In today’s digital age, the dialogue surrounding mental health and the effects of social media on our well-being has reached a fever pitch. As the owner of a media marketing company, I found myself entrenched in the virtual world—on social media platforms nearly 90 percent of my day, seven days a week. The constant pressure to capture every moment, to curate the perfect feed, began to weigh on me. I was so focused on getting the right shot at a restaurant or during family outings that I lost touch with the joy of living in the moment. It became clear: I needed to reprioritize my life.

Managing the social media presence for multiple clients across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok is no small feat. Each day is a whirlwind of content creation—graphics, reels, videos—alongside crafting press releases, conducting interviews, writing articles, and overseeing graphic design and website management. And that’s just for my clients. On top of all that, I’m also managing my son’s burgeoning music career, being a wife, a daughter, and recently, a new mother. The juggling act was becoming unsustainable, and I had to ask myself: What am I really striving for?

That’s when I decided to take a step back. In the words of U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, I was “Reclaiming My Time.”

During my five-month hiatus, I found myself reflecting on Audre Lorde’s powerful words in her poem A Song for Many Movements: “Our labor has become more important than our silence.” This line struck a deep chord within me, prompting an introspection on my current existence and how I had been navigating this point in time. The realization hit me hard—most of my relationships had become shallow, reduced to mere hearts and smiley faces beneath a stream of comments and messages. I longed for deeper connections, for real conversations. I wanted to get back to picking up the phone, calling my friends, and genuinely asking, “How are you?”

You really learn who your true friends are when you go silent. During my break, I received calls from college professors and friends I hadn’t spoken to outside of social media in years. It was both refreshing and eye-opening. I even took the opportunity to reconnect with my cousins during a weekend getaway at an Airbnb. We stayed up all night, talking, laughing, and basking in the nostalgia of simpler times—times that seem all too fleeting in today’s fast-paced world.

However, my break from social media wasn’t absolute. I still had clients to manage, but I approached my work with a renewed sense of peace. I hired new employees, onboarded fresh clients, and created enough breathing room in my schedule to enjoy simple pleasures, like watching Jeopardy! in the evenings. I even caught Pat Sajak’s final day on Wheel of Fortune—a moment of calm in the midst of my otherwise hectic life.

Yet, despite these moments of tranquility, my journey wasn’t what I had anticipated. As I continued to ponder Lorde’s writings, I found myself drawn to her essay The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, where she wrote, “I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”

This reflection led me to a profound realization: in the grand scheme of things, the opinions of others don’t really matter. The choices I make are mine alone, and some things I feel compelled to speak about, while others I choose to keep within, even if they might be taken out of context.

In reclaiming my time, I rediscovered the importance of balance—between silence and expression, between work and life. And perhaps most importantly, I learned that sometimes, the greatest act of self-care is simply stepping away, even if just for a moment, to reconnect with what truly matters.