I’d seen others do it, but honestly couldn’t fathom it – delete everyone I was following on Instagram?! After a year of finding and connecting with different people and accounts – too wild for me!

What if I never find them again? What if I miss out on some epic piece of content or a sale or a live that sparks my next big idea or adventure? What if, what if, what if?

Cut to a few weeks later, deleting every account I was following down to ZERO with a huge feeling of release – ah, I get it now.

It’s got nothing to do with the algorithm…

As entrepreneurs, our first thought is often how will this affect our business?

But dropping down to zero had nothing to do with the algorithm. It wasn’t personal in any way towards the accounts I was following or had anything to do with business.

It was simply about me.

It was about my own energetic refinement, protection, and the health of my mind, body, and soul!

YOU are the most important piece of your business, so taking care of yourself, cleaning up your energy, and prioritizing your mental, spiritual, and physical health IS the best thing you can do for your business.

There may be a momentary dip (but often there isn’t because that is just another belief) in pausing your daily actions but business includes seasons and seasons ebb and flow.

If you want to build a legacy, don’t you also want to be there to witness it? With your full healthy self to experience its full impact?

If you’re here in The Cheetah Co. community whether at the online cafe with a coffee or tea reading this blog, or their Instagram or email community, I feel confident that your answers to those questions are a resounding heck yes, Jaymie.

Time to bring in some awareness…

Even though I was only following a couple of hundred accounts the consumption started to consume me and my mental and energetic health was dipping each time I opened Insta.

I was feeling inadequate by comparison – every time I opened the app a TON of new content would refresh with accounts posting multiple times a day to my few times a week. Am I not creating enough?! – feelings of lack.

I felt overwhelmed by the volume – each time I popped in for a few moments to respond to DMs or share a few stories throughout the day, that batch of new content would refresh over posts I hadn’t even looked at yet. There goes all those posts I’m missing out on again! – more lack.

I was exhausted just trying to catch up, let alone keep up – I was spending hours at the end of each day trying to take in all that content that I had missed and not even coming close. – yup, more lack!

Instagram began to take more and more of my time and my energy and was keeping me in that space of lack brought on by what I was feeling.

The biggest thing I noticed though, was that I was changing.

I was evolving out of certain beliefs and ideas and the way I was being marketed to wasn’t feeling good anymore so I was spending a lot of time in reactive mode as I was scrolling and THAT is a HUGE energetic leak.

As the CEO of your brand and business, you want to be aware of where your energy is going. And the unintentional energy leaks are the ones that sneak up and drain you the most because there’s no awareness to keep them in check.

It’s time to clean that energy up

A simple way to evaluate your leaks? Check-in with how you’re feeling.

I could go deep into vibrational frequencies and attuning to God / Source / Universe energy but essentially, your body holds the wisdom and your feelings can be your guide.

Consider the emotional scale :

• Gratitude, Appreciation, Happiness, and Joy are healing energies.
• Frustration, Anger, and Disappointment are draining energies.

There are a lot more levels in there but for the purpose of this article, we’re focusing on the majorly draining (and it’s always good to keep the healing in mind too!).

Instead of trying not to feel or avoid feeling those draining energies, start to notice them.

When you’re reading a post and you begin to feel angry or defensive take a moment to recognize and feel the emotion then say to yourself wow! I’m feeling really fired up by this post. That’s so interesting, I wonder why that is?

And either take a moment to put your phone down or close your laptop and explore it via meditation, journaling, recording yourself talking it out, or whatever feels good at the moment. 

Or simply register the emotion and the oh that’s interesting thought then continue to scroll or put your phone away and move on to another activity.

Preferably something that invokes a healing emotion to help soothe and return to a neutral space – an extra hot tip for ya!

The act of recognition and interrupting the nasty thoughts that accompany draining emotions is the start of changing your thought process and rewiring your brain. It’s also the beginning of cleaning up your energetic leaks because you’re no longer dwelling in that space and with those energy-draining thoughts.

When you interrupt your pattern and disrupt the thoughts behind the emotion while still recognizing and acknowledging them, you also create the opportunity to turn to your toolbox and heal something even deeper.

When enough is enough…

As you recognize the habits, behaviours, and activities that create those draining emotions in you you’ll start to see patterns, just like I was with Instagram.

I didn’t want to leak that energy anymore, so I took action and in this case, that action was cleaning up my feed. Taking who I was following down to zero.

As I was doing it I had moments of doubt and thought maybe I should write that person down or save a post so I don’t forget them or screenshot their account. But that’s not truly surrendering then, is it?

When that happened I took a deep breath, hit unfollow, and reminded myself why I was taking this action.

And Oh. My. GOODNESS did it feel good to see that zero. To open up the app and have NOTHING to look at, nothing to refresh or reload or worry about.

As it felt better I slowly started following people who made me feel good. Who inspired or reminded me of how beautiful our life, our journey, and our dash gets to be, or who helped teach me how to tap deeper into that beauty?

I still keep it super small, following maybe 20-30 people, and it grows as my capacity to hold more grows but I like it small on my own feed.

You can’t control what anyone else says or creates, but you always have complete control in curating your own experiences.

The result? I got my mojo back!

I created the space I needed to get myself back to good by recognizing my feelings, observing them without judgment, and taking the action as the patterns were revealed to close up those leaks and take back the energy I had unintentionally been giving away for so long.

Content started flowing, I had the energy to be present and more consistent, and from a space of WANTING to share – not because I had to or should be.

Those renewed feelings of desire and passion to serve and create – are definitely good for business 😉

Let your feelings be your guide! Listen to the wisdom your body is ALWAYS sharing, and begin curating a dash that’s intentionally full of happy, healing, magic!

As an extra reminder…

As entrepreneurs and even just as humans on this Earth, you are the gift.

You’ve always been the gift, you will always be the gift, and you are so worthy and deserving of FEELING like the gift at all times.

Don’t be afraid to choose yourself and take seemingly wild actions out of love for the gift that you are!

For more soulful conversations, energetic insight, & loving inspiration check out Jaymie’s Instagram @_aboutthedash or join her ATDash insiders’ list to receive soulful loving reminders, tips, & stories directly to your inbox!