Stripped Back

Sometimes we can be swept along in a current that we intuitively feel is wrong for us, daunting and overwhelming. Maybe the river is flowing where we want to go but this little section of it is too much, to disturbed.

I feel a little like that right now. In my quest to write, and for my writing to receive some validation, other than it feeling good to me, I have been swept back into the world of social media.

Maybe it is just a crisis of confidence, but I am finding the constant notifications from Facebook already overbearing and I’ve only been using it a few days.

My dilemma is that people keep telling me that if I want to get my writing out there, I need a huge social media following…can that really be true?

Reading an article in Breathe magazine written by Kate Orson, the words struck accord.

“The mind can sometimes rationalise behaviour, even when it leads you away from your values.”

I certainly don’t want to give up pursuing my writing but I just don’t feel comfortable being held captive to endless social media platforms. The article goes on to say

“Whatever you choose, let it emerge from a deep sense of intuiting what’s right for your whole person – body, mind and soul.”

So my decision is a compromise, keep the website, keep Instagram and ditch Facebook. Now I have made the choice my heart feels lighter, I am no longer spending wasted energy worrying about it. It feels right, comfortable and more me.

So with stripping back a little in mind I feel the only way to swim today is stripped back, raw and totally connected to the real elements that matter, the sea, the sky and air.

Its surprising how little cold you feel when stood naked on a beach in March. The wind is fresh and gusty and yet I don’t shiver, just enjoy the sublime feeling of the air brushing across my skin and the cold water as it swirls around my body.

Scratchy brown seaweed scrape over my limbs but feel inviting not frightening. Luckily today Great Par was deserted. There is nothing more free and wonderful as a skinny dip, probably my last one for a while as the Island welcomes back visitors.

All in all I feel more relaxed, more ready to keep on flowing with that river.