It’s that time of month again and while many of us have been braving the cold since her last column, Sarah Rowlands of purebeauty has been to New York and back. She’s made some life changing decisions too but don’t expect to read about them on Facebook or Twitter (yet!).
Hello all, hope you are all well?
Well I am back from New York and what an amazing experience it was for me! I have travelled alone before but to spend three days away in a place as diverse as NYC was quite a challenge, yet really exciting.
Figuring out the street signs and the avenues was the first task, and the hop on and off buses weren't as easy as just hoppng on and off! I remember saying in my last column my sense of direction wasn't the best and this clearly was the case when I managed to get off on STATTON ISLAND not MANHATTEN and found myself wondering around aimlessly for a good few hours!
Anyway I managed to get around most of the sightseeing whilst I was there including the Statue of Liberty, Central Park (which was my favourite), and took the bus most days and went down town to China town, Soho and Ground Zero. I saw Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge and took a trip to the Theatre to see Avenue Q which was very witty and entertaining. My hotel overlooked the Empire State Building so the view was fantastic and I have some great photos. I loved the buzz of the city and it was great to feel anonymous for a little while.
But the reason I went was for The International Beauty Show and it was very big! I spent quite a while there and it was nice to see that purebeauty already works with a lot of the top brands featured. Morgan Taylor, our new nail lacquer, Artistic Gloss, Essie and Fake Bake were all big names at the show which means we are bang on trend and offering our clients at purebeauty the very best. I did of course come away with a few new ideas and in my next column will have some fresh treatments to share with you all ready for the summer! I will definitely return to New York one day.
So after recovering from my trip I have been very conscious of the amount of time I spend on social networking sights while at home. Although I rarely use Facebook, I am a bit of a Twitter fan. But I barely looked at my phone whilst away because I was so busy with that anonymous feeling with no one really knowing what I’m doing and vice versa, so it got me thinking what life would be like without Twitter?
For someone who is always dealing with people, phone calls, e-mails, enquiries, scrolling through Twitter all day long in case I miss something, checking Facebook for notifications, new messages, new followers etc, I wondered what it would be like to deactivate my accounts for good. Would life go on as normal? The amount of time I was spending online or on my phone seemed to be distracting me from my REAL life and occasionally at times I felt I was suffering from social networking overload... so enough is enough and I hit the deactivate button.
Oh god what had I done? How will people contact me? What if I have something important to share? Will people forget about me? All these things were running around in my mind. Had I done the right thing? So, after a day of itching to write something I realised that if I was needed then most friends have my mobile number and could contact me. If I had something important to say then my close family and friends would know about it or I could write it in my blog, all is not lost!
I must say, a week without using my phone has been very refreshing. It has allowed me to focus on other things such as re-designing my living space at home and custom making some jeans I have always wanted to do. I'm not saying I didn't do these things before but it definitely frees up more space, and even after a few days away from it I no longer feel the need to tweet a picture of the food I’m eating or what I'm watching on TV! My brain feels de-cluttered and it feels great; I mean we didn't have this in the olden days did we and everyone seemed to get by just fine? The only downside to not having access to Facebook is that I miss invites to events and it is never good to miss a party!
I have however re-activated my business accounts; ok so I'm cheating a little but from a business point of view it is important to stay connected. I have learnt it is all about balancing and budgeting your time to things, even though it's still a learning progress, I’m sure I will gain a lot more from it.
Whether you realise it or not, social networking sites change your emotional health and I was becoming agitated by allowing it to 'suck' me in. Far too many people rely on it these days. The only thing I could do was to experiment and remove it from my life, so if you would like to know what I am doing at the weekend or what I'm having for tea tonight, then give me a call! Haha, i wonder how long it will last.
Twitter @purebeautySarah
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