.

We have forgotten how to speak kindly to one another.

This exhausts my head and my heart.

Candidly, what frustrates me the most, is that so many of these arguments are being had in the name of God.

Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist and Jesus wasn’t a Christian; they were people that followed unadulterated love.

The Buddhists and the Christians and the Muslims and the everything else came after their leaders walked the earth.

And so many of us are outright lodging war against everything our spiritual leaders stood for, while doing so in our leaders name.

And as a person of spirit, I am so perplexed by other believers.

When I think of Jesus, or any of the other religious and spiritual teachers I admire, I have a hard time believing any of them would have been angrily arguing their individual rights before putting their neighbor first.

We are called to love community, and yet we fail to respond to each other in love or in commune.

We fail to remember that our love for others calls us to stand at the back of the line.

The lie of self is one I believe has become socially acceptable, and thus readily believed in our culture.

It separates us from each other.

It separates us from God. If God created us to be in community, then the lie of individualism separates us from God.

It separates us from love.

It is the lie I will continue to stand up against.

But it is also a tiring fight.

I am tired of the aggressive.

Of the battle of wills unsubstantiated by solid proof or reason.

Of self before others.

Tired, ready for renewed energy and a new direction, and very aware of it.

I am a leader, and sometimes leadership means stepping back to recharge, so that one is not leading from a place where they are running on fumes.

If I am going to advocate for you to the best of my ability, I must advocate for myself – to meet my own needs for rest.

I want to continue to be a writer you trust. I want to continue to speak life into you. To challenge the lies you believe about yourself and the world around you the best way I know how.

In order to do this, I need to take time to meditate. To reflect. To imagine. To be quiet.

During this time I will still be active on the blog because this brings me joy, so if you want to keep up with me, stay on this platform. You will be able to see my regular posts in the section titled, “The Daily Series” up on the top sections bar. Just to be clear, I won’t be posting daily, but semi-regularly. Unlike my “Featured” blog posts, these will be casual in nature. What we are doing. What I am meditating on. What I am reading. How the pandemic is evolving over here in Germany. Pictures of my dogs. You won’t be able to see the posts from the front page, but new ones will be up regularly.

As for Facebook and Instagram, I will be taking a break no shorter than 40 days. I will see you back on those platforms starting in July. I can’t wait to come back to you in full force, with all the head and heart content that I love to share.

All my love for you always,

Taylor Patrice