Why saying farewell to Instagram didn't work.

At the end of December 2023 I decided to say F A R E W E L L to Instagram. Why? There were two reasons in all honesty… The one that I shared with my followers and told myself, and the real reason that I tried to hide from.

At the start of 2023, after life events turned my world upside down I retreated. I paused my online store. I shut down my monthly sticker subscription. My focus: picking myself up and getting through each day. It was that simple in my mind. As the year progressed and I started to feel more myself again, I began to take small steps back towards my biz. Soon I had begun to morph into a new version of myself, and as a result, so did my Small Business (Hello Power In My Kindness😆 ). 

Authenticity is a key value of mine. My designs often evolve from my own thoughts and feelings, so in order to feel connected to my work I like to be as honest as possible. But I am also aware of how important boundaries are so I made the decision very early on not to share what I was going through, but rather how I was feeling going through it. And my wonderful followers kindly respected that. Instagram therefore became my S A F E space and allowed me a place to process, to explore, to understand and to find myself again. 

So why at the end of the year did I feel a sudden urge to shut this all down? 

I told myself that this space was not beneficial for my business. I told myself that I could spend my time effectively elsewhere. I told myself that the supportive and creative community I was a part of wouldn’t miss me and that I wouldn’t miss them (Who are you trying to kid Simone?!?🫢🤨😣). In reality the end of the year gave me a chance to pause, and reflect and although I was unbelievably proud of myself I didn’t want to look back. It felt too difficult. Too raw. I didn’t want to keep seeing all those little squares that summarised my year of survival. I got through it. I had evolved from it. But I didn’t want to be reminded of it. And so the solution was to retreat again. So I did. 

It took me the whole of January to realise this. To understand my real motives. And to accept that it was more than understandable that I reacted the way that I did. That it was OK to feel an uncontrollable need to close the door to 2023 firmly behind me. But that did not mean I needed to close myself off from the gram. From my community. My followers. My customers. My Insta friends. 

So here I am, a few weeks later saying H E L L O Instagram! My grid has had a re-fresh and I am back.

Did you miss me?!?