How removing social media from my phone reminded me to enjoy the moment

Don't get me wrong, I love social media! I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day and spend plenty of time on facebook and various other "social media" sites, they even have us tweeting for work. I love to know how my friends are doing, where they are going, and the direction their lives have taken them. This is not a post about the evils of social media, this is a post about how removing social media apps from my phone has allowed me to be in each moment and not feel the need to document every magical moment that happens in my life. This all came about when I was sitting with a group of people and one person didn't ever look up from their phone to interact with the group of people they were sitting with in a 30 minute time span. I thought it was sad and began to notice how often I miss moments that are actually happening to document the moment before or I was busy looking at other people's moments. When I was with friends or family, I was scrolling through facebook and Instagram to see what all my "other" friends were doing. I don't think this is a bad thing but I began to realize that I wasn't paying attention to the people I was with and enjoying their company and it made me sad. 

I also began to realize that I have a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out). I never want to feel like I am missing out on something awesome that other people are doing. I found myself looking at Insta and Facebook when I was with people I love and thinking that I was missing something more fun the other people I love were doing and posting on social media. This is when I realized I had a problem, a "social media on my phone" problem and that I needed to enjoy being with the people I was with and stop worrying about what other people were doing.  

It has been 3 weeks since I removed Facebook and Instagram from my phone. Remember that I still look at facebook at work, so I haven't removed it from my life completely. It was really hard at first, I would be waiting for someone somewhere and instantly go to look at facebook and instagram and I didn't have it and then I would panic for a minute and think "what am I going to do for this 5 minutes I am sitting here?" And then I began to look around me and see other people and remember how much I love to people watch. I would find myself doing something I thought was hilarious and want to document on social media and remember I couldn't and then I felt relief, I literally had a physical reaction to not being able to share my moments with the social media world. I have found that I am more present with the people I am with and I LOVE it, it feels so good to connect with people in person and enjoy those moments without feeling like I have to share them. I feel so free from the pressure of documenting my life. That may be totally strange for some people, but I feel like a weight of social pressure that I put on myself, has been lifted and I really am enjoying being in the moment and enjoying every moment for myself and not worrying about what the world will think of these moments. I am not saying you should do this too, I just wanted to share how removing social media from my phone has been so wonderful and I find that I enjoy every moment more when I am not worried about what other people are doing, or what other people might think about what I am doing. 

If you decide to try it, let me know what you think.

Christmas

This time of year is magical. There are so many wonderful things that come with Christmas. It is easy to get going so fast that I forget what this season is all about. It is a time of giving and love, but most importantly it is a time to celebrate the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the knowledge I have of his humble birth, his life of service and love, and most importantly his atonement for each of us and his resurrection. He lives! May we all be a little kinder and a little more like the savior each day in the coming year.

It's the Holiday Season!

Giant Christmas Tree at the Hotel Del Coronado

 This year for Christmas, I decided I wanted to go to Disneyland! So my friend Melissa and I planned a fantastic trip that included Vegas, San Diego, and Disney. It was an amazing trip and I am pretty sure going to Disneyland was the best Christmas present I could ever get! I love all things Disney! If you have not been to Disneyland in awhile, you should go...Carsland is AMAZING and will change your life and the lives of your children!

You can Ice Skate on the beach, we didn't, but it looked magical!

Blurry version of Small World Christmasized

Radiator Springs

Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity in Vegas

It Snows on Main Street to the tune of "White Christmas"

We really liked the idea of skating on the beach!

Thanks Giving

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I always like to do a post of gratitude.

I am grateful for:

• My family
• Friendship 
• Being able to be in shows and share the talents the Lord has given me
• Teaching the family history class
• Laughter 
• Love
• The gospel
• The Lord's never ending patience and love for me
• Hymns old and new
• My job
• being able to pay my bills
• Acts of Kindness
• Diet Coke
• Plans
• Being inspired

Happy Thanksgiving! May you get to spend time with your loved ones.

The Miracle of Faith

I have been humbled beyond words by the power and love of a kind and generous Heavenly Father. I don't post many personal things on my blog. This weekend was General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, watch it here (http://www.lds.org). I love conference because it is a feast of faith, wisdom, and powerful testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We have living prophets and apostles who stand as witnesses of God on the earth today, and that is amazing! 

I have found myself very stagnant in the gospel. Not really doing much to improve my testimony because it takes time and faith. My faith has been lacking and I have felt the difference that has made in my life. I made a commitment to myself to have more faith and put my trust in the Lord, but I didn't do anything about it and remained in the same place. After the Saturday morning session of conference I received a strong impression to move forward and keep the commitment I had made. I did it and I was excited and then the day took a turn. I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to do all the things that were required of me and how I was going to make things work, I cried most of the day. But because Heavenly Father loves us, even when we avoid him or ignore him, everything is going to be okay and work out great. I am awed and humbled that he is always there and he keeps his end of the bargain every time, even when we aren't as good at it. 

I have learned a very valuable lesson and I am grateful for it and wowed by it. Those simple parts of the gospel like going to church, paying your tithing, reading your scriptures, having faith and keeping the commandments are so essential to having a testimony of the gospel and seeing it's truths unfold.

The Power of Positivity

Recently, I found myself in a constant situation filled with negativity. I thought maybe I was the only aware of the negativity and that maybe I just needed to look at it differently. It is hard to see the positive when all you feel is negative and I wasn't succeeding. One person's negativity brought down a whole group of strong, incredible people. I watched some of the most amazing people shrink under this negativity and struggle to find their strength and courage. When we as a group realized we had been feeling the same way, we began to lift and support one another and the negativity began to be less of a weight and more something to be swatted like a fly. It is amazing how powerful words can be, both positive and negative. I have watched this group of people begin to flourish and make something that was such a struggle into something so amazing, just by changing the tune from negative to positive. "Life IS too short to spend it with people who suck the happiness out of you."

Airport Security...

I went to Denver a couple of weeks ago to visit my BFF. The trip was fantastic! The day I was scheduled to leave, I checked in for my flight on my phone and was excited to use my phone at security instead of a paper ticket...well, when I went to scan my phone at security a big red light flashed and there was a picture like the one above and the initials SSS...I didn't quite know what was going on, but the security guys were all shocked by what had happened, apparently it was abnormal for my phone to make that happen. I knew something was up when the head security guy got involved and informed me they were having some computer issues, but they had to treat this like what it said it was to be safe....well apparently I had been flagged as a terrorist, you heard correctly! So I had a personal escort through security, I got a full body patdown and they wiped all my stuff to test for who knows what. After the patdown, I was escorted to a seat, where I was not left alone..in case I ran?! I then had 2 different people explain to me that a TSA Inspector and the Head Security lady would be coming down to talk to me. Let's just say when they came down to talk to the person who had been tagged as a terrorist....they were SHOCKED to see me. They apologized to me, told me they had gotten new software, and borrowed my phone to see what had happened. This whole process was about 45 minutes of fun. Luckily my flight had been delayed so I had some time to kill. They let me go, seeing as how I didn't have anything suspicious on me or with me and I went on my way. It was quite the adventure and makes for a great story!!