To: The person feeling numb.

When the very things that were supposed to help us feel more alive, have sucked the life out of us.

On January 18th, I hosted my first in-person event that I called: The Unplugged Experience.

This wasn’t just a gathering. It was a space to pause. To leave your phone at the door & take an honest look at something we often avoid thinking about. To sit with how deeply our screens and social media have woven into our lives, and how they actually make us feel.

I asked everyone in the room to sit with these questions:

• What app or habit sucks up most of your screen time? And how do you feel afterward?

• What’s one thing you wish you did more of instead of scrolling?

• What’s something you’ve seen online that makes you feel like you need to change or be different?

• What three words describe how you feel about yourself after you scroll?

• If you could describe how scrolling affects your mood in one sentence, what would it be?

After some deep reflection and discussion in small groups, we came together. I opened the floor for anyone who wanted to share something that surprised them, something that the group found relatable, or something they hadn’t realized until they sat with these questions.

One girl in particular took the mic and said something that made the whole room go still.

"I’m realizing social media has made me feel numb."

She broke into tears as she explained that things just don’t feel exciting anymore. Life feels...flat. Like she’s disconnected from it, like she’s just going through the motions without actually experiencing anything.

And the truth about this is, using the word “numb” to describe how you now feel or how social media has made you feel is one I hear often. She’s far from alone in this feeling. And while it absolutely shatters my heart into a million pieces, it simultaneously fires me up because this is in our control!

How in the world did we get here?

This didn’t happen overnight although it often feels like we blinked and here we are! Here being— drowning in stimulation. Our brains are being force-fed an endless loop of content—every second, every spare moment. We scroll when we wake up, while we eat, when we wait in line, when we’re “relaxing,” even when we should be sleeping.

Our brains were never meant to process this much, let alone this fast or this constantly.

So… what happens?

We become insanely overloaded. It’s as if we’re in a state of constant input, never given the space to actually feel anything deeply. We move from one quick dopamine hit to the next, numbing out any discomfort, any boredom, any stillness.

And when everything is stimulating, nothing is. When we constantly consume, we lose our ability to connect.

So we feel numb. We feel flat. We feel like life is happening around us but not to us.

And we even begin to wonder…why don’t I feel excited anymore? Why don’t I feel deeply connected? Why do I feel like something is missing, even though I have access to everything?

The big fat lie we’ve been sold.

Social media was supposed to bring us closer, but for so many of us, it has done the opposite. It’s ver much made our lives feel:

• More stressful. Because we are constantly consuming other people’s highlight reels, comparing ourselves, feeling behind, feeling like we need to “keep up.”

• Less fulfilling. Because our precious, irreplaceable time is being siphoned into watching other people’s lives instead of living our own.

• Less deeply connected. Because we’ve traded in-person, soul-level conversations for quick DMs, likes, and surface-level interactions.

• More numb. Because we have dulled our ability to feel by overloading ourselves with more, more, more instead of sitting with less but deeper.

The WAKE UP call.

My event wasn’t about saying delete all your apps and disappear forever. That’s not the point.

The point was to create a space where we could talk about it. I mean really talk about it! Because the reality is that so many of us are feeling the same way but think we’re the only ones.

One of the main goals that I hoped people walked away with was—AWARENESS.

Noticing how we feel. Noticing how deeply integrated these platforms have become in our lives. Noticing that we actually do have a choice in how, when, and if we use them.

And the best part? It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else.

You get to decide.

Ask yourself... why?

I challenge you to sit with these questions for a second:

• Why am I on social media?

• Where does it actually fit into my life?

• Where would I rather it be?

• What is it giving me? And what is it taking from me?

Be honest with yourself. Strip away the surface-level “because I have to” answers. Do you really? Or has it just become the norm?

We often feel powerless in our habits, like we’re stuck in an automatic cycle. But when we step back and ask why, we give ourselves the chance to course-correct.

This event was about bringing people back to themselves—their feelings, their choices, and their power to shift what’s in their control. And let me tell you, seeing it all come together was so beautiful!

One of my great friends led a meditation at the end, and it was the perfect way to close. A moment to get still, to let everything settle, and to leave feeling more connected than when we walked in.

To the one who feels numb.

So to you ever so deserving of a life that feels ALIVE and expressive! If you’re feeling like that girl in the room—numb, checked out, like life has lost its spark—you are not alone.

That zombie-like autopilot feeling is quite literally everywhere.

But we don’t have to accept it.

We don’t have to keep scrolling, keep numbing, keep distracting ourselves from the very life we’re meant to be fully living.

We can wake up!

We can choose something different even when it’s not popular, even when people roll their eyes, even when it makes us the odd one out. Because the alternative? Staying in a cycle that leaves us drained, disconnected, and wondering why nothing feels fulfilling anymore. Is simply not worth it.

Brick by boring brick.

Every moment of awareness, every small change, every step forward—it all matters.

Each one is a brick laid for the foundation of a thriving life!

And sure, there’s plenty in life that’s out of our control. But if we stay focused on that, we’ll stay stuck. We’ll settle. We’ll let ourselves drift into dissatisfaction, bitterness, and a life that feels meh instead of alive.

That’s not the path I’m choosing.

I’m choosing to focus on what I can control. To build a life that feels aligned, fulfilling, and intentional. To stay in tune with where God is leading me, even if it doesn’t look like what everyone else is doing.

What will you choose?

xx

Carly