How to lose followers (and gain community)

It's been a little quiet around this neck of the internet woods lately. The last year and a half I've been conspiring (and perspiring) with my lovely friend Deena as we threw an idea out into the world and watched Salt & Light Lifestyle begin to grow and take shape... and even change its name to Belong Lifestyle. 

 We've been learning and growing and working hard and I've been more and more convinced of one thing: community is work. It's friendship. It's conversations. It's "me too" and "you can sit with us."

Over the last year or two, I've taken a bit of a pause on sharing all the words on the blog. I've stopped sending writing work elsewhere to be published and I just sort of shut up for a while. If you know me, this didn't translate into real life silence so no luck there.

And then I deactivated my public Grumbling Grace Instagram and Facebook. Here's what I want to say about the looming giant of social media: it's fake but it's a bridge to real. 

We took all the tiring not-fun parts of being a blogger and we've used them to find real women who want to be seen. To be heard. To be comfortable in their own skin. And we're going to keep doing that for a while.

In the meantime,  here's how to lose followers:

1. Delete them. All the weird creepy ones.

2. Write what you really think.

3. Post what you want, when you want.

4. Follow people you're invested in.

5. Unfollow people who make you feel less than yourself or don't build others up.

6. Put limits on your time on social media.

In fact, this is also how you gain community. It's amazing what there's room for when you let go of the rest. 

The end. 

Love,
Abbie