🎧 54. A Cyclical Approach to Social Media
Ideas for engaging with Instagram inspired by nature, the moon, and your body's inner seasons.
“It might seem strange to give so much thought to how we’re using apps like Instagram, but as Annie Dillard once wrote, ‘how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.’”
I tried my very first “social media detox” way back in 2017, and spending ten whole days away from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter was HARD. Since then I’ve worked up to whole months, and now entire seasons, and try to adopt a more cyclical approach when I can.
Because of social media’s shape-shifting nature (hello, algorithms) I always find it useful to check in a few times a year to see how I’m feeling, and encourage you to do the same.
This episode is less about whether or not you should be on these platforms in the first place, and more about how to be in relationship to our visibility and the internet at large in ways that are inspired by nature and our bodies.
Episode Highlights
A framework for social media use based on your body’s inner seasons, the lunar calendar, and nature’s shifts
Prioritizing our needs within the framework of a larger digital ecosystem
5 suggestions for using social media based on your menstrual cycle
6 ways to play with the cyclical energy of your choosing (and still benefit from Instagram)
Linkable Mentions
How Embracing the 4 Phases of Your Menstrual Cycle Can Expand Creative Potential
Episode 30: A Post-Pandemic Relationship with Social Media
Conversation starter
From making reels when you’re ovulating to deleting Instagram from your phone on the weekend, what’s one way you can experiment with how you engage on social media?
🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. While you’re there, please rate and review the show too! It helps the podcast find new listeners, and I’d really appreciate it.
Hi Nicole! I finally had the chance to listen to this episode and found it inspiring!
Even though I don't use Instagram anymore, I think your suggestions can be applied to other online and IRL things — writing and publishing a newsletter, posting or commenting on Notes, attending events, networking, etc.
As you highlighted, the key is being mindful of what is more about looking inward and what is more about engaging and focusing outward instead.
Also, I am building a framework for my work that includes four areas, and now I am wondering if they can be mapped to seasons somehow. 💡
Thanks for the inspiration!