On Halloween I made a post saying "goodbye, for now" and posted it on here for everyone to see. It's still up and I'll be leaving it up but I feel like I didn't fully explain what needed to be said. Part of me thinks that's because I was typing and posting when I was submersed in the moment and my feelings at that time. It's only been a few days since then and I've experienced so many mixed feelings during this time period. But honestly, even though it has just been 3 days I really miss this and I'm ready to explain what happened and what is going to be happening with this site.
Each month I usually set goals and share them with you all. I love doing that because it holds me accountable for wanting to actually show up each day and accomplish them. It's fun. So on October 31 I was thinking about my goals for November and what I was going to try to accomplish for the month. At the same time Essena O'Neill released her new webiste and I was really interested in it. That site and the message that she's spreading combined with a lot of time invested in Ted Talks involving vulnerability, shame, guilt, and other thought provoking topics had my mind going crazy. An idea came to me in an instant to stop using Facebook for a week. The more I thought about it though the more that I knew that I wanted to try more. So I said a month. Yeah, I'll stop using Facebook for November. That's a good goal to set! That quickly progressed to feeling like I needed to try this with all social media. But I didn't want to give it up completely. I knew that if used properly social media is amazing and really gives people the opportunity to connect. I've experienced that myself! It's wonderful. So I made a deal with myself to limit Instagram and Twitter (my two most used platforms) to twice a day. I'd check them once after breakfast and once before dinner. Before starting this I unfollowed heaps of accounts as well. People that I aimlessly scrolled passed and didn't really receive much of out their content I simply unfollowed. I'm now only following people that I am personally friends with or people that truly inspire me.
I began this on Saturday afternoon. It's now Tuesday evening. So far I have been successful with my plan and think that I'll make it through the whole week without many issues. But honestly, it's tough. I had to delete my Facebook bookmark on my computer because I would unintentionally be clicking on it. Multiple times a day I find myself getting on my phone and wanting to click on the apps for no reason at all. I find myself being more present and more productive with things. I somewhat feel like I'm missing out on things and I want to "be connected" but being disconnected is so much better. Today I went somewhere and saw a german shepherd with it's owner. I went up and talked to the lady while I petted the dog. We talked for a few minutes and then went about our days but I never would have done that if I wouldn't have been trying to remove social media. It wasn't a big deal but it was a small connection that would have been missed if I was getting out of my car and refreshing Instagram. It made me wonder how many other missed connections have happened because I was looking down at my phone.
With all of that being said though, I don't feel like social media is bad if used properly. I think it's a wonderful way to spread a positive message such a veganism or a great way to connect with someone who's interested in the same things that you are. I think that people use social media way too much in the presence of other people though. You never really realize it until you're not doing it. I have become so aware of how often people aren't really paying attention to me whenever we're conversing and they have their phones in their hands. That is one thing that I have already noticed and want to change when I bring it all back into my life again. I want to put my phone away when I'm with others, regardless of what they're doing. I think it's important to show people that you're there to interact and connect with them in real life when you get to spend that time together.
There are more things that I'm realizing as the days pass but I want to do a full update on this all once I am done with my little challenge that I've set for myself.
But this is what happened to me and what caused me to almost give it all up.
I have realized over the past few days that I don't want to give it all up though. I don't want to give any of this up. I simply want to add to it, to create something bigger.
I have some ideas and plans in my mind for what I want to do. I want to transform this site so that it revolves around veganism, health, feelings & thoughts, and actions. I have 50+ topics within each of these categories that Iwant to discuss and I'm open to any good though provoking topics that you'd like to read about as well! I will still be sharing a fair amount of recipes but throwing in some other good areas of conversation as well. At first when I "said goodbye" I was sad because I thought that Create N Plate would no longer be what it was. But now I'm excited. I'm excited for it to grow, transform, and allow me to connect with all of you on a deeper level than awesome vegan recipes.
I'm still working some things out. I'm considering a name change (with literally zero ideas of what I'd change it to) and I am even considering changing my website host as well (which I don't know a ton about). But it's all a process! And while all of this happens I will still be posting. I have my recipes all planned out to post for November and I still want to try to make them all happen. That is about as much as I know and have planned out currently but I wanted to keep you all updated on what's up since my last post was kind of shocking and very unclear.
I feel like this all needed to happen though to get myself to work towards what I feel like I am meant to be doing. I've said for a long time now that I wanted to do more as a vegan for so many reasons but I didn't know how to do it exactly. Now I know. That is very, very exciting and freeing to me. There are so many possibilities and opportunities and I can't wait to get started. I am also open to any suggestions or feedback from all of you. If there's something that you'd like to see or something that you'd like for me to see then definitely let me know! It would be much appreciated.
I also want to thank everyone who sent comments, emails, and nice things my way over the past few days. I am so grateful for all of you and I just wanted to say thank you. Your kindness and love doesn't go unnoticed and definitely brightens up my days.
I know this is quite long and thank you for reading if you've made it this far! Much love.