Greetings in the New Year! William and I got away for a little sun and warm and now we're back in FULL FORM (despite picking up a nasty respiratory icky)! We're excited making plans and preparing for the next growing season. Soon warm weather will be back. Yes, soon.
A few months back I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts after a slow slog to recognizing their unhealthy impact on my being. I have to say, the result of letting go of something so pervasive, tenacious and intangible has been SHOCKING, to say the least! Yes, what happened after I left social media totally surprised me!
What happened, you ask?
1) Well, first, I stopped thinking about my fictitious HER. Since my early days in home renovation and flipping some thirty years ago, I have held in my mind's eye a fictitious woman for whom I designed, styled, and renovated. I'm not sure why I never thought to design for my own pleasures and desires, but instead, sought HER approval. When I opened the Farm Store, this fictitious customer remained with me as I designed products I hoped she would like.
2) I stopped thinking about EVERYBODY! Of course, that's not entirely true, but what I hadn't realized is how exposure to social media caused other people to infiltrate my brainwaves. It all seemed so innocuous. After perusing social media, I'd wonder if so-n-so saw my posts, I'd wonder if people looked but didn't comment, I'd wonder about people's opinions, I'd wonder where the interesting content went, I'd get irritated, I'd wonder why people posted so many pets, on and on went my wonderings and opinions. I didn't realize I spent so much time thinking about others in my social media world...and allowing their opinions or judgements (or lack thereof) to infiltrate my mindset.
3) I suddenly understood what it means to LIVE IN THE MOMENT! Once I ditched social media and my brain dumped all this wasteful garbage thinking and lost time, I found myself content in whatever space I occupied. This blew me away to realize that I wasn't thinking about things out in ethereal space, I wasn't concerned with somebody far and away, I wasn't interested in an outsider's opinion, I was just being...and WOW! Did that give me PEACE and CONTENTMENT!
4) My spirit has quieted. I knew on some level that pressures related to social media were unhealthy and anxiety inducing for me, but what I didn't anticipate was the enormous calm that would come from leaving it all behind.
Now, in the world of running a business and marketing, I worry that I might have missed the mark by dumping social media, but I wasn't using it effectively anyway. In this day and age, VIDEO rules, but I'm old school and it is with the "old fashioned" BLOG where I find my joy.
I like the historic record my blog holds as "Farm News" within our website, I like the simplicity of pairing a photo and a few musings, and I like that it forces people to READ! No, this does not come from some sort of sick demented school marm past, but instead from what I know about myself. I always prefer to read information over learning via video. I find video very stress-inducing, but with reading, I can inject my own calming tone and take it at my own pace (often faster than people on videos can relay info). I suppose the bottom line is as a reader, we have control over the consumption timing, tone and rate. Reading is not anxiety inducing or noisy. It is upon these written words I fly!
I'd love to hear from you about how you are connected to this blog. Do you get it through the WIX App? Does it come to your email? Did you find it by searching for Lake View Organic Farm? Also, feel free to share it with friends. I'm hopeful that through word of mouth and our strong continued customer base, we will have another successful year with our Farm Store business at Lake View Farm.
We're OPEN DAILY 9-6 and still running on the SELF-SERVE model. We accept cash, check or Venmo.
Stop out whenever you need a little farm in your life!
Love,
Sarah